Pros: Slick design, digital answering & caller ID, uses 2 AA NiMH batteries, many features
Cons: Somewhat difficult setup, and some versions have intermittent static
The Bottom Line: If you are worried about hickups, get a newer Siemens model, like the 8000 line. However, if you are tech-savvy, you'll love this phone, especially for ca. $40 on Ebay.
I heard about this phone when I was looking on Ebay for a new cordless with answering machine and caller ID. This phone looked slick and had all the features, but it had also gotten a bunch of bad reviews. I decided to buy one anyway, and another as a backup, since I got it so cheap.
SETUP, REGISTRATION, PIN:
The setup was a bit difficult, since you need to manually register the handset to the base, and you need to know the system PIN. If you are locked out, however, Siemens support will walk you through an unlocking procedure.
NON-VOLATILE MEMORY:
My first positive surprise was that the phone had actually retained all its info on non-volatile flash memory. When I had gotten it running, I could still listen to the messages that the previous owner had gotten months ago, including caller ID. Similarly, the handset still had a lot of phone number stored that the previous owner didn't erase before shipping the phone. Well, I erased that a.s.a.p., but cool feature... no more worries about losing messages to power glitches.
PROBLEMS:
A lot of the problems that people report - battery and charging problems - are due to the fact that Siemens didn't solder the charging contacts onto the electronics, they just stuck them onto the circuit board with springs. This creates poor contacts that may fail sometimes after a while. However, for the technically inclined, you can just solder them down and avoid such trouble. Looks like Siemens wanted to simplify assembly here, but sacrificed reliability... The same poor-clip-on-contact problem goes for the handset speaker. And the buttons can get dirty and malfunction, just like a cheap keyboard, since they are these rubber-knob type thingies that press down onto the plain circuit board... Once again, if you manage to *carefully* open your handset, you can just clean the keypad with an alcohol swab, and it works just fine, in case you had trouble. Lastly, one of my two handsets had weird static (garbled my microphone) if I held it real close to the base, i.e. less than one foot. I was able to improve this condition to less than one inch by also replacing the internal antenna (in the handset) with a longer one. This isn't exact science, but it did change the situation for the better... Before you attempt to open the clip-retained case, look at these pictures here to get an idea of what the innards look like and where around the ear pad the most obnoxious clips are located:
Pretty good. Slick looks, good sound, *very* sensitive microphone (if you whisper, your friends can still hear you clearly), and just a faint whisper-like static, not bad at all. Batteries last long, especially if you put NiMH in, and the phone also has a bunch of additional features, most of which are only useful if you have more than one handset: You can put one handset into your kid's room as a baby monitor, and it'll give you a call if your kid exceeds a certain noise level. :) You can also use up to 4 handsets for intercom, conference calls, to access multiple bases... All functions are controlled at the handset. I played around with my two systems and found that indeed the seamlessly interact and talk to each other (2 bases, 2 handsets). The ringer also sounds way better than my crappy V-Tech, which cut people off on the answering machine. And contrary to what I read here in a previous review, you can set the base and handset ringer volume separately, and even turn both off completely. All in all, I am very happy with this phone...
Update in March 2006:
I have recently discontinued using this phone, primarily because this series is often afflicted by a sad flaw: Rare but occasional static that makes you sound garbled and "choppy" to the person you're talking to, while you yourself can still hear them clearly. It is instantly cured by slapping the phone swiftly onto a solid surface, and you can continue talking, but the fact that you don't notice when this "recovery action" is necessary makes it awkward to use. Basically, you notice nothing until the other person states that you sound funny, or maybe they won't even say that, and you just notice they don't understand so well.
I hear that this is an effect observed in several Gigaset 2000 series handsets. Some supposedly don't have this error, but I have yet to see one that has long-term reliability, which is difficult to test, because it happens so rarely.
As a replacement, I had a newer Siemens Gigaset shipped to me from Germany, but the new version seems cheaper and less intuitive to use. It also doesn't have the headset plug. Overall, I still miss the features, style, and ease of use of the 2415, but I hesitate to use it as long as it has this flaw. I still occasionally plug it back in to look up a number from its non-volatile phonebook, or when I need a headset-compatible phone (with belt clip). ...
Sad. Nothing is perfect, this thing would be if only they had eradicated this very infrequent but annoying choppy sound error... :(
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