Smart Phone for a 91 year old

[BunnyRuddington]

Have given my Aunty an old iPhone and she’s having a good go with it but she’s asked for a simpler smart phone with a good battery.

Does anyone have any suggestions please?

If the iPhone is new enough try assistive access before looking at other options x

Doro is popular with elderly and has a fantastic alarm function

Just any old Android phone will do.

I can't stand apple phones/iphones and don't blame your aunty for not wanting one.

She doesn’t really need the assistive options. She has great sight and cognition but the fact that the iPhone does things like throw up a photo memory she finds a bit difficult to navigate. The iPhone is her first smart phone and she’s asking for something more simple, which I sort of understand.

I cleaned the Home Screen as much as I could before we face it to her so she only has FaceTime, messages, email, phone, weather and photos on there but she’s still finding the ransoms things it does a bit hard.

Refer to Age UK for information

the iPhone does things like throw up a photo memory she finds a bit difficult to navigate

Is this the only issue? What about taking it into an Apple shop and having them disable these kind of things (if possible)?

A while ago I got a Xiaomi RedMi Note 10 5G via Vodafone for an elderly friend. He was happily using it right up until he went into a hospice and passed away aged almost 102.

We got a Doro for my elderly and not tech minded mum. It suited her very well.

Doro are designed with older users in mind.

I've seen an advert for a Samsung Galaxy A05S that looks very easy. Sold by https://easology.net/

Dorothy phones are awful, if she can get away with a simple smart phone I would go for that.

90 year old MIL has a Doro phone - her first smartphone. It’s pretty simple to use and she’s getting on ok with it. My dad also had the same before his advanced Alzheimer’s meant he couldn’t have a phone any more.

Doro

The problem with a lot of the smartphones is that old people's fingers are often not warm enough to register on the screen. I think is a problem on all the smartphones.

Could she try voice control (IOS 13 or later)? Here's a tutorial for her

I'm really surprised at people recommending Doro. I bought one for my DM who was quite confident with her tablet at the time but she never mastered the Doro. And the updates filled the memory and rendered it useless.

That’s helpful, thank you.

My mum has a Doro phone, and is also having issues with phone memory. I've just got her a Samsung A05s 64GB recommended elsewhere as good for "seniors" and available from Argos etc. I'm going to set it up as cleanly as possible, and maybe not download WhatsApp as that seems to cause her issues.

You can turn the featured memories function off.
Settings > Apps > Photos > Show featured content (has an on/off toggle).

Thank you. I’ll do this when I visit her later.

assistive access isn’t really about eye sight and cognition, it just locks it down and stops it doing random things like showing memories. I would give it a go as it’s easy to toggle on and off so if it’s not what you’re after you can just change it back.