Phone for the Lonely Family
Written: Aug 23 '02 (Updated Sep 10 '02)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Excellent intercom system; Nice styling; Clear display on the handsets; Speakerphone; Price
Cons: Quality?; Lack of centralized caller ID; Speakerphone reception and location
The Bottom Line: I absolutely recommend this phone. The small irritants aren't enough to overshadow the features. The phone doesn't leave me with the feeling that I missed out on something better.
|
|
|
| diontay's Full Review: Vtech VT 2461 2.4 GHz 1-Line Cordless Phone |
This is an excellent cordless phone, but first and foremost, I must say that the deciding factor in our purchasing this phone was the information we received from user reviews about this and other phones on Epinions. So I would like to thank those users for their reviews, because they were right on the money.
Our eyes were set on buying a cordless phone that had the option to add additional handsets, but we had to stick to a budget of $150 or less for the base and a reasonable amount for each additional handset. We wound up paying $120 for the VTech VT2461 base, and $60 each for the matching handsets. The phone we replaced was a horrid piece of cordless dung that we bought from Ameritech about five years ago. The characters in the display started to go out because the battery was dying (according to the Ameritech "technician"), so we bought a new battery....and the display died completely.
But that was then, let's live in the now. My expectations for the phone were that it should provide clear reception, have useful features that were easy to access, good battery life, and a clear display. We've had the phone for about two weeks, and it has so far exceeded all of my expectations.
The base unit came with one handset, a bracket for attaching the base to a wall, a belt clip, a phone cord, and the base itself. The add-on handsets each come with one handset, the charger, and a belt clip. Setup was very easy; after plugging in the base and putting the batteries in the handsets, the only other thing that needed to be done was to program the base ID into the handsets (except for the handset that came with the base, that is preprogrammed), allow them a few seconds to find the base, and charge the batteries.
RECEPTION:
Reception is very clear during normal use, no hint of static or interference. When using the speakerphone, it seems as though the reception goes in and out. From a layman's point of view, it seems like the speakerphone has a hard time projecting if the sound from the call is at a low volume.
For example, if you're on hold and the hold-music is playing, even if the speakerphone volume is at it's max, the music is barely audible the majority of the time. That's with a fully charged battery on the handset. But if you're actually talking to a person, it's completely the opposite; most of time you can hear the person fine, but there are instances where you will miss a word or two of what the person is saying. It hasn't reached the "painfully annoying" stage yet, because compared to our last phone where entire conversations resembled swiss cheese, this phone is a dream.
Another bad note on the speakerphone, the location of the speaker on the handsets was not well thought out. The speaker is located slightly above the middle of the back of the handset. So if you decide to use the belt clip, not only will the speaker be up against your body, the belt clip itself covers about 50% of the speaker. There is, however, a plug on each handset for an optional headset.
FEATURES:
The base has a digital answering machine with the option to have up to three separate voice mailboxes. And as with most answering machines, this one can be fully controlled by dialing in from remote locations, which includes checking, saving, or deleting messages and changing the outgoing message. We haven't used this yet, and may not do so for a while seeing as how we have voice mail through our current local service provider. But just by reading through the manual, setup seemed easy enough and it doesn't lack any of the popular answering machine features.
You have the option to purchase three additional handsets to use with the base, and the most enjoyable feature is the intercom. If you have multiple handsets and family members spread throughout the house, you can page any handset and talk to the person on the other end, as though you were making a telephone call to someone inside the house. It is very cool, and very easy to use; you press the intercom button and the display shows a list of the registered handsets, you scroll to the handset you want to page or choose to page them all, that particular handset starts to ring, and all someone has to do is press the "On" button as if they were picking up a regular call. Another cool thing is that you don't prevent phone calls from coming in if you're in the middle of an intercom session.
Other nice features: You have the ability to transfer a phone call from one handset to another; if no one picks up the other handset after 30 seconds, the call goes back to the originating handset. You can also place a call on hold, make an intercom call to another handset, then return to your phone call when finished. Conference calling between multiple handsets is another feature, but we haven't tried it yet, and we probably never will.
DISPLAY:
The display is extremely clear, and backlit very nicely with a green light. The keys are backlit also. The menus are easy to navigate and are laid out nicely....except for one menu, the Calls Log menu. But that is discussed below. When a call comes in, the caller ID shows the caller very clearly. One really cool thing is that if someone else in the house is on the phone, the display of any handset not in use shows the number of the handset(s) engaged in the call and whether or not it is a regular phone call or an intercom call. And, for those of us with caller ID for call waiting, if someone is on a phone call when another call comes in, the handset(s) not being used will light up and show the information for the call coming in.
One thing that may irritate some people, is that you can't name the handsets. There is no way to configure the handset to display "Living Room" or "Bedroom" on the screen. But each handset does display their respective number on the screen at all times, i.e. "Handset 2" or "Handset 3". By the way, when you initially setup the phones, "Handset 1" will always be the handset that came with the base.
But here is where I think the phone really chafes, and also the reason behind the title of the review. Let's say you have three handsets (one base handset, two additional), and you move from handset to handset in random fashion throughout your normal week. Well if you're a large family that receives ten or more calls each day, the Calls Log on each handset will start to fill up and continuously display the number of new calls you've received. Well in our case, if we've been gone most of the day and we want to know who has called, the first thing we do is check the caller ID. And if the handset says you have "35 New Calls", then you have to go through the calls log and check the relevant calls. But in order to delete the calls from the logs, you have to visit each handset because each handset has its own Calls Log. Not too bad yet, but wait. To delete the calls from the log takes SIX key strokes. MENU, CALLS LOG, CID, DEL, ALL, YES. Maybe I'm just overly lazy (heh, "maybe") but at least our dung-phone allowed me to delete calls in two strokes. Another reviewer said it, and I'm going to repeat it, a centralized Calls Log repository would be great here. If your family has no friends and no other outside family to call and bug you, then this phone is perfect.
One thing that may also help, in our case, is if the handsets had some kind of flashing light to let you know when an unanswered call has come in.
OTHER NOTES:
Each handset has a very comfortable size and shape, and the bottom is flat so they can stand on their own, making it extremely easy to see who's calling when you're lying down.
The Redial feature has its own call log (per handset) from which you can chose from the last five calls made. Strangely enough, you can erase calls from that log in three key strokes. But I'm not bitter or anything.
The choice of rings leaves much to be desired. There's only six choices, and they are all so similar that changing from the default would be pointless.
The battery life has been great thus far, but we rarely keep the phones off their respective bases for longer than 12 hours.
I had a problem with the first base I purchased; the backlight on the handset did not work. The VTech customer service was very helpful in trying to troubleshoot the problem, but in the end I wound up taking the phone back for an exchange for a new base unit. Even though the problem was in the handset, it is preprogrammed with the base's ID, so they had to be returned together.
Other than the backlight problem, we haven't experienced any other quality issues to make us think that this phone will crap out on us. The handsets are smoothly and tightly constructed with no overhanging pieces, and the antenna is a stub, not of the pull-out-and-bend-like-hell variety.
Other than the small quirks, this phone is a winner and a very good value, and I'm glad we made this our long term cordless solution. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at "brothad@excite.com".
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
diontay
|
|
Member: Dion Taylor
Location: Ypsilanti, MI
Reviews written: 10
Trusted by: 0 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.