Best Buy launches simple camera phone for the elderly

(Image credit: Best Buy)

Best Buy Health has introduced its simplest camera phone yet, designed to help keep the elderly connected to loved ones and to support services. The Best Buy Lively Smart makes it easier than ever for older adults to access the phone features they rely on, including one-touch access to health and safety services provided by the supermarket's partner company Lively.

The Best Buy Lively Smart has a 6.2-inch screen, a long-lasting battery and features a home screen with large, legible text. It features a simple user interface which organizes key features into a single list, and includes a one-touch button to get help in urgent and non-urgent situations, as well as a camera for video and photos and GPS capability.

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The Best Buy Lively Smart’s appeal lies in its integration with Lively's optional health and safety services (available as separate paid-for plans), including urgent response, urgent care and Lively Link, an app for friends and family that keeps them informed about their loved one's wellbeing.

The Best Buy Lively Smart is available for $149.99 plus monthly health and safety packages ranging from $20 to $35 per month. You'll also need to pay for your mobile usage, with unlimited talk, text and data costing $40 per month. Without any health and safety package, unlimited talk, text and data costs $60 a month.

“Lively Smart expands our lineup of innovative phones and personal emergency response systems that are tailored to the active aging population,” said David Inns, Best Buy Health’s president of active aging. “With Lively Smart, we’re continuing to innovate and create products that meet the needs of our customers and help them live independently at home.”

The lineup includes the cheaper Lively Flip and Jitterbug, which, like the Best Buy Lively Smart, operate on the Lively mobile virtual operator network (previous called GreatCall) that uses Verizon's network. The smartphones and associated health and safety packages are only available to US customers from Bestbuy.com

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Laurence is an NCTJ-trained journalist with nearly 20 years' editorial experience gained on a wide range of publications, from The Beirut Times in Lebanon to The Sunday Times, and including recent freelance engagements with Future's cycling and automotive portfolios, Outdoor Fitness, and The English Home. He has recently been undertaking a sports broadcast journalism MA at Southampton Solent, gaining valuable TV and radio experience, and am currently videographer for Frome Town FC soccer team. He is the author of Bikepacking (Wild Things Publishing, 2016).