Best phones for seniors that are genuinely easy to use

Dials from a photograph and reads each digit aloud, which stops most wrong-number calls.

This is the phone to buy when the problem is not strength or hearing but remembering which number belongs to whom. A dedicated photo speed-dial button puts faces on the screen, and the phone speaks each digit as it is pressed, so a mis-dial is caught before it connects rather than after a stranger answers.

The rest of it is conventional in the good sense: a clamshell body that ends calls when you shut it, an external screen for the time and caller ID so the phone does not need opening to be useful, and a charging dock you drop it into rather than a cable you have to aim.

The flip phone to buy if you want simple without buying a disposable.

The 2780 is the sensible middle of this market: a proper clamshell with physical keys and a dedicated emergency key, but built by a manufacturer that still issues software updates and sells spare parts. For a phone that will be used daily for several years, that matters more than any single feature.

It also keeps a few things that make a phone useful rather than merely simple — a camera, a hotspot, and the handful of apps most families actually ask for. Nothing about the menu rewards exploring, which in this context is a compliment.

Four picture keys and almost nothing else — the simplest phone here by a distance.

The T6 strips the job down to its bones. Four large picture memory keys sit under the screen; press one and it calls that person. There is an SOS key on the back and a charging dock on the desk, and that is essentially the whole device.

That is exactly right for someone who has stopped using a phone because it asks too many questions, and exactly wrong for someone who still wants to send a message or look something up. Know which one you are buying for.

Up to 50 dB of amplification, photo speed-dial keys and a corded handset that works in a power cut.

Not everyone needs a mobile. If the phone lives on a table and the problem is hearing it, a home phone built for hearing loss beats any cell phone, and this is the one families keep coming back to. VTech lists Audio Assist at up to 50 dB of boost, there is a very loud ringer, and the big photo dial keys work the same way the picture keys on a senior mobile do.

The corded base is the quiet advantage: when the power goes out and the cordless handsets die, a corded phone on a landline usually still works. For a household worried about emergencies, that is worth more than a feature list.

The budget flip that is current rather than old stock, with the keys and the loud speaker that matter.

There is a trap at the bottom of this market: very cheap flip phones that are several years old and running on networks that are being switched off. The FLIP 4 avoids it by being a current model on 4G, with the things that make a flip phone worth having — tactile keys, a lid that ends the call, and a speakerphone loud enough to use on a counter.

Expect no frills. The screen is small, the camera is an afterthought, and the menu is plain. For a spare phone, a first phone back after a smartphone has defeated someone, or a phone that lives in a handbag for emergencies, that is the right set of compromises.