Hands On with RCA's New Senior Phone
Jan 6, 2016, 5:54 PM by Rich Brome @richbrome
Feature phones with big, traditional buttons are becoming rare, but there's still a market for them among older consumers. RCA has a new phone out to address this market, with a number of senior-friendly features, and it costs just $29. We checked it out.
RCA's "Senior Mobile Phone" is a type of phone we've seen before. But this one is very cheap and looks surprisingly well-designed. Doro and GreatCall make excellent higher-end solutions that provide more than just a phone, but for $29, this little number is an attractive option.
The Senior Phone has a small (1.7-inch) color display, huge buttons, SOS button on the back, flashlight activated by an old-school switch on the side, and an FM radio which works with the 3.5mm audio jack on the bottom. It also does messaging, of course, and even has "multimedia" and "organizer" options.
The interface is simple to figure out, with just a set of huge icons you scroll though at the top level, followed by three-line menus in a huge font once you get into the function you want.
You can program three priority phone numbers (such as family members.) When you press the SOS button on the back, it will call each in order until someone answers, and if no one picks up, it will call 911.
For just $29, it does just enough.
About the author, Rich Brome:Editor in Chief Rich became fascinated with cell phones in 1999, creating mobile web sites for phones with tiny black-and-white displays and obsessing over new phone models. Realizing a need for better info about phones, he started Phone Scoop in 2001, and has been helming the site ever since. Rich has spent two decades researching and covering every detail of the phone industry, traveling the world to tour factories, interview CEOs, and get every last spec and photo Phone Scoop readers have come to expect. As an industry veteran, Rich is a respected voice on phone technology of the past, present, and future.
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Comments
Is it just me or does this look just like their old TV remotes?
