Clear, comfortable and cordless
Written: Jul 24 '02 (Updated Jul 24 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Compact, clear, comfortable
Cons: Inconvenient button layout
The Bottom Line: If you want your cordless to include two handsets, Spread Spectrum technology and Caller ID, then this is probably your phone.
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| charlesj68's Full Review: Uniden TRU 446 2.4 GHz 1-Line Cordless Phone |
(This review actually covers the TRU446-2, which is the identical product with an extra handset included)
We set out to get a new phone in the house with several goals in mind:
- We have CallerID and we use it to screen out
telemarketers, so the new phone had to support
that.
- The phone needed to be in the living room where
my wife spends most of her day, so that a phone
call would not leave her sprinting for the kitchen
as it currently did.
- It should probably be a cordless phone, so she did
not have to deal with a cord dangling down and
tempting our two-and-a-half and one-year olds to
play “hangman.”
- Since it is cordless, why not get a two-phone unit
so another handset could live in the basement
where my woodshop is located?
After perusing epinions for a while I concluded that Uniden felt like a popular and reliable brand. Visiting the Uniden website I discovered a nifty product selection tool where you could enter a set of requirements (Frequency band, number of handsets, presence or absence of an answering machine, etc.) and it would give you a list of products that matched. Our requirements quickly narrowed it down to the TRU446-2 model.
The very next week (I love when this happens) Best Buy puts the TRU446-2 on sale for $40 off! Zipping out we quickly snatched the last box off the shelf and proceeded home with our booty.
The phones came very compactly packaged including:
- The two handsets,
- A larger main base unit,
- A smaller second base unit,
- Two special batteries for the handsets,
- A cord to connect the main unit to the phone line and
- Two chargers – one each keyed for use with the main or secondary unit.
Of course, there was also a manual and registration card. The packaging consisted of a cardboard box and cardboard internal support, which was a plus in my opinion because I can recycle the cardboard, but Styrofoam I just have to throw away.
The handsets are small, just slightly larger than my employer-supplied Nokia 6160 cell phone. They arranged the buttons in the traditional manner, with a number of unique touches. Instead of up and down they use plus "+" and minus "-" to move around the phone book and Caller ID. Four action buttons line the bottom of the keyscape, which is a tad less convenient than I would prefer. My fingers (or thumb) already are busy up at the top of the keypad moving around the curser with the "+" and "-" keys. Why should I have to drop all the way down to the bottom to then find "select" or "del"? Pretty minor nit, but it does seem awkward for me.
The handsets have a fixed, solid antenna, again much like my Nokia 6160. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I wonder if the Nokia might have been a design inspiration for the designers. We will likely never know, but I can state that the hard antenna is somewhat annoying. A short, hard plastic bit like this just begs to stab you uncomfortably at some point, a feature that annoys me about the Nokia as well.
However, beyond the looks, how does it work? The clarity is superb. I experienced no static or fading as far as I wandered through the house. Ergonomically I found it comfortable to dial, given the whine above about the control buttons being too far apart. I am a big guy, so I really cannot cradle such a small handset between ear and shoulder without appearing humorously awkward. If I really need a hands-free mode for this thing then I should invest in the headset attachment that they offer.
If, like my wife, you have a bad habit of leaving things in places that they do not belong, then the "Find Handset" feature will be a favorite. Press the "Status" button on the base unit and all the handsets ring so they are easily found. Do doubt this will also be great when the two-year old decides that the phone should play hide-n-seek.
We did not get to test the Call Waiting of Message Waiting features since they require features from the phone company for which we do not subscribe.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
charlesj68
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Member: Charles Jones
Location: Loveland, Colorado, USA
Reviews written: 15
Trusted by: 0 members
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