Customer Reviews

RCA Corded Retro Phone with Call Waiting/Caller ID

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This compact, retro little corded desk phone is replacing a separate caller-id, call-waiting unit and larger retro-styled phone for my home office. It is quite small, freeing up valuable inches of desk real estate, and has a very clean design.

Push-buttons in a dial-like layout are fairly small (easy for my fingers, but perhaps a problem for larger hands) and the arc of feature buttons under the "dial" (flash, menu, delete, etc.) are even smaller. Again, once you get used to where they are, it was no trouble for me.

When a call comes in, the liquid crystal display in the center of the dial lights up in green (unit requires 3 AA batteries) so you can read the incoming call information. After about 5 seconds, the light in the display goes off, but a small red light above that panel continues to flash intermittently, to let you know you've missed a call. When you go to review your call history, the green light comes back on, to help you read the display.

The unit has the ability to automatically dial the missed call, plus the standard buttons to review and delete the phone numbers. You can also store memory numbers to any of your phone's number buttons, like any modern phone. There is a redial button, as well.

Pros:
Very small, corded, integrated unit has the keypad on the base, which I find more useful when working, than having to punch all the numbers into the handset (a la cordless models)
Inexpensive

Cons:
Rather a strange, high-pitched ringtone
Handset is very small, but still quite heavy

The Retro Phone is definately a cute design to look at and the detailing has been well thought out. However, from a practical point of view it is a bit lacking. The phone does not have any weight to it and moves around the table too much (partly because the cord is not quite long enough). If the phone had more weight and would stay in position, then the cord would stretch.
Also, because of the shape of the handset it is impossible to rest it in your neck, making it difficult to use your hand while talking.
I am keeping the unit because i don't use my land line all that much and it looks cute on my desk for the infrequent times that it is needed.

I purchase this phone for my bedroom so I would have a corded phone in the event of a power failure. It is very elegant and looks nice on my bedside table. works great and has great sound quality. Can't beat the price for such a unique looking phone either!!

I bought this phone about a month ago with my fingers crossed. The reviews here had me a bit concerned, but I needed a phone for the family room. The typical ones I've been buying at store, never last and the trimline look is so dated.
So I went with this one, because it's retro and has caller id. One thing noted is that this says GE but the phone actually says RCA, so I don't know if mine is a left over from some merger, but it works great and has good sound.
One of the big concerns I read here was about it being too light and pulling it off the table. Well, they must have fixed that, because this is somehow engineered on the bottom so that it doesn't move. In fact, if you want to move it closer, you can't pull it with the cord, you've got to reach over and pick it up. That works for me.
Getting used to the phone buttons has been a challenge. I knew that they would not be in little rows like trimline phones, but I guess I assumed they would be set like dial phones of days of old. They are not. But I don't do that much dialing on this phone anyway. And I certainly never have to dial in a big hurry.
It works. It looks good. What more can one ask from a phone?

Like another reviewer said, the phone is too lightweight, and falls off my nightstand as soon as I answer it everytime. What's worse is the numbers are not in the standard place so dialing by touch is not easy. It also could benefit from a lighted keypad. This is not working for me the way I had hoped... I wanted a retro look phone with modern features.... I guess I have to keep looking.

I really liked the style of the retro phone which was my reason for purchasing it. The sound quality is great and the caller id feature brings it into the 21st century. The dailing is the only thing you will need to get used to because it is not like your normal touch pad. Other than that it is a great phone and it doesn't take up a lot of desk space.

This is a nice phone. It has all the features of a cordless, plus the ability to work if the electricity is out. The caller ID and other such features still work because they run on 3 AA batteries. The biggest drawback is that it is too lightweight and tends to slide on the table top. I use a mouse pad to keep it from sliding around. I like it much better than a cordless because I can always find it.

I used to have only portable phones that required electricity to work. This little guy plugs into my land line and works during power outages. It uses batteries for the caller ID feature, but functions as a phone without the batteries or any other power souce. I have one on each floor of my home.

I have had this phone less than one week, so cannot speak about its long-term reliability, though I have had generally good experiences with GE and RCA products.
But I can say it is a "can't beat" value for features and its funky cute appearance. The features are easy to access, understand and use and the sound quality is excellent. It even has volume control on both the ringer and the speaker. The only negative I can think of (and this could be said of almost any phone made today) is that the liquid crystal display is difficult to read from most any angle but straight on and fairly close up, even set at highest contrast. I did add a longer cord. All in all, this unit meets my requirements admirably.

This 'new' telephone did not work, out of the box. I was offered a replacement or a repair.... but if it doesn't work out of the box, that's it. Looks cute, but very light weight. I would not recommend it.