Best mobile phone for elderly people?

[MrsSchadenfreude]

My Mum is having difficulty with her new phone - it’s a very basic one that flips open, and no matter how many times I have explained it to her, she just can’t grasp how it works. It’s a very small one - I wondered if she would be better with a chunkier one - maybe one that she can just shout “Call Doris” at? Do they exist?

Most of my older clients have a DORO phone.

I posted by accident trying to link DORO for seniors

I bought a Doro 8030 smart phone for my mum for Christmas a few years ago when she was still able to operate a tablet. It was awful. It was the least intuitive phone I have ever come across. She used it just to make calls when she was in hospital 3 years ago and it has sat in a drawer ever since. The last time I turned it on it took ages to come on and its memory is so full of updates it couldn't even take a photo.

Admittedly it is 5 years old but even when brand new it was a disaster.

She has a Doro clamshell phone. She just can’t seem to grasp that she needs to press the button under “names” and names will appear, she scrolls down and presses the green key to call people. Her previous phone had everything preprogrammed so just pressed eg 1 for me, 2 for her brother etc.

Looking back I don't know what was an inability to grapple with technology (although she was one of the first people I knew to have a mobile phone), a problem with her eyesight or a problem with the sensation in her fingers. But I do know the 8030 was a difficult phone to navigate - even when we put pictures next to the names so she could see who she was calling.

Consider getting an old secondhand iPhone and remove everything from screen apart from contacts - my mum managed that easier than phones designed for seniors.

I also left the camera and photo album on screen.

Good sized iPhone (or android if that's what you use). Possibly with a stylus rather than a finger. Pil struggled with doro but love their smartphones.

My mother is 93 and has just bought a new iPhone (new to her) and loves it. She does Words with Friends a lot and that's great for knowing she's ok (she lives alone) without constant texting.

IPhone has Siri. Never used it, but does that mean you could say “Siri, phone Doris”?

I think an iPhone might be better. We probably have an old one kicking about. I’ll give that a go. It was her friend who recommended the Doro phone.

My parents Doro phone is non-clamshell and pretty simple however the volume when taking a call is terrible even at the highest setting. Unless my hearing is as bad as my parent’s now. Despite many attempts my parent can’t cope with a touch screen. If you’d can, definitely go for that.

I'm elderly. I have a basic Pay-as-you-go Nokia. I can make and answer calls and texts. For anything else I use my laptop.

Bought my mum a Doro, she hated it and wanted an iphone 'like everyone else'.

My mum had a Doro, great until her dementia got to the stage that she thought the TV remote was her phone.

I too have mixed up my phone and the TV remote. It's easily done.

My mum never had a problem phoning me on her landline - just a handset. She would phone me every afternoon and say that she couldn't get hold of my uncle. Would I please come out and phone him on my mobile. So I would go out and she would be holding the remote rather than the phone which she had just put down from calling me and worrying because there was no dialing tone!

The tv of course would be on full volume or a channel that she wasn't interested in but that was a separate issue and not related to her pressing every button in sight to try and reach my uncle!