Customer Reviews

GE 28821FE2 Dect 6.0 Digital Cordless Phone and Digital Answering System Featuring GOOG-411 with 2 Handsets

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I did some research on DECT 6.0 before using the GE cordless phones. The system communicates in the 1.9 GHz frequency band, so the DECT 6.0 refers to software version 6.0, rather than 6 GHz. One of the features of DECT 6.0 systems is that it allows remote stations to communicate with the base station via a wireless interface. This means that when you expand up to 6 handsets, only the base station has to be wired to a RJ-11 modular port for VoIP or a standard telephone line. The other 5 handsets can communicate with one another on a wireless digital network.

Pros:
-The GE 28821FE2 is one of the first cordless phones that I have seen come equipped from the factory with Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) battery packs. This is surely the sign that a manufacturer FINALLY understands that Nickel Cadmium (NiCd) battery packs are a failure. I have gone through several cordless phone systems that used NiCd packs and they would begin to discharge rapidly and suffer from the memory effect about 1 year into ownership. I retrofitted some Uniden handsets with NiMH battery cells that I soldered together, but I was shocked to see these new GE DECT 6.0 handsets come with Sanyo NiMH packs from the get-go! As long as you do not overheat NiMH cells, they will last several years and generally do not suffer from the memory effect. They have a much higher capacity than NiCd and can handle higher current demands. If any GE/Thomson engineers are reading this, I would like to thank them for using NiMH battery packs in these cordless phones. I look specifically for cordless devices that come with NiMH batteries and wish Amazon or GE marketing would have publicized this feature.
-There are 20 ringtones to choose from, and about 7 are polyphonic tunes reminiscent of cellphone ring tones from the late 1990s, which consist of beeps and boops, but it is a welcome change from boring "ringing" sounds especially for a home/office cordless.
-The DECT 6.0 standard allows for many features like an intercom, multiple handsets on one phone line, crystal clear transmission up to 100m, and less interference from modern wireless devices (cellphones, WiFi, etc...) DECT 6.0 also qualifies as a 3G system.
-The GOOG411 button allows you to instantly dial the toll-free Google 411 network. The voice recognition is outstanding and it managed to find local business with ease.
-The digital answering machine has a clean interface and did not take a lot of trouble to set up.
-The Blue LEDs make the phones appear futuristic and modern, not to mention aesthetically pleasing. There are Blue LEDs on the base station, individual keypads, and a Blue electroluminescent display. One might think they went overboard with the Blue LED and lighting, but I think it looks fabulous.
-The range and clarity of the handsets is remarkable. I used the intercom from more than 100 feet away without any interference or problems outdoors.
-The intercom and room monitoring features are unique and interesting, although the room monitoring seems like an easier way for parents to eavesdrop on individual handsets but the intercom can come in handy inside large houses with multiple rooms.
-The handset menu interfaces are easy to navigate.
-The belt clip feels sturdy.
-The handsets are extremely compact and lightweight. These are very different from the old 900 MHz and 2.4/5.8 GHz cordless handsets of yore, which seemed monstrous, heavy, and cumbersome with long whip antennae. The GE 28821FE2 do not have external antennae and are rather sleek!
-The main base station can be mounted on the wall.

Cons:
-The satellite base station can only be placed on a table due to the lack of hooks in the back.
-When dialing a phone number, the digits appear too squished on the display. There is not a lack of space on the screen, so they could have stretched out the numbers for easier viewing. It would be easy to dial a wrong number.
-When dialing a number in the caller ID log, make sure to not set an area code for the handset or else it defaults to the 7-digit phone number. Pressing the format/redial button allows you to select between the 7-digit phone number, 10-digit area code + phone number, and 11-digit 1 + area code + exchange. Most calling areas require dialing 1 + area code even for local calls within the same vicinity. I have not been able to find a setting that makes the 1 + area code + exchange the default caller ID display format. Therefore, if you wish to dial straight from a CID log, make sure you press Format/Redial to select the appropriate phone number format for your calling area. This is kind of a nuisance but I have experienced the same problem with my other cordless phones using Caller ID (Uniden, Sony, etc...)
-The speakerphone button is placed in an awkward location. I am generally used to phones with the TALK button in that exact spot, but these GE cordless phones have the TALK button in the center, with the speakerphone in the lower left corner of the top control region. In addition, one of my handsets had the speakerphone volume set to "1" as a default, but upon activating the speakerphone, the volume was extremely loud. It must have been a software glitch, because I fixed it by selecting another volume and going back to the lowest setting.
-The Volume adjustment keys, which are also used to navigate the menus, are rather small. I have to use my fingernails to push these keys.
-The keypad lighting is useless in dark unlit rooms, defeating the purpose of the lighting. The numbers are not legible because the keys are opaque, preventing any light from coming through. Had they made the numbers translucent, it would have allowed night-time/low light usage. Instead there must be some room/ambient light to illuminate the keys. The blue lighting effect is just for show.
-The owner's manual doesn't cover all the intricate details or provide explanations for some of the settings. When playing with the handsets, I noticed an odd icon appear to the left of the battery state of charge indicator. It looked like a handset with an arrow pointing to the microphone. After much experimentation, it appears this is an indicator that there is a new caller ID entry. Reviewing the "new" entries would remove this icon from the display.
-The battery state of charge indicator consists of 2 bars. It is rather difficult to ascertain the exact condition of the battery using these 2 bars. They could have used 4 bars, but I can't complain too much since my other Uniden and Sony cordless phones didn't have SOC indicators - once you ran the battery down it would tell you to charge it without much warning. It didn't take too long for the battery to drop down to only 1/2 bars.
-The home base station/answering machine plays a lot of hissing static in standby mode. Adjusting the volume does nothing to reduce this sound. It sounds like white noise playing from the speaker in the back of the base station.
-The Caller ID display occasionally shuts off while reviewing entries. I have discovered this to be an intermittent problem that can't be reproduced all the time.

Miscellaneous comments and quirks:
-Although GE does include NiMH cells in the battery pack, the 2x AAA-sized cells only have a 650 mAh capacity. If the handset is left uncharged for 24 hours, the state of charge indicator will drop to 1 out of 2 bars with infrequent use. My Uniden handsets used AA-sized cells and when I retrofitted them with NiMH cells, I chose batteries that had a capacity of 2000+ mAh roughly 4 times the capacity of these GE/Sanyo packs and could be left uncharged for over 3 weeks. The benefit to using such small packs, like in the case of the GE 28821FE2 DECT 6.0, is the reduction in weight. The featherweight GE handsets are a big plus because it reduces fatigue for long conversations.

-The base station and satellite station have a bright blue LED in the bottom that serves as a charge indicator. If you keep one of these stations in your room at night, the blue LED is bright enough to act as a powerful night light. I can't say this is a pro or con because it is really dependent on where you place the phone/station at night and if the person is bothered by the light.

-The 2.5mm universal headset jack allows the use of a headset/microphone but upon connecting an Earglove Apex, I noticed excessive static and unclear audio. The fault most likely lies with the Apex headset and not the phone, but I prefer the audio quality of using just the handset.

Bottom line: The GE 28821FE2 DECT 6.0 handsets function as advertised and is quite versatile. They come with NiMH battery packs so they will give you far greater operating capabilities than lesser phones with NiCd packs that generally fail within 1-2 years. The main answering machine base station takes up very little room on a table. The handsets are extremely lightweight. The DECT 6.0 standard gives a wide variety of features, extended range, and crystal clear audio quality. The phones appear aesthetically pleasing, with a futuristic look that would complement any home, office, dorm, or apartment environment.

UPDATE:
22 APR 2011

The GE phone has given me some problems over the years. Besides the lack of backlit keys which is an extreme nuisance at night, the battery has taken on the memory effect or the electronics have started to go on the fritz. I use the base handset the most and the LCD has distorted. It also seems to lose stored phone numbers and likes to ignore my time changes. I change the time during daylight savings and it always finds a way to revert my changes from time to time. After 3 years of faithful service, I plan to upgrade to the newer DECT 6.0 PLUS phones to hopefully address some of the problems I've experienced with these GE units.

We really wanted to love these phones, and for the first week or so, we did. Google 411 is a wonderful feature, and very intuitive; even if you aren't sure of the correct name of a business, it comes up with most likely possibilities and allows you to easily find what you're looking for via voice commands. We tried to trick and confuse it, and found it highly reliable and effective. The handsets are light weight, and the belt clip is very tight and secure. Not only does the screen state that you have voice mail, but a light also blinks on the handset and base. You can set up special ring tones for certain people (once they've been added to your phone book), which is a great option (more on this below) to audibly identify regular callers. The volume range for both the ringer and speaker is adequate.

The interface isn't wonderful. Adding numbers to the phone book is challenging, there's no easy way to add a number of someone who calls in. You have to go through 4 menu options to get to a point where you can enter numbers which sounds like a nitpick, but when you have 40-50 numbers you'd like to store, it gets tedious. This phone also seems to lack a vibrate option.

One of our biggest complaints is that it takes a three to four rings *before* caller ID comes up. You end up staring at the screen waiting for caller ID to kick in, and if you've set up those custom ring tones as above, then what you're getting is three to four of the standard, before it recognizes who the caller is, and starts with the special tone. Then when you do answer, it takes another ring or two for the other handset on the system to recognize that you've picked up, so you're saying hello while still hearing ringing in the background.

As I said, we really wanted to like these phones. The aesthetic and feel is right on, it has a terrific feature set. We can't explain why they're so slow to process CallerID (another similar phone system we use is virtually instant on that front, so it's not the service or lines), but that has quickly become quite annoying. We're going to keep these handsets in service here in our house because we like Google411 that much, but this will not be a product I enthusiastically recommend to friends. As many good things I have to say about them, the few annoyances are just bad enough (for us) that we don't feel we've found an ideal solution. The potential is there, but the execution fell short.

I wanted to really like this phone... and judging on pure-sound (can I hear the other party, can they hear me), it does just fine.

Unfortunately, the phone is significantly hobbled by seemingly-readily-apparent usability issues. Given this, I was really torn between giving it three, rather than four stars, but in the end the reasonable ergonomic comfort + the excellent range and good sound quality pushed it over to a four in my book.

*** ABOUT MY USAGE

I typically receive and make calls from and to numbers in the U.S. I don't subscribe to caller ID, nor do I often interrupt callers with call-waiting or attempt three-way calls. My calling patterns, then, are pretty basic :) In my home, I have a wireless network, microwave, TV with several remotes, etc. Haven't found anything to interfere with the phone's signal.

*** ABOUT THE PHONE'S USABILITY

It's poor, IMHO, and frustratingly so, to the point I have to ask... did ANY usability experts look at this thing prior to launch? And -- do people really really want form over function in their phones?

For instance, more than 80% of the buttons on the phone's base are invisible to me when the base sits on my desk AND not easily accessible/distinguishable by feel. I have to stand up, and then squint to look at black buttons on a black surface with teeny tiny white labels.

Setting preferences and typing names into the phone is similarly annoying in a "what the heck?!" kind of way. The up/down selection buttons are right at the top of the phone. The "OK" button is at the bottom. So much for one-handed operation. One minor nice touch: the addressbook menu setting is first, so you can hit OK a few times in succession to get to stored names.

More thumbs up / thumbs down...

*** THUMBS DOWN:

Brightly glowing blue light makes for unhappy sleeping. I've had to turn the phone facing my bedroom wall to avoid the glare.

Doesn't appear to be any way to easily transfer address records between handsets, so be prepared to enter them separately. Ouch!

GOOG-411 button? Okay, that's cute, and -- [disclaimer] as a Google employee myself -- I think GOOG-411 is a great service. But a separate button when folks could easily create an addressbook entry (or, making Google / GE / users happy -- GE could have that as an already-added entry)? Not especially useful. How often do most people call directory assistance anyway? I'd have rather had a nice four-way joystick button or up/down/right/left arrows.

Oh, and the manual... goodness, where do I start? What a mess! I think this says it all:
What's the first thing you want to do when you get a phone? Make and receive phone calls, right? After setup, what're the first sections in the manual? Answerer settings, Standby screen, and Phone book. What the heck? Instructions for making a call are on... page 35. Hmm :(


*** THUMBS UP

The Do Not Disturb feature is activated by one button (appropriately for all handsets!) right on the front of the base unit. And when in DND mode, a noticeable red light shines so you don't forget to turn it off. Handy!

The phone and phone base *do* look sleek, so if that's important to you, you'll likely be happy.

Setup was pretty straighforward.

The phone feels pretty solid in one's hand.


* * *

At the core, this phone excels where some might argue it really matters 95% of the time: very good voice quality (with a usefully large number of loudness settings) and great range. Not a whit of static, even when I went downstairs and to the opposite end of my townhome.

But I really wish GE had spent just a few extra minutes making the phone more of a slick pleasure to use beyond just the basics.

This phone is one of the best cordless phones on the market! Other than a few (what I consider minor and will get to later) problems, it's among thee best phones that keeps your conversations private! And there is a very cool "room monitor" feature as well that I'll get to.

First off, it's a 6.0 DECT phone Digital phone (digital as apposed to analog). This wavelength has few interferences, and you will not get problems as you do with a 2.9 Gig Phone with using the phone near the microwave, or near your wifi internet.

However in reality the FCC has not approved true 6.0 DECT in America (as they have in Europe. SO it's really 1.9. And 1.9 is VERY secure as not only is it digital (as I said earlier), but it's impossible to listen to in on a scanner (as you can with a 900 Mhz analog phone). So your conversations are secure.

It comes with two phones. A digital answering machine on the "base" phone. And it's a digital answering machine as well so that there are no moving parts inside or tapes to get mixed up. It's all a smooth black plastic with gray trimming.

The buttons and screen are a cool blue. The one flaw is that in total darkness you cannot read the buttons as they are not clear, but have a dark color over them. Now this is not major, as we all know where the 1-2-3....4-5-6..7-8-9....*-0-# are on the phone. But the Red hangup button, and green middle one for phone light. The ear piece is digital quality, and you can adjust it in the commands to make it more clear.

And the phone has a speaker function which is handy for being on hold or when you want to talk but not hold the phone to your hear. The speaker is loud and quality is good.

This next part some may find helpful or problematic. When adding names and numbers to the phonebook (total of 50 you can add), the the phones do not sync. Meaning that if you want both phones to have the same names and numbers in the phonebook you have to do both individually. My older phones automatically synced the information between both. However some may like this as you can have two phones with different information for a total of 100 names and numbers between the two.

The phones have the ability of caller ID, and call waiting (if you get it from your phone company). The range of the phones are very good....I have the base on third floor, and I the phone works in the basement. You can adjust from 20 different ring tones (some are very unique). Along with VIP ring, meaning you can set the phone to ring a specific ring to a certain person calling through caller ID. Naturally you can turn the ringers to max of six or turn them off.....either way the phones turn a bright blue when a call comes in.

There is a Do Not Disturb feature, so you can set the phone to go to the machine automatically if you do not want the phone to ring. Also see a "pest" is calling, hit one button and the call goes the machine without ringing any further.

When not in use, the screen turns to a large clock, showing the current time.

Phones are lightweight. Easy to install. Comes with all you need.

Now that I think is VERY cool is that the phones can be used as a ROOM MONITOR! You can leave one phone in a room (not in use), go somewhere else in the house, and with your other phone click on "monitor room extension" and you will hear what is going on in the room the other phone is! You can use it as a baby monitor, spy on your kids, parents, etc!!!

The phones also have an alarm clock, so that the phone will wake you at a certain time.

You can expand the phones to have up to six phones! And they do not have to be near each other (the other phone chargers).

The phones light up bright when they ring. And when in the charger, they almost act like a night light!

It comes with free Goog411. Meaning there is a single button you push for free information on stores, businesses in all 50 states and Canada, and Google will connect you FREE! It's a free number you call, and they connect you free! All at the touch of one button, free directory assistance!

You can turn the answering machine on or off either from home or if you are away you can call in and adjust it as it picks up on the tenth ring even if it's off and unless you put in your security code, it'll disconnect the call automatically if the code is not put in.

Originally I rated this four stars, due to a few of the problems listed. However looking over it again I rated it five stars as this I believe GE has a good system here.

Like the other reviewer, I wanted a phone with caller-ID, not a mini-computer. The "techie" aspects of this model didn't interest me. I chose this phone from the Vine program because I needed a new one for my kitchen that didn't have to plug into a phone line. My line is in the middle of a wall right next to the fridge and the phone kept getting knocked to the floor. So, this set-up with a satellite handset seemed perfect. I put the main handset in the living room about twenty feet from the satellite handset in the kitchen and they work fine. I was delighted to find that they even synchronize! When I entered the time on the satellite handset, the main handset automatically synced. Another cool feature was that you can name each handset. This would be particularly nice if you have more than the two this base comes with. I named mine, creatively enough, Kitchen and Main. This is handy because if the phone "walks off" you know where it needs to go back to!

The display is very clear and the blue background easy to read. The menus are organized and intuitive. I had no trouble finding what I wanted and the system was quick to set up. I like having multiple ringtones, and the alarm is a nice option even though we probably won't be using it. The sound quality is excellent, and the button layout mimicks a cell phone rather than a traditional phone (hence the talk button being in the middle below the display). The phones are sleek and unobtrusive. I like that the secondary handset is small. The phones themselves are lightweight and fit comfortably in my hand. My only issue is that the buttons are a little close together and it's easy to mistype, but no more than many other phones.

This costs more than I paid for any other phone in my home, but I am considering buying additional handsets to replace those since this system is so well done. There are enough gadgets for those interested in such things, and for those of us that just want a nice phone this qualifies. I haven't used the free Google 411, but any FREE 411 is sure to be a nice addition. Overall, I recommend this to those looking to upgrade to a nice phone set for their home that will look good and meet all their needs. Those on a budget can get a simple cordless phone for much less that will do the job, albeit not so stylishly.

UPDATE: I did purchase an extra handset, which now resides on our second story, and it works perfectly. This set is worth the money and the ability to buy additional handsets is very convenient.

I am quite happy with this new Dect 6.0 phone from GE.

Upgrading from and older 2.4 GHz was a revelation. I didn't realize how much static I had been dealing with. And the range is impressive too -- I can talk on a handset while walking to my mailbox whereas before I lost the signal after stepping out the front door. The looks of base station and handsets are very modern and stylish and the design of the phones is well laid out and easy to use. I have an ooma VoIP system at my house and it plays almost perfectly with it (see below). Handset loudspeakers are a nice touch, as are the custom ring tones.

Even with all the pluses, there are some negatives.

- The satellite handset has no phone cord so I can connect it to one of my ooma scouts. I neet to by a separate handset if I want to use my second line from the satellite handset.
- The blue light while cool is awfully bright and not something I would want in my bedroom at night (our phones are in other rooms).
- Each hanset needs to be programmed separately.
- The user programming interface is really awful. It took me a while to get the phones set up and I consider myself a techie.

But now that all is set up I am enjoying and using this phone. Even with its quirks, I would not trade it for another phone.

EDIT: March 2011 - The phones seem to have reached the end of their life. They no longer charge fully and only one handset is usable, and that one only when using the speakerphone. The system worked well for about 3 years but now I'm on the market for a new set to use with my ooma system.

On the plus side: The handsets are really comfortable to hold, the number buttons are nice and large and stand out from the phone well and everything is sleek and black and really attractive as telephones go, although the handsets seem to attract and show a lot of oil, no matter how clean your face. The sound is as good as any other cordless phone I have ever owned. So I should love this phone. And I like it just fine, plus it's a great price. So why do I think it's just okay?

Well, first and foremost, there's the blue LED on the base that is so bright it actually interferes with any decor that doesn't match it. It is so bright that in a darkened bedroom it is downright annoying and I have to remember to turn it away from the bed so it doesn't wake me up when I'm in a light sleep. The blue light does go out when the handset is removed from the cradle and then the base just has a soft, red light. However, removing the handset at night is not a great option as the battery life on the handsets is considerably less than on my Uniden phone.

Moving on, the response time on the phone is sluggish. The phone takes awhile to reset after a call so you can't just hang up and hit redial, for instance, or you get the message "incomplete data." Also, the redial button isn't that easy to find, being small and located right near the #/pause button. Maybe not a problem for some, but I use redial quite a bit and I like how Uniden has this set up better. The volume control/scrolling buttons are small and need to be pressed with the tip of one's thumb, which is kind of inconvenient during a call and can lead to accidentally pressing the speakerphone button, which is larger and right below the down arrow.

The Google 411 sounds nice, but it only works for businesses, and while it's certainly better than paying local phone company charges and the voice recognition software is better than on my cell phone, no human picks up if the computer doesn't recognize your words. I wanted a listing for "Urban Tails," which it couldn't recognize, so I tried just the word "Urban" and got seven hits, which it started to go through one by one (complete with addresses). It would have been faster to look it up on the internet. It's a nice feature, but mostly because there's no charge for the service. Hopefully I'll get better at using it and/or Google will improve the software.

As others have noted, the speakerphone button is located right next to the talk button and is similarly marked in green. Even if you don't mistake one for the other, it's easy to hit the key accidentally and end up putting a call on speaker. The phone comes with numerous ring tones, but almost all of them sound like a 70's video game and only one (the first one) was pleasant sounding and sounded like a phone. Fortunately that one tone is great, but I can't imagine anyone wanting the others, other than perhaps to set priority rings, which this phone lets you do. Boop boop beep it's your husband. Thanks, but I'll just look for the caller i.d. on the display, which is nice and large.

In short, if you need a phone that sounds great and looks nice, and you don't mind a bright, blue light that you can't adjust or turn off, this one is certainly a great price and has a lot of nice features -- speakerphone, caller i.d., answering machine and, most of all, the ability to attach up to 6 handsets without needing to jack more than one base into the wall. Two handsets are included with the base and labeled Handset 1 and handset 2, although as they are interchangeable I'm not sure why this matters. For me, however, that blue light takes this phone from a solid 4 1/2 stars to about a 3 1/2, even at this price.

UPDATE 5/19/08 -- well, according to my friends it doesn't sound all that great. They're always very happy when I switch to my Uniden phone. And comparing the two on the same call makes me realize that the GE sounds a little bit tinny. So, I stand by my rating. Good for the price, but there are better cordless phones out there.

Hi, I just went to walmart and purchased my phone yesturday after hours of reading reviews from different sites (including this one). I will be honest, I was so scared to get it because of all the reviews I read with the con's on the phone.
I saw the phone in Walmart a week ago but wanted to come home to see some reviews about it before buying it. I decided to buy it even though I wasn't very happy with the reviews because I wanted to try it myself (everyone is different or sometimes there might be a bad batch of phones). I currently own a Panasonic with 3 hand sets (5.8 GHz), there was nothing at all wrong with it I just wanted a change. I think what got me was the blue light and the nice design of the phone and answering machine (it was just something different). Anyway, I bought it and came right home and put the phones to charge. I didn't touch them or try to program them because it's not good to keep taking a cordless phone off the charger when you first get it, it's better to let it get it's full charge (I was told this by someone in radio shack a few years ago).
About 11 a.m. it was ready for me to try out. I wanted to make sure that all the con's that people wrote about wasnt a problem because I would have taken it right back to walmart to get my money back.
Well, it works GREAT and setting it up is not a problem at all. I was worried after reading some reviews but it was so easy. My oppinion is if someone is having problems with their phone maybe it's something you should call the company about so they can send you a new one.
The phone has 5 different ringer levels and they are great depending on what you prefer. The sound quility when you are on the phone is very clear. I have no problem with my caller ID (as some people mentioned), it comes on with the beginning of the 2nd ring (just like all my phones). The answering machine has a clear sound and you can screen your calls and pick up while they are leaving a message if you want to talk. Another thing that I saw someone complain about is when you dial a number that the numbers on the screen are very small so you aren't sure if you dialed the right number, well I don't know if thats something GE fixed because when I dial a number it shows up big and clear on the screen. I think there is one more thing that I wanted to mention and that is the blue light that a lot of people have complained about being to bright. That is something that each person would see different as far as it being a problem. If you ask me, it is just fine. I don't even notice it once my eye's are closed and I actually love it because if I get up to check on my babies and older kids it is like having a little night light on. If you ask me I feel that this phone is definatly worth buying and im glad I did. I almost got another phone (because of some of the reviews on this one) and it was way over $100, I am very gald that I bought this one and tried it out myself. I have never left a review on a product I have purchased before but I had to on this one because this phone was definatly worth me taking the time out to write one.
The only bad thing is that I wish I would have ordered it from Amazon because it was much cheaper then in Walmart. I did order the extra hand set for my older daughters room though before I wrote the review (which is the cheapest I have found it and there is FREE shipping).
I definatly give this phone 5 stars.

This phone has some major pluses and major minuses:

Plus:
1). Good talk quality. Voice could sound a tiny bit more full but I'm being nit-picky here.
2). When you put someone on hold it plays music. I think this is super cool.
3). Google 411 info. This is really inventive.
3). Lots of ring tones
4). Lots of volume levels to choose from.
5). Major +++: Phone is really comfortable to use. This is a major important factor and it scores the highest out of all the cordless phones on the market today.
6). Great reception. No interference.
7). Great volume - Speaker wise also.
8). Looks cool
9). The stand looks just as cool.
10). Cool blue light. This is not as bright as some make it out to be. I find it very toreable.

Minus:
1). Phone feels rather cheap:
a). Buttons don't have a high quality feel at all.
b). You kinda have to smash the buttons rather than just simply push them.
c). The phone seems to have a slow CPU. Meaning, there is a major lag when typing in numbers. If you type to fast it will miss a number.
2). Phone doesn't use regular triple aaa recharge battery's like the panasonic models.
3). The phone has an equalizer. Normally, that would be really cool. But when I hit the bass preset it makes the ear piece speaker rattle and sound real cheap. In other wards, horrible sound and not usable at all.
4). Speaker on the speaker phone also sounds kind of cheap. Definitely not bad, just a bit on the cheap side.
5). Does not have a way to directly access a memory location to dial a stored phone number. You have to go through a couple of menus.
6). Plastic housing feel is a bit on the cheap side. Maybe because the phone feels somewhat hollow?

This phone is very intuitive with all of it's features. Someone was very cleaver to think about putting the google 411 and the music while on hold options. In addition, this phone really hit's the spot with it comfort next to my ear. It could not be argued that this phone is unlike any other cordless phone out there and takes the cake with it's uniqueness.

It's biggest downfall was the corners cut to make the phone so inexpensive. The lag is really annoying. It's not just with dialing numbers but also with redial, etc. Think of it as an out of date computer that takes to long to carry out a function. And the buttons feel like you need to squish them rather than a normal button you can press with a feedback of a high quality feel. I haven't decided if I am going to keep the phone or not, it all depends if I can get used to the cheap feel(and laggy input functions) of the phone.

On a side note, if you just need to buy one of these and don't need 2 hand sets Circuit City sells the single model and it's super cheap. No, I'm not talking about the extra handset you can buy. I'm talking about you can actually buy just one and use it by itself. That is the only place that has them single.

I was so excited to order this phone. I saw it in Staples and it felt really easy to hold. The design was slim and compact for a new answering machine. It has clear reception, however, sometimes it is hard the hear the other person because they sound very quite. We are also disappointed with the speaker phone. It is not of very good quality.

The biggest problem for me is the menu items and phonebook. It is not a simple push two buttons and you have your phonebook to scroll from. Nor can you save the caller ID numbers directly into your phonebook like other phones. The manual says the caller ID can be stored using a series of menu buttons, but nothing can be saved if there are non-numerical characters. What! caller ID has a name (non-numerical) and that is why we like it. I emailed the company and ask if there was another way I could program the numbers and they emailed me 3 days later to say call the non- 1800 number and try to talk to someone else.

A pro: The Google 411 works great.

My advice, if you want to use the features built into a phone do not buy this one. If you want a phone to just talk on and it feels good in your hand, this one would be okay.