Doro 338gsm review

We might as well get it out of the way – if you’re reading this and are looking to buy the 338gsm for yourself, you’re probably barking up the wrong forest pillar. It’s not a phone designed for sort of people who would be reading this site. In fact, its main audience may not even surf the Internet at all, strange as that may sound.

The Doro 338gsm is designed for the elderly and those with care needs. Although it may look a lot like the recently reviewed 345gsm, another phone in Doro’s range, unlike that device the 338gsm isn’t a hybrid that’s secretly designed for all mobile phone users. This is an accessibility device through and through – to the extent that it’ll probably need a more tech savvy person to set it up for the intended user, but we’ll get onto that later.

The Doro 338gsm has large, thumb-friendly rubber buttons that offer easy thumbing and a high contrast look that makes them easy to see for the partially sighted. As such, the white version we had in to test did look quite garish – an achievement for a device that’s largely black and white. However, one of the phone’s key features is the trio of circular buttons above the traditional keypad, labelled A, B and C.

These can be setup to ring pre-defined numbers. While speed dialling is a feature of most button-based keypads, separating out this functionality onto separate buttons is a great idea considering the phone’s demographic. For some users, it may even make the phonebook redundant for everyday use.

However, the phonebook is simple to access using a press of the button that’s alongside these three speed dial buttons. There’s also another button on the back of the phone that’s meant as an emergency call button, but again you can get this to whatever number you fancy.

Unlike most mobile phones, the Doro 338gsm’s home screen isn’t the phone menu, or even the phonebook. Quite simply, there isn’t one. That’s not to say there isn’t a menu, but rather that it’s virtually hidden. You get to it with a lengthy press on a button on the side of the phone.

For those content to whiz about their mobile phone, texting and checking out the latest soap goings-on over WAP, this may all sound very strange, but get into the mindset of the handset and it all makes sense.

The Doro 338gsm is meant to be setup by the buyer, with all numbers and speed dial settings ready, and then passed over to the user so that they only have to worry about four buttons and a keypad, so it essentially functions like a home phone. It’s a good job too because the screen’s pretty horrible, you wouldn't want to look at much beyond the occasional phone number on it.

Supporting this home phone idea, the 338gsm even comes with a dock that’ll charge the phone. Indeed, the 338gsm is as much a home phone you can take to the shops as a mobile phone.

Take the phone away from our traditional criteria, as it has to be in order to be understood, and it’s hard to criticise on most fronts. It’s well built, fairly comfortable to hold and easy to use once setup. We just wish setting the 338gsm up wasn’t quite such a pain.

It’s our job here at Know Your Mobile to check out the latest phones, packed with more features than the 338gsm could ever dream of. However, the Doro 338gsm is the first phone in a long, long time that actually got us cracking open the phone manual to find out how to use the darn thing. Part of this is down to the fact that the phone’s customised variables can’t start unravelling as soon as someone starts pressing the keypad’s buttons.

It took us a while to find out how to read text messages, but that’s because it’s buried away within the hidden menu. In fact, the 338gsm can’t even send text messages. That should give you an idea of how niche a product this is.

The 338gsm is intended for calls between a limited number of contacts and little else. Don’t worry, it doesn’t limit you on the numbers you can actually call, but unless it’s actually designed as a full replacement for a home phone, it excels when used as an advanced walkie-talkie.

At first glance, and for the first few minutes of use, the 338gsm seems awful. Any ounce of style present in the 345gsm has been sucked out, as have a number of the features, some of which we miss (Bluetooth and the torch). And yet, we prefer it. Why? Because it’s a phone designed for people who really can’t get on with normal mobile phones, and therefore it carves itself a deeper niche that it can rest comfortably within.

There are phones that venture even further into that niche, such as the Doro 334gsm, - and if you’re buying a phone for someone with bad arthritis or memory issues that may be a better choice - but if you’ve just got an elderly relative or friend who refuses to use a mobile phone, the Doro 338 may just do the trick.

..as long as you’re willing to endure the pain of setting the thing up for them.