Hatefulsandwich
Well-Known Member
(cross-posted on carbonite with some minor changes to wording)
My 80-year-old dad has been rocking some Huawei P Smart that I got him about 6 years ago now and I really wanted to get him something newer for Christmas. He doesn't use much in the way of the phone features, partially because it is a smaller phone and he has big sausage-fingers. He's one of those geriatrics who is actually still pretty active - out and about doing the shopping, home repairs, various little DIY projects. Eyesight is pretty good after his cataracted lenses got replaced. Hearing is beginning to get suspect, but he keeps hand-waving it away because he's concerned about the price of hearing aides. He is not a technophobe or luddite, but his own biological CPU is clearly slowing down a bit on the "being able to learn new things" front. I did get him a PC upgrade this year that he has adapted well to in spite of having to get used to newer software like Windows 11.
I'm fairly certain all he uses his phone for are calls, texts and WhatsApp. He's suspicious of banking, he's suspicious of online shopping. I think he might occasionally find use in online browsing (probably Facebook). And I think he might use photo features if he had a phone with a camera that was worth a dang.
I told him he could have my old Redmi Note 10 Pro, which he seems amenable to. But I was also wondering if any MyBBers have advice here. I'm quite keen to get him into the Apple ecosystem as it really does seem to just be more intuitive, especially for older folks, and he could really benefit from things like airtags to find various misplaced items. There's also been recent news about being able to use their earbuds as hearing aids. But considering all I mentioned earlier, I'm not exactly keen to drop R20K+ on a device that he lands up using for texts, SMSes and Whatsapps and may drop or get filled with metal filings/sawdust.
How viable are older iphones? I'm talking ones approaching EOL, heck even ones that are officially no longer receiving OS updates. Could one of those devices still be safely used by someone who's not intending to use it for security-sensitive tasks like banking anyway (and what if his bank starts requiring app use - will an older device still be useable)? If the older devices are still okay for that kind of thing, how far back could I go with it? Since he has big hands, I'm thinking nothing earlier than the iPhone XR for display size, but would it be something he could reasonably still get years of use out of?
And if I were to get my mother on board, who makes more use of banking apps and such but would actually benefit from a much smaller phone, how far back could I safely go?
Speed is not relevant unless phone is unbearable to use (I can't imagine it can be much worse than a P Smart in 2024). Connectivity is relevant insofar as it needs to be at least capable of receiving current-era phone signals (I think it's all 4G and above now, but correct me if I'm wrong).
TL;DR: Want to get old dad newer phone. Ideally iphone. What is oldest iphone that is bigger than 6" I could get him that will still work for the next 5+ years? Android recommendations are not unwelcome (but I get this is an Apple-specific subforum here so not expecting that)
My 80-year-old dad has been rocking some Huawei P Smart that I got him about 6 years ago now and I really wanted to get him something newer for Christmas. He doesn't use much in the way of the phone features, partially because it is a smaller phone and he has big sausage-fingers. He's one of those geriatrics who is actually still pretty active - out and about doing the shopping, home repairs, various little DIY projects. Eyesight is pretty good after his cataracted lenses got replaced. Hearing is beginning to get suspect, but he keeps hand-waving it away because he's concerned about the price of hearing aides. He is not a technophobe or luddite, but his own biological CPU is clearly slowing down a bit on the "being able to learn new things" front. I did get him a PC upgrade this year that he has adapted well to in spite of having to get used to newer software like Windows 11.
I'm fairly certain all he uses his phone for are calls, texts and WhatsApp. He's suspicious of banking, he's suspicious of online shopping. I think he might occasionally find use in online browsing (probably Facebook). And I think he might use photo features if he had a phone with a camera that was worth a dang.
I told him he could have my old Redmi Note 10 Pro, which he seems amenable to. But I was also wondering if any MyBBers have advice here. I'm quite keen to get him into the Apple ecosystem as it really does seem to just be more intuitive, especially for older folks, and he could really benefit from things like airtags to find various misplaced items. There's also been recent news about being able to use their earbuds as hearing aids. But considering all I mentioned earlier, I'm not exactly keen to drop R20K+ on a device that he lands up using for texts, SMSes and Whatsapps and may drop or get filled with metal filings/sawdust.
How viable are older iphones? I'm talking ones approaching EOL, heck even ones that are officially no longer receiving OS updates. Could one of those devices still be safely used by someone who's not intending to use it for security-sensitive tasks like banking anyway (and what if his bank starts requiring app use - will an older device still be useable)? If the older devices are still okay for that kind of thing, how far back could I go with it? Since he has big hands, I'm thinking nothing earlier than the iPhone XR for display size, but would it be something he could reasonably still get years of use out of?
And if I were to get my mother on board, who makes more use of banking apps and such but would actually benefit from a much smaller phone, how far back could I safely go?
Speed is not relevant unless phone is unbearable to use (I can't imagine it can be much worse than a P Smart in 2024). Connectivity is relevant insofar as it needs to be at least capable of receiving current-era phone signals (I think it's all 4G and above now, but correct me if I'm wrong).
TL;DR: Want to get old dad newer phone. Ideally iphone. What is oldest iphone that is bigger than 6" I could get him that will still work for the next 5+ years? Android recommendations are not unwelcome (but I get this is an Apple-specific subforum here so not expecting that)
Good luck
