Swedish telecoms company Doro has carved a nice niche selling simple-to-use Dect and mobile phones with big buttons, bright screens and loud sound.

The latest Easy range models have SOS or assistance buttons that automatically call and text a list of family or friend emergency contact numbers, are compatible with hearing aids, have high-contrast screen colour options, such as yellow on black or blue, and come with drop-in charging cradles.

So Doro’s new Easies should be an easy sell to the well-heeled, not-so-young and not-entirely-healthy customers who struggle with touch-screens, unreadable text and cluttered menus listing too many features that need a degree in electrical engineering to get working.

“Health is the future,” says managing director Chris Millington.

So it’s not surprising that enterprising UK company Binatone is aggressively pitching for the same "easy" market, with some adventurous new products.

New Binatone mobile phones speak numbers to help the blind and one SOS phone comes with a red-button bracelet that communicates with the phone by PMR radio link (at 433MHz). Press the bracelet button and wherever the phone is in the house, it goes into the SOS routine. The bracelet battery lasts 10 years.

Binatone does not supply mobiles to the networks, so it can offer a feature that the networks hate – dual SIM slots that let the same phone make and receive calls on two networks. The dual-band SpeakEasy B600 costs £100.

I have borrowed one to use when I am out of town in the hilly sticks, where some networks have better cover than others. I shall also try using it when abroad, with a locally purchased SIM in one slot to make cheap local calls and my UK SIM in the other to keep in touch with incoming calls.

Binatone’s iDECT range of home cordless phones play the neat trick of pairing with a couple of phones by Bluetooth so that the iDECT handset can make and take calls by landline or mobile, whichever is cheapest. The iDECT base station can also pair with a Bluetooth headset.

The mobile can be positioned for best reception in the house, to minimise dropped calls in mobile black spots.

For completely free mobile calls, try Binatone’s rugged waterproof PMR 866MHz band walkie-talkies. These cost £80 a pair and – allegedly – work over a 10km range. Just the job for aerial fitters, too.