I remember when the mobile phone craze began to take off in the 1990s, my dad would grumble that “as long as it makes calls, I don’t need it to do anything else”. Fifteen years later and it is nigh-on impossible to find mobile phones that do not have cameras, blue tooth, WiFi and other seemingly useless features for people who just want to make a call.

But the internet generation has taught us that if we don’t keep up with technology, the older generation can get left behind and become somewhat disconnected. That is why Doro have devised a new couple of handsets that bridge the gap between a basic functional phone, and a small piece of technology that won’t alienate the gadget-phobic octogenarians.

The first – the Doro PhoneEasy 515 – is a simple-looking candy bar phone with large buttons and a relatively large screen. One of the stand-out features for me is the charging dock – no fiddling around with small wires and connectors: instead the phone simply sits in the cradle ad charges like a wireless home phone.

The second – the Doro PhoneEasy 615 – is a stylish clamshell phone that makes good use of its size with a larger screen and buttons than the 515. The small but simple display on the front of the closed phone indicates clearly who is calling, and a simple opening of the mobile answers the call. The 615, unlike the 515, cannot be charged in a dock, but comes with a regular mains charger.