When the Emporia LIFE Plus was sent to us I was a bit flummoxed. Alex and I being two adults on the young side of 50, I wasn’t sure if we were the right people to review a phone which was exclusively marketed to the elderly. Having a peek in the box we decided that the Emporia was too good a phone to not take seriously, so I contacted the only elderly person I know - My 89 year old grandmother. At first she was horribly offended. A mobile phone for the elderly! But after a bit of back and forth she relented. I’m glad she did as the review went well.

Her words:

My first impression was the large size--but it makes it much more comfortable to hold if the hand is somewhat shaky. The large letters are much better to see for older people.
The people around me I have shown the Emporia to and asked their opinion, also approve of it.
The emergency button is an excellent idea and easy to find if you are in difficulties, but easy to press by mistake. We all managed to accidently press it while setting it up.
The keys are clearer to see, and I learnt to use the SMS messages, something I never was able to manage on my other phone.
The ring tone is loud enough to hear and the messages on the face readable.
I am quite illiterate where computers etc are concerned, but I found the instructions in the manual clear to follow.
When my daughter took the Emporia to my local phone shop for a SIM, the shop assistant was quite taken with it.

Other things you should know about the Emporia:

The Emporia is specifically designed for the elderly, the hard of hearing and the partially sighted. Due to this the volume control allows for louder than usual ring tones and speaker volume.
There is no extra memory card, Bluetooth or other connections.
The Emporia can also be used as a small flash light, a calculator, a birthday reminder and an alarm clock.
There is a 200 phone book memory and the emergency button can be set to message up to 5 people in the phone book, if pressed.
The screen is monochrome and large 2.7" with 128 x 160 pixel display, and the phone has a slide-out keypad.

So there you have it, the phone that offended my Grandmother. She still has it and my mother loves it. Even Alex and I thought it looked gorgeous with its brushed Aluminium finish.
The only real problem encountered with the Emporia is that it wouldn’t read my Grandmothers original SIM, so she had to rely on others to buy her a new one and move over all her numbers.

Available in the UK from Talkmobile for £109.99 with a free TalkmobileSIM card and airtime included.