TTfone TT970

I bought the TT970 for my 11 year old son now he's started secondary school. We didn't want to give him a full smart phone but wanted him to be able to have access to WhatsApp so he can stay in touch with friendship groups. The phone turned out to be absolutely perfect in this regard. It's not a seductive or compelling screen so he doesn't spend any time on it, but it has all the functionality he needs to stay in touch with friends. With a lot of schools banning smartphones and a lot of parents trying to uphold smartphone free childhood I highly recommend this phone as an alternative. TTfone should be marketing this phone for this use as well - there are a lot of parents who would be very interested in it.

I think this phone could grow on me. It has some good features. Having the touchscreen and keypad is one reason I chose it and that seems fine although the screen has a bit of a lag which is annoying when you are trying to turn off the alarm without waking the whole household! It's a nice size. I was about to give in and get a smart phone but they are all enormous which would drive me mad, and this fits nicely into a small bag or pocket. The torch is bright and could come in useful. The alarm seems ok if a bit fiddly to set compared with the instant ease of my old phone. Basically I really miss my Nokia Asha 300 which was a brilliant phone, so easy yet had loads of features which this one doesn't have such as being able to edit photos, use them as wallpaper, disable start up/key tones etc, and simply access everything immediately. To be fair any phone is going to fall short of what for me was the perfect phone and a beloved old friend (damn you Three for turning off the 3G!).The main reason I might be sending this back after a couple of days of ownership is the absolutely appalling battery life. I can practically see it counting down before my eyes even though I'm not doing anything with it, and according to the manual the charge time is four hours! I'm used to only charging my phone a couple of times a week despite using it all the time, and it only taking about half an hour to do so. I'm disappointed as I thought the technology would have improved in the decade since I last bought a phone so this came as an unwelcome surprise. I'm wondering if it would be possible to buy a better battery.Other things to be aware of: the sound isn't very good. We managed to work out how to get my favourite ringtone on to it but it sounds like someone shaking a bucket of nails. I don't listen to music on my phone so it's a minor point for me but might be important to someone else.Not being able to put a wallpaper on is a first world problem but still surprised me as it's marketed as a senior phone and I'd have thought they'd want pics of their grandchildren or cats to personalise their phones!Last but not least: I thought the emergency button feature was a great idea and it was a selling point for me as I have a horse and cycle, both of which could possibly result in accidents. However, once you get the phone it informs you in the manual that if it tries a number and gets voicemail then it will take it as answered and stop trying to call anyone. If the first person on your list goes to voicemail then you are basically stuffed! This renders the feature a bit pointless to be honest.Anyway, I'll give it a few more days and see how big a problem the battery turns out to be. If that's ok I guess I'll have to suck up the other things that are really just minor annoyances because they aren't what I'm used to and I hate change (when I say minor I mean I had a sleepless night worrying myself sick I'd spent £100 on the wrong phone). It's actually not bad at all but I don't love it. I think I still prefer it to a smartphone.

Bought for my 78 year old Dad, who wanted to access WhatsApp but isn't particularly tech savvy. This looked like an excellent 'halfway' step between an old style phone and a smartphone. It really isn't! It is not user friendly in the slightest. Really difficult to set up initially, even my Brother and I struggled, and we are both more than capable smartphone users! The screen is not good enough for pictures so WhatsApp is a bit of a disaster for that and the email function wouldn't add my Dad's account at all, so that was useless too. The ringtone volume randomly turns itself down, which meant my Dad was missing normal phone calls and texts as well!He ended up putting his sim card back in hi old phone after about a week. The only positive thing I can say about this phone was that we were able to return it for a full refund.

I really don't need a full-scale smartphone. In fact, having owned a number of iPhones and Android phones in the past, I suspect most people don't. When it came to the time to upgrade, I realised I don't play computer games, I don't watch movies or TV shows on my phone. I listen to music on my iPod... and smartphones are getting stupidly large! As an avid book reader, I had already realised that smart devices really mess with my concentration. I resented having to pay hundreds of pounds essentially to make calls and send WhatsApp messages!Looking for something simpler, I started out with a Nokia 2720 Flip in 2020, which runs with the Kai OS operating system. After two years of shaky functionality and increasingly erratic operation, I got fed up with it. If a name brand like Nokia couldn't be trusted, I'd look elsewhere.My search for a replacement led me to the TTfone TT970, which, with 4G, looked promising. TTfone markets its products on their simplicity and they aim a lot of marketing at the elderly. The phones include emergency buttons and health information. I'm not old and I love gadgets, but I hate unnecessary complexity.I've had the phone for three days now. First off, it has a charging cradle, which is great, as it stops the side USB socket getting damaged. The phone is plastic, but solidly built. The operating system is Simplified Android - basically Android without all of Google's intrusive bloatware. I haven't had to sign into any accounts to use the phone: I merely put my number into WhatsApp. Transferring numbers via my old phone's SD card was easy. Photos also imported automatically from the card.The operating system is far better than Kai OS was on my Nokia 2720 Flip. TTfone's Simplified Android OS variant is very simple and the menu not very customisable - quite why emails are stored in a folder called 'Social Media', rather than on the main menu, I can't say, and it's a shame I can't move it on to the main menu, but it's not the end of the world!WhatsApp works fine. Messages arrive when people send them (unlike the 2720, where I didn't receive messages until I opened the WhatsApp app) and WhatsApp phone calls work. The ear speaker is LOUD. Even on a low volume, I pulled it away from my ear at one point while talking to a client. The alarm works fine. I also downloaded Telegram and have had no problems there.The combination of keypad and touchscreen is great. Sadly, the phone lacks the ability old Nokias had of triggering a capital letter mid-sentence by tapping the hash button once - the 2720 didn't do that either - but being able to tap the touchscreen to complete keypad tasks is a bonus.Basically, it's down to what you're looking for. Smartphone lovers will hate this phone. But they're missing the point: the TT970 is a phone. It's sufficiently smart to send web app messages, pictures and videos over 4G and wifi, and it lets you check and send emails. Once it's set up, it's easy to use - older people who aren't confident will likely someone younger to set it up, particularly email - and it's blessedly small.I'm very happy with this phone: until I bought it, I had feared I'd end up having to go back to full-fledged smartphones. I work from home and, if I work away, I have my laptop with me. I've happily opted out of the smart revolution.This phone is smart enough not to do too much, but what it does do, it does well. After my colossal disappointment with the Nokia 2720 phone, this is much more what I was looking for. Recommended for smartphone 'detoxers' and people who simply want to make calls, check emails and send messages. Big thumbs up from me!