The Best
Written: Jul 30 '07 (Updated Aug 08 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: handset speaker phone, expandable, nice answering device
Cons: short battery life, inability to name handsets or copy phonebook, no answer handset access.
The Bottom Line: Good product though there are things to consider.
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| tonyalmaida's Full Review: Vtech VT 2461 2.4 GHz 1-Line Cordless Phone |
I owned this phone ever since December '05. It seemed to have have gone a long way for me, and I've been appericiating it.
The Phone Itself:
Features:
Adds on to 4 Handsets
Handset to Handset paging, intercom, and transfer
Conference Calling
Handset Speaker Phone
50 Name and Phone Number Phonebook
50 Memory Caller ID
Lighted LCD and Keypad
The phone has a 4 key driven menu. There are 3 soft keys, and you press the button under the respected soft key to select it. For instance when you press the soft key under MENU you gain access to the main menu. You use a button labeled OFF/CLEAR to back out of menus and hold it down to exit.
What I really love is the ablility to have hands free conversations. I usually refrain from using the handset speaker phone, but I would use it from time to time. Though switching from speaker and earpiece is a bit tricky. You would think that to switch to the earpiece you press On, but no you have to press the Handsfree button.
What I don't really like is that there is no ability to assign a name to each handset. This means you would have to remember where you got each handset from, and put it to that place. Also all handsets have different phonebooks and Call Logs so this means that if you have a lot of numbers (like me) that would be a pain to retype them into each set individually.
Now about Multi Handset Advantages
When your system has two or more handsets you have the ability to use handset to handset paging and intercom. This means that you can communicate to each handset easily. The other handsets can even join into your call simply by activating a handset. There is also a call transfer feature which lets you transfer incoming calls to other handsets easily. I would use this when I answer the phone and the person asks to speak to somebody else in the house.
Setting up remote sets is not that difficult. You insert their battery and plug in the power cord to their charger. The other handsets thankfully don't require a phone jack which means you can put the handset in rooms where there is no phone jack. When the battery has charged, you remove the handset press the "NEW" option, key in the 15 digit base ID which can be found on the bottom of the base. You then press "OK", and must wait 30s. After that the handset is registered. The one you get with the phone is already registered so you only must register handsets 2 through 4 to the system.
Answering Machine:
Features:
15 Minutes of Digital Messaging
3 Voice Mailboxes
Remote Activation and Operation
Announce Only Status
LED Message Counter
Call Screening
The things I like is the fact that the machine is easy to program. It has a pre recorded OGM for people like me who usually don't like to record their greetings. It also has remote access which I usually don't use. There are 3 mail boxes, but I only need one to use the machine.
The mailboxes work something like this:
1 Someone calls your phone.
2 The machine picks up.
3 The person presses *1-3 to leave their message
4 The caller records his/her message in the mailbox.
What I think should have been put in is the ability to turn off the boxes that you just don't use. This way I could turn off boxes 2 and 3 and only be using 1 like I do.
The other bug is that there is simply NO way to retrieve messages from the cordless handset. There is also not a new message indicator on the handset although there is a Voice Mail indicator for users of Voicemail.
Final Thoughts:
Good product although there are problems as listed above. The other thing is that battery life is not too long. Usually my battery loses 25% charge a day even when it's been off the base unit for only a short period of time.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
tonyalmaida
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Location: Seattle, WA
Reviews written: 14
Trusted by: 0 members
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