Doro have taken some brave steps in the mobile phone market that have definitely been seen to pay off. They usually stick to the older style of calls and text abilities on mobiles, but have now branched into the smart phone market. They first released the Doro 810, which unfortunately wasn’t very well received. But they’ve learned from their mistakes and hit back with the Doro Liberto 820 Mini, and has improved on much of its predecessors failings.

The phone is aimed at smart phone newbies and senior citizens, with the latter being a solid customer target to build for which is great. The phone is chunky, but light. It’s down to the plastic chassis of the Doro Liberto 820 Mini. Unfortunately, this will be a bit vulnerable to damage if dropped or scraped anywhere. It sports a 4.5″ screen which comes in at 88×400 which I feel is extremely low, especially for reading smaller text on the web browser.

There are three buttons at the bottom of the screen which light up and are very clear to use. Doro has used a rubber finish, which makes them very easy to press. They represent a menu button, a home button and a back button.

The menu is extremely easy to read and navigate, offering big tiles to access different settings and apps. This combined with an easy to see colour scheme to the custom Android UI means even the most unexperienced person with Android will be able to use this phone. Each tile you press triggers off a haptic feedback which to some users may be annoying, but I can see why this could be useful. It shows you’ve actually made a selection.

One great thing about the phone is it’s affordable. You can pick the Doro Liberto 820 Mini up for around £100, making it one of the cheaper smart phone options on the market. However, for an extra £50 or so, you could get the full-sized Doro 820 which gives you a much higher resolution screen as well as a more sturdy chassis.