After only one year with the GE Cordless Headset Telephone I needed a new phone.
Written: Jul 16 '01 (Updated Jul 17 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Mute button! Comfortable headset and earpiece.
Cons: Buttons are not backlit. Cannot be wall mounted. It broke when the warranty expired.
The Bottom Line: It is difficult to find a cordless and hands-free phone that offers a mute button, but considering this phone's faults I would not buy it again.
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| Nicholmere's Full Review: GE 2-9917 900MHz Cordless Phone |
The GE 2-9917 is cordless telephone designed specifically for hands-free use. It is unlike other cordless telephones that offer a hand-held unit that can be used as is or with an optional earpiece and microphone, because the GE 2-9917 cannot be used without its headset. As you will see this proves to be its downfall.
General Description
Base unit
This is also the charging unit. Its boxy footprint is about 4" x 6", and you'll need at least a 9" clearance for when the phone isn't in use, with its headset resting on the provided stand. The base unit must stay on a flat surface since both the phone and the back-up battery (two batteries are provided) must rest upright in the unit. If you are considering this phone you should ensure that you have the space for it along with an accessible phone line and power supply. The AC adaptor is a fairly chunky 2" cube; I found it blocked other spots on my power bar. The power cord is almost seven feet long, but I still had difficulties trying to feed it around my desk and past a cabinet to the power supply.
Underneath the base is a little plastic sheet for writing in ten (zero to nine) telephone numbers. The tab is easy to pull in and out. You can of course write whatever you wish, but the purpose is to write the names corresponding to the ten numbers you've stored in memory for auto-dialing. The sheet includes the simple four steps for creating a stored number.
The base has a page/find button that will cause a lost phone unit to beep repeatedly. Just what you wish those lost TV remotes had, eh? Warning: don't try this if you suspect the phone might be in the vicinity of a sleeping spouse.
phone unit
The phone is compact 4" x 2" x 1" unit that I can comfortably hold in one hand and still dial (press the number pad) with the same hand. While both the base unit and phone are a pleasing light grey in colour, all the lettering is dark grey, which makes it next to impossible to read anything unless you are in a well lit room.
The cord between the phone and the headset is about four feet long - long enough to allow me to comfortable leave the phone on the desk in its charging unit while I sit there wearing the headset. When the phone rings all I have to do is pick it up and press the PHONE button. To disconnect, just press the button again or return the unit to the base.
Some numbers
The 40 channel autoscan, 900 MHz, and Crystal Clear Sound™ (how can a company trademark the words crystal clear sound™?) with Compander Technology are all in part responsible, I'm sure, for the .. umm ... nonopaque audio effect. In other words, the sound quality is good.
While my charging unit is plugged in upstairs I can get as far as 400 feet away from the house while wearing the GE 2-9917 without any interference. The phone is supposed to have an Out of Range Warning but it never activated for me; one moment I was talking, the next a little crackling, then if I didn't turn back the line was dropped. I live in the country so I don't have to worry about other buildings causing interference, but I am in a very hilly area that sends cell phone calls to Nowhere Land.
I paid approximately $100 US for the phone in the Spring of 2000.
Some Features Worth Discussing
Ringer Controls (2)
1 - RINGER ADJUST
This button is located on the phone. It allows you to chose one of three volume levels: did you hear something?, perfect, or high piercing rattle. There is no option for the style of ring.
2 - RINGER
This is the on/off switch that is located on the side of the charging unit, not the phone. It turns off the ringer volume, but you can still make and receive calls.
If the ringer is turned off then the only way to know you have an incoming call is if you notice the flashing red in use light. The light is very, very small - on the charging unit it is only about the size of a rice grain, and it's even smaller on the phone unit. If you are expecting a call then keep an eye on the lights, but if you're not watching the phone it's unlikely you'll notice that someone is trying to reach you.
I found it inconvenient to have the on/off switch on the charging unit rather than the phone. Call me lazy, but if I'm sitting in the living room with my phone, I don't want to have to go all the way upstairs to my office to turn the ringer on or off. I doubt if I would use, or even care, about this feature in a non-home office environment, but for my home-office I found that I used it quite a bit especially when my son was an infant. I would have preferred if the on/off switch was available on both the charger and the phone.
MUTE button
This is a small button located between the two volume up volume down buttons. Press once to turn it on, which will cause the minute in use button to flash red, then press it again to turn it off.
The mute button was the primary reason I chose this model. I work from home so I often take part in very lengthy teleconferences, sometimes three hours or more. That is a long time to go without clearing your throat or trying to take a sip of coffee. Sure in a conference room people do that all the time, but do you really want the sounds of your home activities to be broadcast over a speakerphone into your co-workers' meeting? This button worked perfectly every time I pressed it. The only problems I encountered were when I thought I'd pressed it but hadn't; either leaving it on when I was trying to talk, or not turning it on when I was trying to cover up a sound. Since both the button and the indicator light are very small it is easy to make a mistake.
Belt Clip with Pivoting Action
This had to be the most inconvenient feature. As far as I could tell "pivoting" was just a fancy word to say "falls off a lot". The belt clip is an inflexible piece of plastic with a two-inch long clip that has the power to grip nothing, not even a belt. The clip is attached to the phone by a hinge, which is great, because when the clip stops gripping your clothes you have an extra second to grab for the phone as it pivots off your body. I tried carrying this in my pocket, but it didn't work because sitting down or walking cause the buttons to be pressed. I found the best place to wear it was in the small of my back with the cord coming over my shoulder, but sitting down or standing up still caused the phone to fall off. I ended up wearing the headset, but carrying the phone in my hand. Definitely not what I would call hands-free.
Headset Love it
The headset is a flexible, plastic unit that fits over your head like a one-eared set of headphones. The boom mike, attached to the earpiece, can be rotated 360 degrees, which means you can wear the headset with the mike on either your left-side or right-side. For short calls I found the earpiece to be extremely comfortable, much more so than pressing a handheld unit to my ear. The earpiece is not the kind that hooks around your ear, it just rests against it. It has about a 1/4 inch of soft padding which makes is very comfortable. However, I did find that during very long teleconferences that even this phone began to hurt, so I would just put it on mute while I switched the headset to the other side.
Headset Hate it
The headset is permanently attached to both the microphone and the phone unit. This means that if one section breaks then it renders the entire phone useless, which is exactly what happened to my GE:
One-Year Limited Warranty or Why I'm not recommending this phone
Guess when the phone broke? Yep, just after the warranty expired. The warning signs that the phone was on its way out were subtle. There were occasional comments from the callers on the other end indicating that they couldn't always hear me. It didn't happen every day, and it didn't happen with every call.
I'm known as a "low-talker", so when the problems began I tried talking LOUDER. Sorry, repeat that please. I thought it might be a low battery so I replaced it. Sorry, we didn't catch that. Then I thought it might be my location, so I'd go outside to talk. Sorry, do what?. Sometimes when I rushed to put on the headset to accept an incoming call the boom microphone would get off-kilter, so I experimented with placing it closer/farther from my mouth. Are you still there?. Finally one day when I answered the phone the caller could not hear me at all. Hello. Hello! Hello?!
The phone never recovered and I was never able to accept another call. I'm not a telephone expert, I just use 'em, but I figure that the wires for the microphone somehow lost their connection. This is just a guess though, since there were no dangling bits saying fix me!.
Conclusion
My first impressions of this phone were very positive. A few months of use uncovered some annoying quirks that I was willing to put up with. After a year, though, the phone could not live up to normal daily use, and I was left with a bookend that had a ringer.
NM
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
Nicholmere
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Member: Katherine
Reviews written: 28
Trusted by: 25 members
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