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What's the best phone for someone with dementia? One that keeps your loved one connected with family and friends, and protected from scams? One easy-to-use into moderate, even late-stage dementia?
For cell phones, let's take a peak at the RAZ Memory Phone, the Lively Jitterbug, the Snapfon ez4G, Phone, the Jethro Unlocked Economy Phone, the GrandPad Tablet for Seniors.
For landlines, let's shop for the cordless V-Tech SN5 Memory Phone System or other dementia-specific models from lesser-known brands (SMPL Future Call).
OMG, phones with cords in 2023.
What’s most innovative about RAZ’s design is the senior friendly OS. An OS is an “Operating System”, like iOS for the iPhone.
RAZ’s phone hardware is nothing special. It’s the software that’s unique. What you see on the screen.
RAZ’s OS helps people with memory loss keep in contact with family members in many ways.
Up to 6 contacts are displayed as easy-touch photos on the home screen, so a person with dementia can just tap-and-hold that familiar face to place a call!
For advanced dementia, that 911 button is no good. My dad would be calling ambulances on accident.
That’s it! You can’t navigate around and open apps like other phones. This is for calls, calls, calls.
The screen is always-on, which helps everyone keep track of the phone in the dark. That’s also a surprisingly attractive feature for people with fine motor trouble. I’m 36 and my arthritic knuckles can’t always find those tiny screen lock side buttons on an iPhone.
They say the battery is long-lasting, but how long lasting could it be? With the optional wireless phone charging station, I doubt battery life would be much of a problem.
For family members and caregivers, the RAZ Portal is an online tool you use to keep the person with dementia safe. You can restrict incoming calls to only trusted contacts (effectively blocking robots and scammers). The RAZ Portal tracks the phone location by GPS for added peace of mind.
The unlocked RAZ sets you free to save cash month-to-month with the wireless provider of your choice. You could stick with your current Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile. Or you could switch to a cheaper option like Consumer Wireless, Cricket, Mint, Tello, or TracFone.
Calls, text, and a big button to call in case of emergency, the Jitterbug is a jet-set senior’s go to phone.
Both the Jitterbug Smart3 brick phone and the Jitterbug Flip2 are designed for seniors, with medical alert capabilities included,
The Smart3 is the newer, more feature-packed version with a touch screen, a camera, and much more. You can do most of the day-to-day things a regular smart phone does, like browning the internet, checking email, and getting driving directions.
Lively is different because it’s not just a phone. It comes with a Lively plan with services tailored to seniors.
Like tech support if grandpa can’t remember how to add emoji to a text. Like roadside assistance when your stuck by the curb.
Lively is owned by Best Buy and runs on the reliable Verizon network. When it comes to those corporations, who know who owns who?
Flip or non, show link
Snapfon ez4G - Best “brick-style” phone for seniors with dementia
Remember the old Nokia and Sony-Ericsson brick phones? Before the Motorola RAZR craze?
The Snapfone (spelled with an F) is a large-sized brick phone as easy-to-handle as it deserves the title “brick” (it’s durable to being dropped).
Big high-contrast buttons, and the same simple numpad grandma has used all her life. For elderly with eyesight challenges and touchscreen difficulties, having three dedicated top buttons bring up the camera, flashlight, and calculator.
Comparable to the Lively Jitterbug Series, you get most of the essential smartphone connectivity features, like SMS text messaging, internet browsing, utilities, and a handful of simple apps.
The screen is a non-touch screen. You operate with buttons, so this would be a challenging choice for the elderly with hand trouble. Not unique to Snapfon, tiny buttons aren’t fun for anyone dementia or non-.
The Snapfon Network Plan is 100% required, meaning… If you want to use the Snapfon, you’ve got to pay the Snapfon company to use their exclusive plan for the rest of your life.
What’s a cell phone for seniors with cognitive loss, that looks like a Nokia in the street, but a landline in the sheets?
Jethro’s best-in-class for ease-of-use charging station looks like a quality cordless landline phone, but it’s actually a fully-mobile cell phone.
I’ll be the first to admit, it’s OS isn’t as friendly as any of the dementia-helpers reviewed so far (the RAZ, Jitterbug, and Snapfon). Now’s the time to mention, Jethro is much less expensive than other phones for seniors.
It’s not a specialized assistive phone dedicated to dementia patients, because it’s designed for the general aging population. What do you say, the first 5, 10, 15 years of dementia’s onset, the Jethro is an economical option that’s practical too (if your family member with dementia can use it to make and receive calls).
Another one of my favorite perks is Jethro comes completely locked from Big Wig Network Plans. My friend pays $90 per month for one phone with all his Netflix’ing on Verizon.
Before someone tells you the GrandPad is NOT a phone, let me set the record straight. The GrandPad is completely 4G LTE enabled, with calling and texting just like any phone.
The GrandPad is a phone and more.
From unboxing there are clear instructions and it’s made to be easy to use. It’s got a wireless charger, so you never have to plug in a tiny charger into the phone. Plus a super long cord so you can set the easy-peasy wireless charger base wherever is most convenient in the room.
For someone with dementia, try next to their bed or favorite daytime chair?
Aging users don’t have to have computer skills to figure out the doodads. Caregivers of someone with dementia, you’ll have to determine whether your care-receiver is capable of learning things like answering a video call, checking the weather,
Even for moderate dementia, I’d say the using the GrandPad to listen to voicemail messages is pretty good. You don’t have to dial in to voicemail to listen, because the GrandPad has a special voicemails screen with an easy-as-can-be play skip delete interface. (The secret is, it’s actually “voice email”.)
What’s better about voice email than listening to messages, is for the person with dementia to be able to send the message. You just tap, speak, and tap again when you’re done speaking, finally tap send. It might be easier than Facebook Messenger / WhatsApp’s hold-to-record audio message button?
GrandPad is the smart choice for seniors and their families, combining the 4G LTE ‘go-anywhere’ Data Plan of a cellphone with desktop and tablet functionalities like Wifi.
The GrandPad comes with a stylus (a soft-tip pointer you use like a pencil on the screen). There’s now special safe-keeping place for the stylus. That stylus is worth nothing more than a promo printed freebie at a tradeshow. Good as well. Since there’s no dedicated sleeve for the stylus, it’ll probably get lost anyway.
I haven’t begun to discuss the private family network. GrandPad connects the GrandPad user (person with dementia) with family and friends through a private family network (comparable to the RAZ Portal).
When they say “phone and internet service included”, that probably means you’re gonna get locked into a plan. When you buy GrandPad on Consumer Cellular, the device itself costs $150. If you buy a GrandPad annual subscription on the official GrandPad website, it’ll cost $60 per month. If you buy GrandPad on Amazon, then you’re going to spend more up front.
Would you ever consider a landline? If your home already has a landline installed, V-Tech’s complete landline solution for elderly people with memory loss might be the simplest solution to try first, without too much cost or commitment.
Again, if you’re willing to go WITHOUT a cell phone’s mobile capabilities. The truth is, many people with dementia spend most, even all, their time in their homes.
The most comprehensive solution from V-Tech includes the V-Tech SN5147 cord base with cordless extension. That way you can put the cordless phone wherever you need it most, and the cord phone where you have a telephone line to plug in.
A less expensive solution from V-Tech would be the V-Tech SN5127 cordless landline phone.
V-Tech’s call blocker and voicemail aren’t as easy to use as other phones reviewed. The call blocker, you have to use the button to block a number after it’s called. Voicemail is not much easier to use than any other conventional voicemail, from the 90s when we hung telephones in the kitchen.
The photo buttons allow a person to call someone simple by recognizing the person’s face and pressing the button. Since these are physical buttons, you need to place photos inside the buttons by hand. Not as good as the RAZ’s digital face dial setup, which is as easy as taking or uploading a photo.
SMPL (pronounced “simple”) is a landline in the same price tier as V-Tech’s less expensive option.
This ones low-tech (its a cord phone), with specialized adaptations for Alzheimer’s and other dementias which have been improved year after year. So the phone tech stayed the same, but the adaptive tech kept getting better.
It’s a cord phone, and a landline. The earpiece comes with four volumes, up to 85 decibels (dB) for the hard of hearing. There’s no speaker phone. A combination of these factors means the SMPL phone is a poor choice for the elderly people with mobility challenges.
A person with mobility issues would need to get to where the phone is in the house, and can only use the phone within the radius of the phone cord.
On the other hand, for a person without mobility issues frequently misplaces things (like their phone), one phone in one place in the house might be quite a suitable solution.
The Future Call is an alternative to the SMPL, or maybe it’s the other way around. Both are white stay-in-place-landline style.
The Future Call runs the same price or a little cheaper. It offers three main variations: all 9 buttons as photo buttons, all 9 buttons as big bold numbers, and nine number buttons plus three photo buttons.
While the 9-button model enables keeping in contact with the greatest number of friends with the greatest ease; depending on your loved one’s cognitive challenges or dyslexia, the buttons could make it difficult to decipher people from numbers.
If your family member with dementia is already using an assistive phone, you might already be caught in a cell phone plan you can’t get out of.
Senior-friendly telecommunications devices are infamous for using subscriptions as a ploy to keep you locked in for life. That’s one part which I believe is not friendly to seniors.
But when a phone is “unlocked”, that means you’re free to use the phone with any phone company you choose (as long as the phone is compatible with the phone company’s network).
For example, at T-Mobile you can choose between the contract iPhone and the unlocked iPhone. The contract iPhone costs less, but you can only use it with T-Mobile for-e-ver. The unlocked iPhone costs more, but you can take the phone with you to a cheaper network anytime (usually at the end of a billing period to be smart).
I’m saying, some devices for dementia are unlocked. You could potentially bring your dementia-friendly phone with you to Tello and save money #ad.
