Customer Reviews

Philips CD1554B/37 DECT Series Quad Expandable Cordless Phones with Digital Answering Machine

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1. No shared phonebook. Four handsets, and you have to enter shared numbers individually into each handset. You may want this feature if different people are using each handset. An even better idea would be to have the choice of each entry being shared or not shared.
2. Have to delete or review each call received for each handset, otherwise the handset says missed call.
3. No option for announcement or outgoing message to be silent. You have to listen to it every time someone calls in.
I called customer service about the above, and believe these comments to be correct. I returned the unit. Here's the link to the user manual http://www.p4c.philips.com/files/c/cd1554b_05/cd1554b_05_dfu_eng.pdf but the manual doesn't clarify the above points. The manual says (p.33) that the maximum recording time is 10 minutes, including the outgoing messages, but the online description says 18 minutes.

I got this phone system on sale for a good price and really liked the look of the phone. Unfortunetly it doesn't work as well as it looks. My biggest issue is that it just feels clumsy. The LCD screen is slow to update, and the buttons don't seem to respond quickly. The sound quality is ok.. but didn't sound as good as my Panasonic. Also it had more dropouts than the Panasonic too.

Pros:
I got it at a good price
Looks sleek and has a good design
Uses standard ni-mh aaa batteries

Cons:
Sound quality is not all that great
Interface is slow and does not respond very quickly
Number keys do not light up
Unit gets quite warm when charging or talking

Not a very good unit.

I have the same complaints about this phone as Robert listed in his March 15, 2009 review. These and the below "nits" make the phone a hassle to use.

In addition, one cannot just pickup another one of the handsets to get on an existing call, or to use if the initial handset's batteries are about to die. Using a different handset on an existing call requires the additional handset to be conferenced into the call by putting the call on hold and calling the other handset. A maximum of two handsets can be on a single call at the same time.

These are OK features as long as they can be overridden in the setup menu.

I do like that the handsets use regular AAA NiMH rechargeable batteries, so when they do eventually quit holding a charge, they will be cheap and easy to replace.

The handsets have a built-in alarm clock (single-use & daily setting).

Volume settings are unique to each handset.

I got a great "Black Friday" price on the phone, but I may return it as I'd probably rather pay more for a phone that is more user friendly.