The 5 Best T-Mobile Phones for Seniors

Cost: $429.99 when purchased from T-Mobile

Overview

The iPhone SE is an affordable phone from Apple with features like Siri the voice assistant, video chatting through FaceTime, and Apple Pay.

We’ve become dependent on the iPhone SE for just about every task. For example, rather than rifling through our wallets in busy checkout lines, we simply pull out our iPhone SE and pay with Apple Pay, which takes only a simple hover.

We’ve also become dependent on Siri, Apple’s voice assistant, for everyday tasks. Why turn on a smart light when we can have Siri do it for us? Why open the weather app when Siri can tell us if it’s raining or not? And why Google something if Siri knows all?

The iPhone SE has all of the great features we’ve come to expect from an iPhone, plus a 12-megapixel camera with Portrait Mode, which lets us blur and focus on objects like we’re using a film camera. We could even zoom in digitally up to five times to capture those details, like the buds of moisture on a flower in a botanical garden.

Since the iPhone SE isn’t the latest and greatest from Apple, it lacks some of the most up-to-date features like Face ID, which lets us use our faces as our pass codes. While it has Touch ID, this requires our thumbprints, which becomes more cumbersome when we’re wearing gloves. If you live in a cold climate, get your Palmers Cocoa Butter ready, because your hands are about to face the biting wind. Or, get the iPhone 14 Pro, which has Face ID. You can learn more about it in our list of the best voice-activated phones for seniors.

The good thing about the iPhone SE is its price of $429.99 from T-Mobile. Although this may sound like a large chunk of change, compared to the newest iPhones, which can run up to $1,599.99 (looking at you, iPhone 15 Pro Max!) this is a steal, and still has those great Apple features like Siri, FaceTime, and amazing cameras.

Cost: $699.99 when purchased from T-Mobile

Overview

If this country is split on anything, it’s iOS vs. Android. But if you fall into the Android camp, you’ll love the amazing new artificial intelligence features and cameras of the Samsung Galaxy S23, the best Android from T-Mobile.

>>Read more: The Best Android Phones for Seniors

The Samsung Galaxy S23 has the best camera on this list — or should we say cameras, plural. Aside from the 12-megapixel selfie and ultrawide cameras, it also has a 50-megapixel wide-angle camera, which makes landscape shots incredibly clear. We were super impressed with the results when we took a panoramic shot on top of Runyon Canyon and were able to see the tiniest details of West Hollywood, including a man walking a rainbow-colored dog.

One of the reasons our photos looked so good on the Samsung Galaxy S23 (besides our talent, which was clearly a factor) was the way the camera used AI to make nighttime photos look better and brighter.

Aside from the camera and AI features, we loved this phone’s durability. It has an IP rating of 68, which means it’s completely safe from solids and liquids. Literally, we could’ve immersed it in water and it would’ve worked normally, which was not the case for the iPhone SE. If you’re accident-prone, you’ll appreciate the durability of the Samsung Galaxy S23.

At $699.99, the Samsung Galaxy S23 is far from cheap; it’s actually the most expensive phone on this list at over $200 more than the iPhone SE. Plus, it’s only expandable to up to 256 GB of storage, a fraction of the storage capacity of the REVVL 6 5G, which is expandable to up to 2 TB.

If you’re an Android user looking for a phone that also doubles as a high-quality camera, look no further than the Samsung Galaxy S23. Keep in mind that Galaxy S23 also works with other major carriers, including Verizon and AT&T. Currently, it’s priced at $699.99 at Verizon, the same price as T-Mobile, and $799.99 at AT&T.

Cost: $96 when purchased from T-Mobile

Overview

Some of us don’t need the fancy features of the latest iPhones and Androids. If you want to save money, consider the TCL FLIP Go, which T-Mobile sells for only $96.

Compared to Apple and Samsung phones, the TCL FLIP Go is refreshingly simple. We love the fact that, instead of typing on a screen, we were able to type with actual buttons. The buttons were black with large, white numbers, ideal for someone with vision loss. Plus, the 2.8-inch inside screen was bright and easy to read, and displayed the time much clearer than our watches could.

Another thing we appreciated about the TCL FLIP Go was its battery life. We talked on the phone for 14 hours without needing a charge (five more hours than the iPhone SE), and it lasted for 14.5 days on standby. That’s great news for someone who often forgets to charge their phone.

The TCL FLIP Go is also rated M4/T4 for compatibility with hearing aids, much like the Sonim XP3plus, as you’ll read below. If you want compatibility with M3/T4 hearing aids, consider the iPhone SE or the REVVL 6 5G.

The TCL FLIP Go only had a 2-megapixel camera, so the photos and videos weren’t even close to the quality of the ones we took on the iPhone SE and the Galaxy S23. Plus, at only 2.8 inches, the screen was much smaller than the smartphone screens (the REVVL 6 5G’s screen is 6.5 inches, for example.)

If you want a phone that you can talk and text on with ease, you can save hundreds of dollars by choosing the TCL FLIP Go.

Cost: $210 when purchased from T-Mobile

Overview

Active seniors who love hiking, biking, and other outdoor activities will appreciate the durable design of the Sonim XP3plus, a flip phone we can only describe as unbreakable.

The Sonim XP3plus has that same IP68 rating as the Samsung Galaxy S23. The first number, six, means that it’s completely dust-tight and impervious to solids. The eight means that it’s waterproof and can operate normally while being immersed in water. But beyond that, the Sonim XP3plus works on temperatures from negative four to 131 degrees Fahrenheit, making it a great choice whether you live in the hot desert of Palm Springs or in the frozen tundra of Minneapolis.

Aside from its durability, the thing we most appreciated about the Sonim XP3plus was its simplicity. Like the TCL FLIP Go, it’s a flip phone with tactile buttons and a 2.8-inch screen. However, it has 16 GB of local storage, twice the amount of theTCL Flip Go, plus up to 256 GB available through a microSD card (again, twice as much as the capacity of the TCL FLIP Go.) For you, this means more room for photos, text messages, and contacts.

The Sonim XP3plus is priced at $210 from T-Mobile, which is an awfully high price for a flip phone. If that’s a concern, go with the $96 TCL FLIP Go, but keep in mind that the Sonim XP3plus has a larger amount of local storage and expandable storage capacity. Additionally, the Sonim XP3plus has a camera that’s four times better than that of the TCL FLIP Go, but at 8 megapixels, it doesn’t compare to the Galaxy S23’s 50-megapixel camera.

People looking for a durable flip phone with expandable storage should choose the Sonim XP3plus, which works with solids, liquids, and temperatures of all kinds.

Cost: $169.99 when purchased from T-Mobile

Overview

One problem with smartphones is that they can be hard to see. But that’s not the case with the REVVL 6 5G, which has a huge 6.5-inch screen, bright enough even for those with low vision.

We loved the scale of the REVVL 6 5G. With a 6.5-inch screen, nearly two inches larger than that of the iPhone SE, it was easy to find apps on the Google Play Store and check small-print emails. Plus, at 1,600 by 720 pixels, the screen was very clear and bright, ideal for anyone with vision loss.

Aside from Android apps, we also looked for dozens of Google Assistant “skills” associated with different apps and products. Take our Wyze smart lights, for example. By downloading the Wyze skill to our REVVL 6 5G, we could control our smart lights through voice commands, having Google Assistant turn off all our lights at night and turn them back on in the morning. If you have mobility issues, combining your voice assistant with smart devices will make it easier for you to control lights, your thermostat, or even a robot vacuum, if you happen to own one.

We were a bit unimpressed with the REVVL 6 5G’s photos and videos. The best-quality camera was only 13 megapixels. That didn’t hold a candle to the photos we took on the Samsung Galaxy S23, which has a camera that’s nearly four times better.

If you want an affordable smartphone with a large screen, the REVVL 6 5G is the smartphone for you.