Big button phones offer benefits to a range of people.
From helping those with vision impairments to providing easy dialling at a glance, there's plenty of reasons to consider a big button phone over today's modern touch screen designs.
But quality on large button mobile phones varies greatly.
So how can you know which models offer reliable performance and won't lead to more frustration with flimsy designs, squishy buttons, or lacklustre battery life?
The picks in this collection receive high marks from experts across the Internet, at major electronics retailers, and on social media and forums such as Reddit.
We've compiled what everyone has to say about these specialized phones to bring you these picks.
In short, we did the research so you don't have to.
Alcatel Go Flip 3
Best Budget Big Button Phone
If you're looking for a big button option that is reliable but won't break the bank, the Alcatel Go Flip 3 (sometimes also called the Go Flip MC) combines a solid, all-plastic construction with chunky buttons that are easy to read and press.
What's good
- Compact, clam-shell design
- Offers some basic apps
- Battery life
- Speaker quality
What's bad
- Tiny screen
- Horrible camera
- No personalized ringtones
Jethro SC490
Best Big Button Candy Bar Phone, Best Big Button Phone with a Dock
If you're not looking for a flip phone design, the Jethro SC490 offers a quality build, support for a range of networks, and nice large buttons that are easy to press. The screen also allows you to adjust text size for easier reading and there's a charging dock so you don't have to plug cables into tiny ports!
Big button phones eliminate the frustration of touch-based keyboards and provide a tactile, easy-to-see way to operate a mobile phone.
The options in this collection offer a range of formats and basic phone functionality to keep you in touch with those important to you.
If you don't see a phone you like in this collection, be sure to check out our phone comparison tool.
Our tool makes it simple to compare up to 5 phones side-by-side without the hassles of clicking between tabs or digging through endless reviews and spec sheets.
If simplified operation is more important than big buttons, you can also check our Best Basic Phones and Best Flip Phones collections for additional options that don't require expensive data plans or fancy software to use.
How We Picked
The picks in this buyer's guide are what we think are the best big button phones for most people.
We selected these models based on analysis of expert reviews from around the web, user feedback on sites like Amazon, forum comments on our site, social media discussions, and more.
We compared the things most people consider when purchasing a basic phone.
In short, we did the research — so you don’t have to.
When answering the question, “What’s the best big button phone for the average user?”, we considered the following primary criteria:
A Strong Battery
A phone is only useful if it has a charge. While standby battery life is often better on basic phones, we wanted to make sure that you could get through a day or two without hunting for a charge.
Basic Features
Calling, texting, and picture messages felt like a great baseline for standard phone use. This also means that unless noted in the description, these picks won’t sit and vibrate or chime all day and distract you.
Easy to Find
While you can buy a smartphone just about anywhere these days, basic phones are getting harder to come by. For that reason, we chose picks that you can easily pick up online or that you might find at a local carrier store.
Solid Reviews
Let’s face it, most big button phones sit at the bottom end of the price scale. And when prices get that low, quality can get sketchy. We scoured online reviews for each of our picks to be sure that you won’t find shoddy build quality, dim screens, tinny speakers, or other surprises.