Telstra EasyCall 3

Only recognises a limited number of SIMS – After having my Mum's phone unlocked by Telstra, and after spending 90 minutes on the phone to try snd sort out why it wasn't working, I find out on a forum that it is incompatible with the SIM cards of many other carriers. Back to Telstra today to sign on to a more expensive than she had originally. Other than that (which is quite a big negative) the phone itself is great.  Show details

Telstra EasyCall 3 & 4 – Nearly perfect! My husband is visually impaired and cannot use modern tech. He has had 3 of these phones so far and found them great because even if he cannot answer a call the phone tells him by voice who rang. Also he is on life saving meds and being able to set 4 alarms per day is vital. We got excited when the EasyCall 4 came out. We wrongly… Read more

thought it would be an upgrade from the 3. Bigger screen- TICK. Alarms- 1 ONLY. Voice notice-GARBLED, NOT CLEAR. The 4 is a backward step from the 3 and Telstra do not sell the 3 anymore. I rang Telstra customer service but they were not interested in helping the visually impaired. I found I could order the 3 on line. To have 2 advantages removed from a phone and then call it an upgrade is a joke. Very dissapointing! ! ! .

indispensable friend for hospital in particular. Perfect mechanically for years – I have owned my Telstra Next G Easy Call for several years! Through hospital stays and ease of clothing carries, it has never let me down. Have been waiting for it to grow old, like me, when I can purchase the newer model - but...looks like it might outlive me! The torchlight is a great help finding the keyhole at night and the clear voice… Read more

announcing who is calling was wonderful amusement fable or the hospital nursing staff....indispensable for me.

Great phone for the elderly – This phone is easy and great to use for the elderly. The emergency call function is particularly helpful. Big buttons, the screen could maybe benefit from being a bit bigger. You can have it so that when you get a call, there is a voice telling you who is calling.  Show details

Good performer – Had trouble with high tech iphones and whatnot in the past this one does everything I need and it gets decent reception. Pretty cheap and almost indestructable. Battery lasts for days and days so long as I'm not gasbagging or too far out in the sticks. Has everything you need really.  Show details

Loved it until – I'm not greatly tech savvy but once I got it set up I loved its relative simplicity. I have a $20 annual top up Vodafone prepaid account which is expensive to call out so I only send texts and receive calls as well as storing numbers for quick access. Then it suddenly stopped receiving calls instead going on to voice diversion. (See questions) I… Read more

can reactivate it by punching in a single digit and pressing the call key. Strange and I never know if it's failing again. In exasperation I bought an Onix 3G Fliptop "for seniors". It's got a camera, internet access and a heap of things I don't want. Far too complicated, I've gone back to my Easycall3 but I have to dial and test it from another phone to see if it's working every morning. All checks were made and cleared at the Vodafone shop. They say it has to be the phone at fault. Very frustrating.

worst phone ever – My boyfriend dont like touch screen phones, he bought this phone and despite having his contacts, each single call ,,appears "unknown is calling you"..he has called several time Telstra,,as usual the worst phone company,,they are hopeless. He has wasted his money,,time and my time.. He never know who is calling him  Show details

Not user friendly at all – Bought from Telstra Kalgoorlie. After less than 6 month's use all 3 slide switches -( lock/ unlock etc )- completely jammed. Impossible to move up or down. Returned to store. Option given to pay further $50 to " send" ---- for repairs. No explanation for the problem when asked. Nor for approximate charges. I would not recommend either the shop or this mobile 'ph. ( Easycall 3 ) to any senior person.  Show details

A simple design – Old folks have time to negotiate the somewhat inconvenient abc function. Physically small and light weight The design limitations not a real inconvenience. Save for men to carry in trouser pocket without fear of causing unscheduled impotence. Recommended for males 70 and over. Love mine, can't do without. Pity currently not a stock item.  Show details

Dumb design - – This phone has been devised by a teenager, with his idea of what grandpa needs, so totally not user friendly. The abc language which is set all the time is bad, this is not how us older people operate. The menu key is toooo small and badly situated. Need I go on further. Should not be recommended at Telsta shops, just ripped off 120.00 Will contact the ombudsman tomorrow for further advice.  Show details

Designed to rip you off – I really don't think that Telstra are being honest selling this to older people. Difficult to operate and designed to silently use your data then your money without you knowing. Why can't they be honest and tell the people that they are selling them to that certain things can be turned off. I think that it is very underhand of Telstra to… Read more

deliberately and silently syphon money from those who can least afford it. I guess that's what you get when you sell off a 'once' brilliant business owned by the Government to private enterprise. Now they are out for profit and don't give a damn about the little people.

Some good aspects – I bought this for someone with poor eyesight and it suited them very well as they only wanted the phone use, not the texting. Hearing the numbers spoken as they are entered is an excellent idea.The alarm button is a good idea too. Topping up was too difficult for her so she stopped using the phone.

Testra should be shot – Both this phone and Telstra are a disgrace. That they should market this mobile for the elderly borders on treachery. Did Telstra get a few pensioners round a table, give them this contraption and ask what they thought? The answer should be obvious when you consider that this work of genius requires 27 (that's twenty seven) key strokes to set… Read more

the alarm. And the phrase "big button" does not apply to the most important button "menu". Cunningly placed as close as possible to the scroll key, an almost-completed text can be lost in an instant by merely scrolling down to, say, the $ sign and brushing the menu button. And yes, it does lock, but not the emergency buttons. I am for ever finding the screen displaying "emergency" . My advice to seniors would be to get a Doro provided you are not in a rural area. Great, simple phone but unfortunately not in The Blue Mountains because Telstra's transmissions are powered by an elastic band. Really Telstra, we have been paying you a fortune all our lives but now that our bones creak and our fingers shake you do not have the decency to create your own senior's phone from scratch. Now excuse me whist this 74 year old goes on the net to download the instructions Telstra are too mean to provide with the phone.

NOT THE BEST VALUE – My partner bought this phone for me in November last year. I totally DISLIKE IT. It has some great features, but texting is a pain in the butt on it, it's slow and I often have to turn it off and on again. It's also not easy uploading photos/videos from it because that is an extremely slow process also. I also don't like the choices of style of… Read more

texting. I'm a grammar nazi and hate the fact that you can't set it to type Abc permanently (well I can't find how to!!); it simply reverts back to "abc" which annoys the life out of me! Add to the fact that one of the hinges has now broken and I'm not sure I'll be able to replace this phone for a different one because we lost the receipt, threw out the box and I could imagine Telstra refusing to do ANYTHING about this phone that isn't quite six months old.

I definitely DON'T recommend this phone at all! I should've gone for a smart phone or similar, but bought this one because I thought a flip would be stronger and the screen wouldn't get scratched, and it had the regional tick. On that topic, I don't get quite the service on the Ponderosa that I used to get on my old Samsung flip phone.

How can they justify $200 for this piece of rubbish? NOT HAPPY!

Disappointed - not user friendly! – I helped my mother choose this phone as she needed to upgrade from her 10yr old Nokia. We thought the big buttons and easy read large font screen would be great for her. The lady at the Telstra store also recommended it. We just wanted a basic phone to call and text on. But when I started to set it up for her, it was very difficult... I am a… Read more

smart phone user, I'm not technologically illiterate... but had awful trouble. It's NOT user friendly at all... And this for a phone marketed towards the older population! It defaults to read your text messages out loud. They call this "voice broadcast" just to be fancy. I had to read through the whole manual (only available online... Once again really helpful for your targeted seniors that don't have internet) to figured out how to turn this off. Sending a text message was just as hard, there is no option to default your preferred typing option. Every time my mother goes in to type a text, she has to turn on predictive text. Every time! Very frustrating if she doesn't want to type in the old fashion poke every letter 50 times way. How have you designed a phone that reads your messages out loud for you and has a safety alert button but doesn't have a way to default your preferred texting option?

You can set medicine reminders and there seems to be a heap of calendar options but to set a simple alarm took forever. Just too difficult, not worth using. I swear my mum does better on her iPad than with this phone! I swear an iPhone is more user friendly! We were hoping the signal bluetick might help in her rural area. And the signal has been better than her last phone. But she definitely misses her old user friendly Nokia. Wouldn't recommend. Disappointed.

Great, Apart From The Reception – I brought this phone for my husband, mainly for its superior reception in rural areas, however he has not found it any better than his old mobile in that regard which is disappointing. The EasyCall3's other features are great though. My husband has no need for a mobile with a camera or internet and appreciates having features that he actually uses… Read more

such as the torch, the radio and maybe even the GPS one day, plus doesn't have to search for his glasses to use the keypad or read his messages.

No easy way to access stored phone numbers – I bought this phone for my husband thinking he would be able to access stored phone numbers in the usual way.. but no.. you have to spell out the persons name.. which my husband cannot do. Its OK if you can remember all the numbers but he cannot. If I had of known of this beforehand I certainly would not have purchased it.

good value for money for old people – unable to send texts to multiple recipients at the same time which is often a pain. buttons are good size for sight impaired. as a basic phone it is quite satisfactory. it seems to have good reception in rural areas, which is a plus. keypad is also good for sight impaired.

A very good liitle phone with good basic features – I bought a Telstra 3 phone for my wife about 3 years ago and she's never without it. I bought one for myself 2 years ago when my 18 year old Alcatel mobile's screen started to fail. (The reaction when I took it into Telstra to change my phone - "What is that?") POSITIVES I used the radio at lunch times and found it adequate as a radio - Was… Read more ·  2

more than happy with the phone reception. Even in the low signal areas around where we live it rarely failed me. - The inputting of contacts and details is clunky but ok once I got used to it - The GPS takes forever to find satellites, but does work - I liked the SOS feature but never used it - The torch was very handy - Texting for me was a pain (See Negatives for details) and took forever, but to be fair, all brands of the same type of phone (with the 'abc' buttons) are the same. My wife texts all the time on hers and seems to be quiet fast at it, so this problem had a lot to do with me. It always worked and I got there in the end. - I sometimes used the reminder feature and it is very handy if you need it - I retired it when a workmate offered me his old iPhone, which has solved my texting problems (I use the iPhone for calls and texting only. Everything else is switched off so it doesn't cost me a fortune). The iPhone doesn't have a radio which I miss - I still have my Easy Call 3 kept on charge as a back up for my wife's phone if she ever needs it, but hers seems hard to kill, since she is constantly in touch with our daughter and other family members. It is a wonderful phone for someone who doesn't want the bells and whistles.

NEGATIVES

1) When I bought my Easy Call 3, they sold me a "White" one. My wife has a black one. BIG MISTAKE - BIG MISTAKE - When you try to text, you can't see the letters and numbers because the back light behind them lights them up and they blend in with the white case. This was most noticeable during the day or in certain lighting conditions. Very very frustrating. DO NOT buy a white one.

2) About 3 or 4 times now my wife's Easy Call 3 has stopped working for no apparent reason. I was able to reset the phone by taking out the battery and card, putting them back in and re-establishing the phones connection to Telstra. Not something my wife found easy to do. 6 months or more has passed and it hasn't had a hissy fit since it's last reset. Don't know what causes it and neither does Telstra. The first time it happened, my wife took it to Telstra who gave her a replacement phone while it was sent away for "repair" (2 weeks) - It came back working again but ......... so now if it happens, I fix it for her.

My Easy Call 3 has never had this problem

WOULD I BUY ANOTHER ONE?

My wife says YES. Definitely. She loves it and she's not technically minded.

I say no ONLY because I like to send a text quickly and the "abc" buttons are too slow for me. (I have some big issues with the iPhone, believe me). I miss the radio.

Hope this helps

Setting alarm is straight forward – We purchased our Telstra EasyCall 3 mobile because we wanted it's class-leading reception in rural areas. It is compact and light, but has a very legible keypad. We have set up the 'emergency' button on the back, that rings the first number we have set, and sends a prepared SMS to 4 other contacts. Great safety idea! And it has a handy torch… Read more

incorperated. I have medication to take daily and by going:

Menu> Organiser> Alarms/Reminders> Medications, I have set up a daily reminder.

It is that easy.

We paid only $99 and it was delivered free of charge in two working days.

Very easy to use – Bought it for elderly person then ended up getting it as my own phone. It can read aloud texts or messages or caller ID. You can send texts, be reminded of birthdays, appointments, or meds, listen to radio, and you can make calls. All in big print with large buttons so i don't need to put on specs to use. I didn't want internet access or a camera,… Read more

so it suits me. Elderly aunt swears by hers, she's 83 not out and not tech-savvy, but loves it. Suggest people who can't use it in other reviews look at the manual, how to set alarms (and everything else) is all in there.

Reliable phone for talk and text – If you do not need a camera or the internet capabilities of a smartphone, the Telstra EasyCall 3 could be for you. It has large buttons, a bright clear display and straightforward menus without too many options. Changing settings, such as ring tones or voice announcements, is extremely easy. The keypad locks with a slider switch on the side,… Read more

avoiding those annoying inadvertent calls which happen when a phone with conventional two-key locking is left in a crowded purse or pocket.

There are a number of handy additional features: quick-call buttons, a panic-button which calls and sends SMS to pre-set numbers, a LED torch, and a basic GPS receiver with a text link enabling you to send your coordinates by SMS {if you are lost bush-walking, for example}.

Perhaps the biggest attraction of basic phones is their long standby time: you charge this phone once a week {or month} rather than every night as smartphones need.

In summary, this phone does the basic tasks of voice calls and SMS efficiently and economically. It is attractive for users with large hands, or failing eyesight, or anyone who does not want the distractions of a smartphone. Battery life, large buttons, bright clear display.

Completely Useless – Brought This Mobile Phone Due To Needing To Update Very Old Reliable Nokia (10 Years Old) Was Recemended This Phone By Telstra Staff As Big Text, Easy To Use, Speaker Phone For Hands Free. Took It Home, Inserted Old Sim, Setup Phone..... Could'nt Set Time On Clock, Or Alarm On/Off, Checked Owners Manual Nothing About How To Set, Changed Turn On… Read more

Clock Or Alarm. Went To Telstra Shop They Could'nt Set Clock Or Find It, So They Gave Me A Net Address For The Instructions Which I Went To & Guess What Nothing About Clock Settings Or Alarm On/Off I Use The Alarm To Remind Me Of Medication To Be Taken & Appointments. It May Seem Trival But Its Why I Brought This Phone In The First Place So Now I Am Using My 10 Year Old Nokia Again & Guess What It Works Better Than Any New Telstra Phone..... Telstra 1/10, Phone Complete Failure..... Speaker Phone, Text Size, Also Had Useful Torch Alarm & Clock Unusable Unable To Set Time Or Alarms