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Anyone had personal experience of cordless digital phones? I need a base set plus 2 extra handsets. For me the effectiveness of the hands-free facility is important. I like the look of the Panasonic range (in black and with blue screen) and from their reputation assume they're good. Am open to recommendations on other makes. Answerphone facility not vital. Thanks in advance.
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I have the Panasonic KXTG6511EM.
I can report it does not screw up the wifi signal in the house, some of them do.
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I have found that most modern generation have poor battery life, and poor build quality. By choice I have now standardised on second hand Phillips Kala Vox 300s in both houses. Available very cheaply from Fleabay - and all purchases have been in very good nick.
The only failing is that battery packs consist of 2 x AAA with a soldered connection.
You should win this for less than £20 tinyurl.com/kala300
Last edited by: pmh on Wed 29 Sep 10 at 17:30
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Had loads that crackled, hissed and buzzed.... then we bought a Panasonic and it's been faultless for over 5yrs.
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I have 2 BT Synergy phones. Big memories and one can copy one directory to the other plus one can copy to/from a sim card. They suit me but I would prefer to have a loudspeaker facility so the handset could be used hands free. They have good range and battery life and have been trouble free for 3 years.
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...Had loads that crackled, hissed and buzzed...
The call quality of my year-or-so old Comet cheapie is distinctly average.
It's used barely once a week, so that hardly matters.
And there's always the plugged in corded 1980s BT Envoy or somesuch.
Trouble is, it doesn't do pulse tones, so it's no good for call centres, or police stations, or the civic centre, or....
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Yup, Panasonic. Great sound quality and batteries last forever. Good range.
Siemens if you want just as good but want to spend loadsamoney (maybe you've just had a lottery win?)
John
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Another vote for Panasonic as well. Got the Panasonic KX-TG6522 (Twin) while it was on special offer in Tesco a while back.
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Yup, that's the one I've ordered, Spamcan - many thanks for all replies
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now got the three pack one from Amazon - and the £59 includes delivery within 3 days. Very good value and performs well
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I bought a Panasonic when it was on offer at Tesco's. It's got a hundred name/number memory, but no way of searching. You have to start at the top and scroll down or start at the bottom and scroll up, very frustrating.
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I have no friends, its not a problem.
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...You have to start at the top and scroll down or start at the bottom and scroll up, very frustrating...
A lot to be said for an A-Z index book.
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ours goes to the letter you select with numeric keys.
John
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>ours goes to the letter you select with numeric keys.
Mine too. Press the address book button then 68 and it goes straight to "MUM".
It's a Panasonic KX-TCA151EM about 10yo, still has the original AAA Ni-MH batteries and has never run out of power despite regular calls lasting over an hour. DECT, Answerphone, speakerphone, mute etc.
Good phone.
Kevin...
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>> >ours goes to the letter you select with numeric keys.
>>
>> Mine too.
And mine. Saves having to scroll through the whole list.
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We've had a couple of Philips for a few years now. Never had a problem with them.
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We've got a BT Verve 410 Trio. It's cheaper to buy the extra two handsets as part of the package, rather than separately. tinyurl.com/38xd4qb
I'm not suggesting that you buy them from BT. They'll probably be cheaper elsewhere.
Last edited by: L'escargot on Thu 30 Sep 10 at 07:34
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Had two Panasonic set ups and both excellent. Replaced the first only because a bigger house meant we wanted more handsets (sold the old one on ebay). Performs brilliantly.
Which? has the following as top best buys:
Siemens gigaset 475 (76%)
" " 565 (75%)
Various other gigasets (73%-74%)
Panasonic KX-TG915- series (73%)
Panasonic KX-TG 752- series (72%)
More random gigasets
Panasonic KX-TG 842- series (72%)- this is what we have.
Panasonic also consistently rates as best overall technology manufacturer for reliability across most sectors.
Basicially, if you go for Panasonic or Siemens you should be in good stead.
HTH,
Alex.
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BT Verve 450
Not sure if it's still a current model, but has good key 'feel' and looks quite svelte. Features and performance more than acceptable.
Must get my mum's phone sorted - it's still hardwired to a little junction box marked "G.P.O." on top!
Last edited by: Old Sock on Thu 30 Sep 10 at 14:18
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We have a Siemens Gigaset. Excellent voice quality and range and doesn't cause dropouts in our W-LAN when it rings.
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>>We've had a couple of Philips for a few years now. Never had a problem with them.
Until yesterday. I'll try a Panasonic this time - seems a popular choice amongst posters.
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Another vote for Panasonic. It does the job without a hint of a problem.
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I'm reliably informed, by the one who knows, that Panasonics are a) tops and b) rarely cause any problems with other wireless devices such as modem routers...
Their TVs are pretty good as well...:-))
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>>Another vote for Panasonic as well. Got the Panasonic KX-TG6522 (Twin) while it was on special offer in Tesco a while back.
I think I'll go for DD's Panasonic Twin at £40 plus £2.95 from Amazon.
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>> I think I'll go for DD's Panasonic Twin at £40 plus £2.95 from Amazon.
That is a good price. I paid £49.99 for mine, and that was with £25 off the original price.
Last edited by: VxFan on Sun 10 Oct 10 at 12:47
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>>That is a good price.
Dave
Is it possible to use the speaker function on this 'phone while it's detached from the base unit?
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>> Dave
>> Is it possible to use the speaker function on this 'phone while it's detached from the base unit?
Yes, the phone has a loud speaker option for hands free or conference calls. When the phone is parked in the base / charging unit though all functions of the phone are disabled apart from the answer phone functions.
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>>Dave
Thanks. I'll be ordering that later today.
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>>Another vote for Panasonic as well. Got the Panasonic KX-TG6522 (Twin)
Finally got around to buying this a few weeks ago. It works well, and a bargain from Amazon at £37.99 with free delivery.
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>> a bargain
Indeed! Well done.
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BT Diverse 5410s and 5450s here. Made by Siemens, the Nokia 6310i of the digital cordless phone world. A lone voice by the sound of it.
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A lone voice hawkeye? Not at all, others have recommended Siemens, myself included. Siemens tend to be much more expensive though. As for BT, they don't make phones so there are undoubtedly good models, made by Siemens, I can vouch that there are some dud ones too, made by others.
John
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OK, time for a bit of badge snobbery!
Having got fed up with the way various BT, Philips and other cordless digital phones were so poorly built and just didn't last, a few years back I pushed the boat out and bought a trio of Bang & Olufsen cordless digitals (can't remember the exact model no.). Not sure if they still make them, but they are superb.
Easy to use, intuitive contact memory and other menus, excellent sound quality, but most of all robust and still 100% working after over 5 years (?). No, they weren't cheap but they have been excellent value for money. Highly recommended.
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Well, at the other end of the scale, not being huge phone users, as an experiment we bought a Tesco Value cordless phone for £12, and it works just fine, even down the bottom of the garden, stores a few numbers (ten I think, which is eight more than we need), has caller id of some sort - does the job just fine for us!
I understand there could now be a raft of "bet it doesn't do x, won't last more than a year, it has a titchy screen, etc" to which the stock answer will be "all true, but it was twelve quid".
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"even down the bottom of the garden"
For when you're in the dog house?
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Can any of you Panasonic supporters tell me the difference between the KXTG6523 EB and the 8523.
And can they be used with headphones. And how many messages and of what length does the answer machine hold.
Tia.....Martin.
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>> Can any of you Panasonic supporters tell me the difference between the KXTG6523 EB and
>> the 8523.
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>> And can they be used with headphones. And how many messages and of what length
>> does the answer machine hold.
Google it, that's what everybody else does! Try it it won't bite.
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Panasonic twins here base answer phone and other pod on original batteries and must be 4 yrs old works just fine & even works down in the cellar!!
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Another Panasonic DECT phone fan here.
Ours is about five years old. Colour screen on the handset, digital answerphone, selection of (mostly hideous) polyphonic ringtones etc etc.
Still on the original handset batteries, and still capable of staying off the charger for a couple of days at a time. Uses 2x AAA Nicads behind a standard slide off battery cover, so can be replaced easily and cheaply when necessary anyway.
The kids have dropped the handset, it's been knocked off tables, trodden on etc, and still works as well as it ever did. Very tough build.
Excellent signal range - no issues anywhere in the house, and even most of the garden.
My only complaint is that the 'new answerphone message' LED on the base unit is a bit dim and could be more prominent. But a great phone, nonetheless.
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Yes Teacher. It's preferable in my experience to listen to the Horses mouth though. Have you any more non advice that you wish to perpetuate?
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The KXTG6523 can't be used with headphones.
IIRC, 20 mins recording length on the answer machine. Again, IIRC, something like 3 mins a message.
I've actually got the KXTG6522 (only difference is there are 2 phones, not 3). Can take a look at the handbook when I get home as I notice it's not available on the Panasonic website.
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>> IIRC, something like 3 mins a message.
>> Can take a look at the handbook when I get home
>> Thanks young man.
Doesn't actually say how long a message you can leave.
>> it's not available on the Panasonic website.
Following Focus's link:
tinyurl.com/4ujfg7p (pdf file)
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We've had a Panasonic KX-TG8220E for several years now, and it has been very good. It has the phone plus base unit, plus 2 further chargers/handsets. The range is fine outside in the garden and the batteries last OK - we've never changed them or thought about having to change them.
The only criticism, compared with our previous phone, is that there is no audible signal to inform you that a new message has arrived on the answerphone. Hence, it can be a couple of days before anyone notices the tiny red light flashing. I suppose that if we got more answerphone messages, then we would attune ourselves to automatically checking it when we arrived home.
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>> We've had a Panasonic KX-TG8220E for several years now,
Just checked ours and it's the same model. Well happy, as mentioned above, and it's good to see we're not the only ones who struggle with the pitiful little red message light. We constantly miss messages.
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>> it's good to see we're not the only ones who struggle with the pitiful little red
>> message light. We constantly miss messages.
Does it not provide the info on the handset display (if it has a display?). It does on the KX-TG652x
x = number of handsets it comes with.
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>> Does it not provide the info on the handset display (if it has a display?).>>
You are correct, VxFan, I've just double-checked with Mrs H; but it isn't exactly 'attention grabbing' like a gentle 'beep, beep beep.......' to greet you when you arrive home.
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I have 3 Labradors to do that. Thanks all.
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>> >> We've had a Panasonic KX-TG8220E for several years now,
>>
but are the recent versions just as reliable or better or what?
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I agree with PU, I prefer to rely on 1571. I find the recorder a bit of a pain to manage from a handset though easy enough at the base station. The answering m/c will also cut in if you answer from a phone which is not a part of the DECT group, like the old fashioned, wired phone we have in the kitchen just in case of power cut. And we get plenty of them around here.
John
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>> I agree with PU, I prefer to rely on 1571.
I use 1571 as well.
Did have a problem though, of missing messages, because unless you pick up the phone you don't know there's a message left.............
Until, I discovered you can link a mobile to the system!
Now when someone leaves a message, I get a text, and can even listen to the message on my mobile.
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I have just read this.
www.emfacts.com/papers/dect.pdf
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cordless digital phones - Zero
