I visited my nan tonight because she’d asked me to setup her new mobile phone, in return she was making me a nice slap-up meal. Seemed like a fair deal to me. She’d already told me this phone was a bargain in the sale, it was half price, £99 down to £49. I was thinking, mid range Nokia or Sony Ericsson. Well she got the box out and I nearly burst out laughing. It was a Binatone, possibly the worst Cordless Home Phone maker I’ve ever experienced. Turns out this was a ‘special’ mobile phone aimed at the older generation.

Binatone SpeakEasy Mobile

It’s called a SpeakEasy and it made me laugh. The buttons on this thing are HUGE. There’s a built in LED torch with dedicated side switch. The top of the phone has a red strobe light that flashes when the phone rings or just stays lit when it’s charging. The back (wish I’d pictured it now) has a piece of card on it where you can actually write, yes write, who you have stored in the three quick dial memory buttons on the front (M1, M2, M3) The actual UI is very basic and reminiscent of early Nokias such as the 5110. Anyway, enough of the awe inspiring features, I went ahead and setup the date and time, and put a few numbers in the phonebook. It was all over very quickly and my job was done. I have to say though, for all my ridicule, this does seem like the kind of phone my nan might actually be able to use. So I guess Binatone may have found a niche in the market. What this phone made me realise the most though, is how awesome the iPhone is, when I went from a period of looking at the Binatone screen to looking at the iPhone’s, the iPhone’s screen quality was almost pen and paper like in comparison. I thought to myself, I never want to own anything other than an iPhone, ever again.