Families looking for a simple way to keep in touch with an older relative meet two kinds of answer. There are devices built for the job, which cost a great deal. There are ordinary tablets and smart speakers, which cost less and were designed for somebody else.
This page sets out what each one asks for in its first year, because that is the number a family actually pays and it is the number nobody publishes. Buy a device and pay twelve months of whatever it charges. Then look at what the second year costs, which is where the gap really opens.
The Ken is a 10-inch touchscreen the person uses themselves to call the contacts their family approve, designed and supported in the UK, managed by the family from any browser. Every other device here is a real product doing a real job; several of them are good. We are not the cheapest to buy. We are the cheapest to live with, by a distance, and the rest of this page shows the working.
Devices built for the job
| The KenUK | KompKompany, Oslo | CallGenieSmart Life Solutions, Essex | GrandPadUSA, via Age Space | KonnektAustralia | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First year, the device and twelve months together | £313.88 | £678 | £549.99 | £719.28 | Not published |
| Every year after that | £59.88 | £228 | Nothing | Not published | Not published |
| The person can start a call themselves | Receives only | Receives only | |||
| What sits in the room | 10in touchscreen | One-button screen | A box on your TVsmall computer and webcam | 8in tablet | 15in videophone |
| Designed and supported in the UK |
Read on 5 September 2026 from Komp, at £507 and £19 a month with three months free; CallGenie, at £549.99 with no ongoing charge published; Age Space, whose own first-year figure for GrandPad is £719.28 with VAT and £599.40 without; and Konnekt, which asks you to contact a local sales partner rather than showing a price. Komp's page states no VAT position. Everything else here includes VAT. Prices change, so please check theirs before you decide.
Where the money goes
Komp asks £507 for a screen the person cannot ring anybody on, then £19 every month afterwards. CallGenie asks £549.99 for a small computer and a webcam that turn a television you already own into a screen for calls coming in. GrandPad, through Age Space, wants £719.28 in the first year for an eight-inch tablet. Konnekt will not tell you the price until you ring them.
A Ken is £249, five pounds to post, and £4.99 a month. Three years in, a family with a Ken has paid £433.64 and owns it. The same family with a Komp has paid £1,134.
Tablets and smart displays
Plenty of families try this first, and some of them are right to. An iPad or an Echo Show costs less to buy than anything in the table above, and both are made by companies who are very good at making them. Each is also a computer that anybody at all can reach, which is the whole of the difference.
| The KenUK | iPad11in, Apple | Echo Show 8Amazon | HomePadApple, expected | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price to buy | £249 | £429 | £199.99 | About $350reported, no UK price |
| Every month after that | £4.99 | Nothing | £19.99Alexa+, unless you pay for Prime | Not announced |
| Only the people your family approve can reach the screen | Not announced | |||
| No phone number, no inbox, no browser, no apps to install | Not announced | |||
| You can buy one today | first run goes to the manufacturer this autumn |
iPad price from Apple UK and the Echo Show 8 from Amazon UK, both on 5 September 2026. Apple has announced no HomePad. The description and the figure come from reporting by MacRumors and others, describing a home display with a roughly seven-inch square screen and a front camera, expected in the second half of 2026 at about $350 in the United States. Treat all of it as unconfirmed until Apple says otherwise.
See The Ken for yourself
£249 plus £4.99 a month when it goes on sale. Leave an email address and we will write to you the day you can order one.
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