Mobile phone for Elderly Technology Averse Parents

[TheLongRider]

I hope you can help, I'm looking for suggestions of a suitable mobile smartphone for my parents. Dad, 74 is reasonably technologically savvy, Mum 82, not so much. He had a triple heart bypass recently and has come to realise that a mobile phone would have been much handier for both of them.

If anyone has any suggestions I'd be very grateful. It needs to have reasonable battery life and not too expensive.

Dad uses an Apple desktop and is reasonably clued in but is a total cheapskate and would baulk at the price of an iPhone! Persuading Mum to use one will be "interesting".

Thanks for any help.

I bought my mother a doro phone. She is coping with it ( just about 😉).

Doro phone.
Or Emporia touchsmart, buttons and smartphone.

Another vote for Doro they are aimed at elderly users my DF has one with an sos button which has been invaluable.

My mum can (just about) cope with phoning the four or five contacts in her doro phone. She finds the menu system too difficult to pick up voicemails or texts, and there's no way she can cope with actually texting - having to press the keys once, twice or three times depending what letter you need is beyond her (I think it would be beyond me these days!). I'm sure there must be a niche for a really (really) simple touch screen phone that just does phone, text and voicemail, and is impossible to hit a wrong button and get lost - has anyone found one?

@maddywest the Emporia fits your requirements

oooh will have a look, thanks DameCelia! Emporia website

@maddywest my late Mum had very shaky hands but once I showed her how to use the microphone to dictate texts she was off - TBH the answering calls was the hard bit (you swipe what now?!).

You can set a smart phone up to work just on calls & texts, any phone shop can show you how to do it, also larger buttons, text size. It works with the cheapest phones so no need to spend loads on a phone.

Thanks for all your suggestions. Dad went for an iPhone SE, Mum got a Doro phone. I spent two hours of my life that I won't get back setting them up.

So far, so good. I hope they actually use them now.