OK, finally decided to move to a smartphone from my old 500 baht samsung phone! Thing is, what I want to get is the easiest, simplest to use device I can get, nothing complicated at all.

All I want to do is make phone calls, send texts, access my hotmail, and read the internet a bit if I m in a free wifi zone. Have no intention of downloading loads of apps, or anything like that, so looking for "smartphone for idiot old man" !!

Any advice regarding phones easily available in Thailand and costing no more than about 5000 baht would be greatly appreciated. Thanks a lot !!

Smartphone + Simple?

That sounds like an oxymoron !

Smartphone + Simple?

That sounds like an oxymoron !

Thanks a lot. Really helpful. As my old granny used to say, if you ve nothing useful to say best say nothing !!!

I'm a big Android fan myself (and Apple hater) but in my experience watching people around me Windows phones tend to be the easiest to handle for people with very little tech literacy. I'd consider the Lumia 650 or similar.

Just my two satangs.

Smartphone + Simple?

That sounds like an oxymoron !

Thanks a lot. Really helpful. As my old granny used to say, if you ve nothing useful to say best say nothing !!!

You may not like the reference but it was an entirely appropriate response to the OP

Oxymoron

"a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction"

Smart?/Simple? One can have one or the other not both in the same package !

Definitely try a Windows phone. I still question whether I made the right choice moving to a flagship Andriod phone. The wife still has a Lumia 650XL.

Try Craigslist, always plenty of top brand stuff going pretty cheap as the addicts continue to upgrade every 12 months

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What aren't you saying

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Go for something not really known…like xiaomei, huawei, oppo etc (i find oppo really good, had a dvd player of theirs long ago, they use good components). I have also seen a thai basic android phone in samui at a phone shop that is launched in tandem with dtac….forget the name but the posters are plastered everywhere….has a dual sim bay and was around 2,000+ baht or so.

There is however a certain level of technical finesse necessary to operate a smartphone…looks hard but its all intuitive technology…use it a few times and you get the hang of it pretty fast.

All smartphones need apps….thats the ecosystem they are built to access…even your hotmail will be an app of some sort. Just don't download every useless app it prompts you to.

http://www.ais.co.th/supercombo/a2/en/index.html

4.500 Bt. incl. etui and free extras

No one smartphone is really easier than another...it's the operating system you have to deal with. Apple's is probably the easiest and most unified. Android is now the most popular but because it is so customizable, can become complex...but can also be really simple.

Asus has a good line of "Zenphones" starting at B3000. They are Android but Asus has an option in the phone set-up that gives you a very simplified home screen with only your basic selections. Very easy for a novice to use.

Windows phones are also very straightforward. The homescreen makes selection of what you want to do very obvious...it's almost all right there. The downside of Windows is a much smaller selection of available apps but all the basics are covered like Line and Facebook. Since they dropped the Nokia brand, the Microsoft branded models are kind of lacking in extra features like high quality displays and long life batteries and the built in cameras are mediocre. For a simple, easy to use phone for a low price, it is probably a very good choice. Prices start at less than B3000 but most of the ones in the lower price range only have a rear camera and are not 4G.

You can see them in most mall phone stores like JMart and TG Phone.

The screens and battery life on the Windows phones I've had are better than most Andriod phones.

Actually you can buy a 'complex' smartphone and just use it as a simple device and progressively get the hang of it over a period of time. I switched over, as you are planning to do, about 8 months ago. You have said that you want to read the internet a bit, well you will discover that apps can make that exercise much more pleasant, so there is no getting away from some element of a learning curve, but it is not as bad as you might think.