Need Simple Intuitive Mobile Phone

Razoo

This is a challenge - my wife needs a new mobile phone. Unfortunately she is a complete technophobe. All she needs to do is send texts and make the occasional phone call. She won't touch apps and has no interest in surfing the internet, or sending emails. She won't go near a computer.

My wife doesn't understand predictive text, or the simple principle of pressing a key the appropriate number of times to select the character she wants. Consequently she needs a phone with a QWERTY keyboard.

I thought the answer might be the Doro 820 or Doro 820 Mini. However, I went into town today to look at them. I found the Doro 820 Mini in Vodafone and it seemed to have serious software problems. Response to any key press took absolutely ages (30 seconds, or more), and the message keyboard never actually came up, so I couldn't try it out.

I found another Doro 820 Mini in John Lewis that responded much faster, but it didn't seem that intuitive and kept irritating me with stupid advertising blurb. I assume it was running some promotional software that prevented me from experiencing how it actually operated. When I did finally get into the text messaging screen, the phone kept reverting to some meaningless promotional page.

Does anyone have a Doro 820, and can they recommend it? Otherwise, what other simple and intuitive phone might I consider?

One other thing - my wife always drops her phones, so it needs to be robust. None of this vulnerable Samsung 'Edge' stuff!

Thanks,

Razoo

grumbler

Your Doro is just an Android smartphone, with poor specs yet overpriced because designed specially for a limited market of elderly people. I dont' think that it's more 'intuitive' than other Androids or more 'robust' than most of other smartphones.
iPhones are believed to be the most 'intuitive'. Windows smartphones, mostly Nokias, are the next. However, for texting and any OS there are various texting apps that once installed don't require any special knowledge or skills for using.
Any smartphone will inevitably get broken if dropped regularly, and even special 'robust' design can't protect a big fragile screen from a direct impact. Only a flip case can.

icefall

Get her a second hand blackberry passport, the keyboard is great and you can switch predictive text off.

Though it does have large screen too I can vouch for the fact that this phone is nice and easy to use. Much more intuitive than I thought it was going to be.

It is quite a big phone but the qwerty keyboard more than makes up for it and the phone is very slim.

I just had a look and you can buy from Amazon, Smartfonestore or Ebay

jagorcevina

I would suggest Nokia 302, it is simple, with qwerty,and sturdy phone. Friend have it for two years,and she is happy with it. You can find it on ebay, cex,graingergames, and similar sites.

Razoo

Thanks all for the suggestions.

My wife has a Nokia 302 at the moment, although it is seriously knocked about and looks like it's been targeted by a coalition airstrike. I think she is quite keen to move on to (and destroy) a touchscreen Smartphone.

I've always found Nokia software to be very intuitive - one of the few phones you can logically find your way around without a manual.

A flip phone would be a good choice, but I've never seen one with a QWERTY keyboard.

I'll have a look at the Blackberry Passport.

I'd still like to hear from someone who has a Doro 820, as it does seem to tick a lot of the boxes.

Thanks,

Razoo