Those of us who have grown up with hi-tech gadgets galore don’t always appreciate that people from older generations didn’t. What seems normal, straightforward and simple to us may only seem that way because we’ve been using these kinds of devices every day since we were really quite young. Emporia reckon that as phones get cleverer, flashier and able to do more stuff some people – namely the elderly and disabled – are going to end up being excluded from the intimidating mobile phone market.
This is why the company has come up with the Emporia Talk Premium – a straightforward handset with large, easy to press buttons and no confusing menu-webs. It’s a fairly large handset, slightly longer than an iPhone but thinner and deeper. The traditional menu hierarchy is replaced by a series of slide-buttons on each side of the handset – these control things like key lock, alarm clock and opening the SMS inbox.
The buttons make very loud beeps when pressed so there’s no missing it (and no sly text messaging in the cinema). The handset has a louder speaker than most phones, great for users who are hard of hearing, and also features a torch function controlled by a button on the side for easy access. Our favourite feature is the slide-out phone directory tray. This has space for your five most important phone numbers – which you write on using a pen. How quaint!
It doesn’t do much more than calls, SMS messaging and lighting the way, but apparently simplicity is what the people want. Although Emporia is aiming the handset at consumers aged 50 and over, we reckon our parents in their fifties can get by just fine with more mainstream handsets – but we’re all for broadening the mobile phone market so that everyone has a phone they’re comfortable and happy using.
You can pick up the Emporia Talk Premium from TheOrder.co.uk for around £120, SIM-free.
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