Decent household phone
Written: Jan 16 '05
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Product Rating:
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Pros: 3-box answering machine, caller ID, 50 number storage
Cons: CID call back doesn't work for Long Distance calls
The Bottom Line: Decent Caller-ID phone for your household use. No major complaints here. The 3-box answering machine is a plus for a low priced cordless phone combo.
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| brandle's Full Review: Vtech VT 2451 2.4 GHz 1-Line Cordless Phone |
I have had this phone for awhile now. Let's just say after my previous experience with VTech 2434 phone I am quite satisfied. The reason I came to own this phone was because I had such a bad time with the 2434 that they finally replaced it for the 4th time with this phone. A step in the right direction by VTech for sure.
I didn't really need the answering machine as my phone service came with callnotes. But I liked the idea of having several mailboxes once I got the phone. I also didn't like having to call SWB to get my messages. I tried out the built in answering machine and liked it so much I made SWB disable my call notes function even though it is free with my service.
I made a special greeting for callers to hit 2 or 3 for me or my wife. So you can almost bet any messages left on voice box number 1 will be telemarketers. The machine has been very reliable and has never given me a problem or failed to save a message. Not to mention it gives off a nice loud annoying beep to let me know I have messages when we arrive home. I never forget to check the machine and miss a message that way.
The phone quality is decent. I really haven't had any problem with it at all. The voices are usually pretty clear even when the wife uses it in the backyard. I've never had interference from electronics in my house or from outside sources. Other phones I have owned in the past were terrible about picking up "aliens" as we called them. You know the annoying squawking sound of your neighbors conversation filtered into your phone. The volume often has to be adjusted up and down depending on the call. I think this is more of a problem of others peoples phones than mine.
The battery life is manageable. We leave the phone on the base most of the time so it's not usually a problem. We sometimes forget to put the phone up at night and it usually still works fine the next day. The only time it ever goes dead on us is when I have used it a lot and leave it off the base for 3 days. This has rarely happened and it usually occurs when we are out of town or over a 3 day weekend. A few hours back on the base and it's ready to use again.
My only gripe is the caller ID function. You are supposed to be able to hit a button to call someone using the CID list. Problem is that the caller ID shows the number as follows: (123)456-7890. If you dial a long distance number you have to put a 1 first, so it doesn't work to call back long distance numbers only local callers. Which is a pain because we get a lot of long distance calls from family and friends. We have unlimited long distance calling so calling long distance often is normal at our house. If you don't make make many long distance calls then you probably won't find this very annoying.
Can't think of much else to mention. The rings are pretty boring, so don't look for a lot of impressive rings. You can set up distinctive rings. The other rings are just softer sounding versions of the normal ring which is nothing to write home about. It has a headset jack, and I've never used it. I guess I'm not into the whole hands free thing. Then again I think most people I see with hands free cell phones hanging out of their ears look pretty silly. It also has the standard page beeper to help out people like me who often lose track of where the phone is.
Again, like I said earlier it's a decent phone that can be had for around $50 or less. Not too expensive for both a cordless phone and answering machine. It gets the job done with little fanfare. It should do just fine for your home without wasting a ton of cash for more expensive models with features you don't need and will probably never use.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
brandle
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Location: Tulsa, OK
Reviews written: 20
Trusted by: 5 members
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