When it’s time to charge you will hear a beep and the battery icon will appear red and the LED flashes. Simply plug into the charging cradle which also allows you to keep the phone in the cradle when at home as it acts as a holder as well as a charger. The S5 is a simple smartphone with large text and simplified menus, but it still maintains all the functionality of a smartphone. The Emporia Smart.5 is a reliable and durable smartphone constructed with high-quality materials that ensure its longevity. The smartphone is designed to perform optimally and provide efficient service for a long time. We previously featured their SMART.3mini in our guide to the best smartphones for the elderly, and we've been able to go hands-on with the S5 to find out if it lives up to expectation as a smart device for older people. How does the emporiaSMART.5 work? It's an effective safety net for older people and their families, although it shouldn't be used as a replacement for other forms of emergency aid such as personal alarms. Touch Trainer

The only time this simple menu structure breaks down slightly is when a user goes deep into Settings. At that point, the options are similar to those offered on all Android devices. Once the Smartcover was safely on, our tester felt more confident in going through the set-up routine on the device itself.Something else he discussed was the length of the Training Book seeming a little intimidating, although the content is excellent.

Finally the onscreen keyboard is that little bit larger and clearer so writing that message or note is easier. You see, this is a phone aimed squarely at the older generation. The device, with its chunky plastic frame and mega-simplified UI, isn’t shy about this. And I must admit, my curiosity was piqued. Our main criticism comes at the set-up stage, and we'd recommend that anyone buying the device for an older relative spends time to help them physically insert the SIM card and affix the case. To summarize, Emporia has taken what they did with the SMART.5 and made it feel more like a smartphone but without making it complicated to use. The Smart cover is a really useful addition and the improved battery and larger display are just some of the improvements they have done to make this an excellent option for someone looking for a phone for nan or grandad. Product Rating:

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It works on Android (and comes loaded with Android 10), but the main attractions of this phone are found within its simplicity. One of the major selling points of this device is that it doesn't force users to do all these things if they don't want to. This phone is powered by a fast 1.8GHz octa-core processor which is paired with 3GB RAM and 32GB of storage but if you need more storage it allows for a micro SD card up to 256GB. Navigating the menus was straightforward enough and much simpler than his existing device. Even so, he could still access all the apps he was familiar with via Google Play, so he wasn't missing out on anything. As we mentioned, our tester felt a little intimidating on looking at it, but the content of the Training Book is designed to give users a comprehensive knowledge of what they're doing and can be referred to as and when necessary.

This is an area where the Emporia SMART.5 performs extremely well. It makes no assumptions about the competence of its users. Perhaps surprisingly, the Emporia SMART.5 comes with three rear-facing cameras, headlined by a 13MP main camera and two 2MP secondary cameras (a portrait lens and one for close-up macro shots). As depicted, these produced flat, grainy images. Again, will the intended user care? The answer is, most likely, no. There’s none of the snappy responsiveness expected from the latest-and-greatest flagships, but that’s fine. Web browsing and social apps load fast enough, and this is more than capable for the types of basic smartphone that its intended audience will perform. An important feature of mobile phones for many people is being easy to use. The worst phones we've tested are completely unintuitive, making it a mission to do basic tasks. We rigorously test ease of use for both simple mobile phones and smartphones, but in different ways.

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Use Favourite Functions: Taking pictures, activating the torch and more can all be done with the Smartcase buttons

Our guide on how we test smartphones gives you more information on our testing. How we test for ease of use in simple mobile phones With an abundance of accessibility features built-in, most seniors will be able to use the S5 and it doesn't come across as a difficult device to understand or use. Emporia has come on strong with a number of models available in the UK but the four main products are the Emporia ACTIVE, ACTIVEglam, TOUCHsmart and SMART.3mini. We go spec-for-spec on this range of phones below. With that in mind, we'll focus on some of the features most useful to its target demographic. Uncluttered screens

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It's worth noting that when, for instance, a user presses the camera button via the case, it opens up the camera viewfinder in the panel above and the options are limited.