susidee34's Full Review: Vtech CS62293 - Cordless Phone
Seriously, if you have a home phone that you are tired of but it still works and you hate to just ‘replace’ it, send it our way. We have sent more phones to phone heaven than AT&T ever produced. I don’t understand it, my mom had a phone for years with no problem. She still has two good old regular phones that are over 10 years old and they work fine. Once you switch to these cordless phones, you might as well hang a sign out … “Phone murderer inside this premises”. Which led us to our newest acquisition to our family, the Vtech CS62293.
On the up side, we can have phones in several rooms now without having to install phone jacks everywhere. On the downside, I have to learn another new phone system after just mastering the last one.
If you are coming to this review and expecting to read a systems manual, then you should probably go elsewhere or head to the internet and download the manual from their website. My review, as in all my electronics reviews, deals with real life experiences when facing the world of technology. Techno just isn’t my game, but struggling to survive in this century has become my goal in the electronic world.
Features: ~Digital answering system ~Handset speaker phone ~Expandable to 12 handsets with only one phone jack requirement ~Caller ID/call waiting ~Hearing aid compatible ~50 name phonebook [I’d have to know 50 people I guess] ~Intercom between handsets [a major bonus for old people] ~Backlit key pad ~Trilingual prompts [at least English is the first language] ~Wall mount bracket included ~WiFi friendly ~DECT 6.0 Digital technology ~1.9GHz Cordless Phone That’s the goods, now here’s the real goods: Taking it from the box there is some assembly required. You have to put the battery packs, which are included, into each phone handset. Since our current phone still had a shelf life of about 1 day, we plugged the new system into the electric outlets to let it precharge before we hooked it up to the home phone line.
The dang phones aren’t much larger than your standard cell phone and weigh no more than a milliounce [I might be exaggerating there] and the entire system is so compact it takes up practically no real estate on the table or stand or wherever you decide to park it. The phone and chargers are black and silver, not unattractive, with a large enough face plate to be readable easily even by my poor eyes. In addition, the wording is large enough to be read so I can ignore the calls I don’t want to take without squinting to read the number incoming.
The two additional phones will be a nice addition to our computer room and the bedroom. We never could understand why that phone, relatively new, would never hold a charge. Turns out it was never plugged in to anything but the phone line, no electricity to charge it. Can’t blame that phone for its poor quality when you don’t give it juice. The bases for the additional phones are no larger than your palm, again taking up very little space.
It took a couple of tries to get the outgoing message properly but that is my own ineptitude with electronics, not the fault of the system. As far as incoming messages, it has a 14 minute storage capacity. Anyone leaving over 14 minutes of a message you probably don’t want to talk to anyway. The sound quality is quite good with no interference and the range covers well. The main phone is about 50’ from the auxiliary handsets and we have had no problems at all receiving calls. In addition, if you answer the phone at the main set, you can transfer the call to an auxiliary set without bellowing for the person to pick up the phone.
You can retrieve your messages easily from the handset and it includes a time and date stamp on the messages. In addition, there is a message counter, letting you know how many are waiting for you. Other goodies include a voicemail waiting indicator, handset locator, handset volume control, and different ring tones. If the mood strikes, you can conference outside calls between handsets, although I can’t imagine any of our families conferencing. I understand other families, or friends, are closer though.
So, overall, out of the box and into use, fairly painless with great results. The ability to have phones throughout the house without installing more phone jacks was a major bonus. The ease of setting the phone up wasn’t bad after my initial attempt. The sound quality is very good and I like the intercom feature because Diane and I are often in different areas of the house and are constantly yelling back and forth to each other. One year warranty.
This phone is EnergyStar qualified, which is a bonus as well.
Vtech DECT 6.0 Expandable Three Handset Cordless Phone System with Digital Answering Device and Caller ID Expandable up to 12 handsets using only one ...More at Amazon
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.