The 5 Best Voice-Activated Phones for Seniors

Cost: $429 when purchased from Consumer Cellular

Overview

Do you want all the features of an iPhone for under $500? The iPhone SE comes with Siri, Apple’s voice assistant, but it’s not nearly as expensive as more recent iPhone models.

Apple’s voice assistant is Siri, and we asked it to do a range of tasks, including playing music from Spotify, casting movies and TV shows on our Apple TV, and telling us if it was going to rain. You can use Siri to set timers while you’re cooking, wake you up in the morning, or remind you to take your medication. If you’re already in the Apple ecosystem, you’ll appreciate using the same voice assistant with the same commands you use on other Apple products.

We appreciated the iPhone SE for its nine-hour battery life and its rating of M3/T4 for hearing-aid compatibility. If you have hearing loss, you’ll appreciate that you can talk to Siri as if it’s whispering in your ear. You also won’t have to worry about the phone dying after a long workday. If you have a visual impairment, we recommend the VoiceOver feature, which lets you magnify text to make it more readable.

>>Read more: How to Simplify an iPhone for Seniors

We recommend Consumer Cellular as your provider for the iPhone SE, because it offers affordable plans and a 5 percent discount for AARP members. You can pay anywhere from $20 to $50 per month for 1 GB of data to unlimited data. All plans include unlimited talk and text, as well as 5G and mobile hotspot usage. To learn more about the plans, read our guide to Consumer Cellular’s senior phone plans.

Since the iPhone SE isn’t a recent model, it lacks some of the latest features, such as Face ID, which lets you unlock your phone using your face. The iPhone 14 (detailed below) features Face ID, but it also comes with a $300 price hike. If you want to save money, you may have to settle for unlocking your phone with your thumbprint or a passcode.

Buying an iPhone SE is an affordable way to integrate Siri into your life, not to mention Apple’s other great apps, such as FaceTime, Apple Pay, and Apple Music. The iPhone SE is available for $429.99 through major networks such as T-Mobile and Verizon, as well as Consumer Cellular.

Cost: $99.99 when purchased from Lively

Overview

Sometimes you don’t need all the bells and whistles of a fancy iPhone or Android, but you still want a voice assistant. Fortunately, there is a phone that combines a voice assistant — Amazon’s Alexa — with a familiar and tactile design: the Flip2 from Jitterbug.

The Jitterbug Flip2’s medical features really stand out. To get connected to a 24/7 monitoring center, we could press the big, red Urgent Response button beneath the keyboard. We were shocked that with the Flip2, we got not only those medical features, but also a voice assistant: Alexa. Say her name!

Amazon’s voice assistant is built into the Flip2, so we could ask Alexa to make calls, dictate text messages, or look up information. When we asked it for the weather, for example, it presented us with a daily forecast. No other devices are required to talk to Alexa, since it’s integrated right into the Flip2.

Lively is the only provider available for the Jitterbug Flip2. Plans start at $19.99 for unlimited talk and text, and Lyfts can be accessed by calling the Lively team. You can also ask the team for directions, a phone number, or tech support. The urgent-response feature costs $39.99 per month, and medical features such as medical advice from 24/7 on-call nurses cost even more at $49.99 per month. Alexa is included no matter which plan you have.

The Flip2 is a flip phone, so it lacks advanced features such as video chatting, streaming movies, and paying with the tap of your phone. The phone is ideal for someone who wants to use their phone only for talking and texting, but it’s not a good choice if you want a smartphone with more capabilities. Fortunately, every other phone on this list falls into that category.

The Jitterbug Flip2 has a unique offering for an affordable price: an Alexa integration, tactile buttons, and medical help in case of emergencies. To learn more about the phone, read our Jitterbug Flip2 review.

Cost: $149.99 when purchased from Lively

Overview

The Jitterbug Smart4 combines the medical and safety features of the Flip2 with the high-speed data of a smartphone.

Instead of using Alexa, like the Jitterbug Flip2 does, the Jitterbug Smart4 comes with Google Assistant. When we said either, “OK Google,” or, “Hey Google,” we could have Google Assistant call people, answer our questions, or open apps. We asked if it was going to rain, for example, and Google Assistant said it was, so we packed an umbrella. Because the Jitterbug Smart4 is an Android, we had access to every app in the Google Play store and all the Google Assistant capabilities.

Aside from Google Assistant, what we appreciated most about the Jitterbug Smart4 was its smartphone capabilities, which the Flip2 lacks. We used it to browse the web, check our email, and video chat with friends and family. We could also type using our voices and navigate through map apps, blowing the Flip2’s capabilities out of the water.

Lively is the only provider available for the Smart4. Plans range from $25 to $80 per month, and all plans include unlimited talk and text. If you want to be able to press an Urgent Response button and connect to the monitoring center, prices start at around $45 per month.

If you go over your monthly data limit — assuming you don’t have an unlimited plan — Lively will charge you overages of $0.35 per minute of talk time, $0.10 per MB of data, and $0.10 per text. The amounts may seem small, but they can add up pretty quickly if you’re not careful. A phone from Consumer Cellular, such as the iPhone SE, in contrast, will simply upgrade you to the next subscription level if you go over your allotted data in a month. That may or may not be cheaper, depending on your usage.

If you want to combine medical features, a voice assistant, and a smartphone, the Jitterbug Smart4 is an obvious choice. To learn more about the phone, read our full Jitterbug Smart4 review.

Cost: $999 when purchased from Mint Mobile

Overview

The Pixel 8 Pro is the latest phone from Google, which means it has the most advanced artificial intelligence capabilities of any phone we’ve tested. It’s a great choice if you’re already familiar with Androids but you want to be on the cutting edge when it comes to AI.

Before we get to the amazing AI, let’s talk about Google Assistant, Google’s version of Siri or Alexa. There’s very little we couldn’t do with Google Assistant. We used it to turn our smart lights on and off, wake us up in the morning, set timers while cooking, and tell us whether we needed a rain jacket. With an Android, you don’t need an additional Nest speaker or display, getting a two-for-one deal. There are Google Assistant integrations with nearly every brand — from Spotify to Twitter to Walmart — so the possibilities are nearly endless.

Beyond the voice assistant, the Pixel 8 Pro has incredible AI features. We used AI to make our photos look better, translate live text into English, and search things by circling them. If you’re not tech savvy, the Circle to Search feature makes finding things online as easy as drawing a circle on a picture. Like your friend’s shoes? Just circle them and Google will send you a link to buy them for yourself!

We recommend Mint Mobile because it offers discounts to adults ages 55 and older. The company currently offers $15 a month for 5 GB of data and unlimited talk and text. The commitment is three months initially, and it will renew at the same price for a 12-month contract if you choose to stay on. Note, however, that the plan offers only 5 GB of 5G and 4G LTE high-speed data per month. The rest of the data will be throttled, so you will notice slower speeds. For more information, read about Mint Mobile’s senior plans.

With its $999 price tag, the Pixel 8 Pro is by far the most expensive phone on this list — over $200 more than the iPhone 14. If you’re an early adopter and you’re deep into the Google ecosystem, however, it’s a must-buy. For a more affordable Android, check out the $150 Jitterbug Smart4.

It’s pricey, but for an Android enthusiast who’s dying to try the latest tech, the Pixel 8 Pro is a steal.

Cost: $729.99 when purchased from Cricket Wireless

Overview

The iPhone 14 is a happy medium if you’re willing to spend a bit more than the iPhone SE costs, but not as much as the latest iPhone, the 15 Pro. It has Siri, of course, but also Face ID, more durability, and improved battery life compared to the iPhone SE.

The iPhone 14 has Siri, which works the same way on all iOS devices. The device itself, however, is improved in several ways over the SE. It has Face ID, which was convenient when we didn’t want to take off our winter gloves for Touch ID. It also has an IP rating of 68 compared to the IP67 rating of the iPhone SE. What’s the difference? Both devices are dust-tight, which means they’re impervious to solids, but the iPhone 14 can be immersed in water deeper than 1 meter and still function normally, while the iPhone SE can be immersed in only 1 meter of water or less. That means if you go into the ocean with your iPhone 14 in your bathing suit pocket, it’ll still work when you get back to tanning.

The iPhone 14 has improved battery life, with up to 80 hours of audio playback, up to 20 hours of video playback, and up to 16 hours of streamed video playback. Compare that to the nine-hour maximum usage of the iPhone SE, and the iPhone 14 is like the Energizer bunny.

Cricket Wireless lacks plans for seniors specifically, but we recommend it due to its low prices. All plans include unlimited talk and text, 5G access, and nationwide coverage, ranging from 5 GB of data per month to unlimited data. (The top-tier plan also includes a 15 GB mobile hotspot.) Prices range from $30 to $60 a month.

The key drawback of the iPhone 14 is its price. At $729.99, it’s $300 more than the iPhone SE. Apple also lags behind Google when it comes to AI, so we didn’t get awesome AI capabilities such as editing photos and videos with the iPhone 14. If AI is important to you, we suggest the Pixel 8 Pro.

If you want Siri, Face ID, and extreme durability, the iPhone 14 is the iPhone for you.