Alcatel OT-282

Alcatel One Touch 282 Review

Reviewing handsets as we do, there's always some super-powerful, packed-to-the-gills-with-features smartphone vying for our attention. But not all of us have several hundred quid to spend on the latest gadget – nor indeed do a lot of users want a raft of apps or an eight-megapixel snapper. No, they just want to talk – and maybe text a bit. That's where Alcatel comes in, with its 20-quid One Touch 282, a well-built handset that is well suited to elderly users. The name of the game here is ease of use. It has a good-sized keypad, that takes up more than half of the front of the device. The numbers are easy to see, printed on the keys in a large font. And the keys are big enough to push easily. If it's a bit dark, the keypad lights up. The display is just 1.8 inches, so a tad small if you're trying to browse through the menus. However, the interface is simple and the fonts big, so it's easy to see text even if your eyesight has seen better days. The display is clear and bright and is even easy to read in bright sunlight. The handset has a nifty feature too – it reads out the numbers as you input them, so it's easy to tell if you've misdialled, whether your eyesight is poor or your fingers aren't very accurate.