Customer Reviews

Philips CD4451B/37 DECT 6.0 Phone with Answering Machine

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I almost didn't purchase this phone due the some of the poor reviews. I am so glad I gave it a try. Most of the negative reviews include such misinformation as: poor sound quality, no sound produced when depressing keys, poor battery life, etc. must have come from individuals who did not take the time to read the detailed step-by-step instructions which came with the phones. There is much information as the CD445 series phones have many great features, all which perform as advertised. Some of the really great features include the ability to plug in a headset, check and record messages on the answering machine from any phone anywhere in your home (CD4452B/37 models), screen phone calls from anywhere in your home, easily add Caller ID numbers to your phone with the press of a few buttons, speakerphone, back-lit keypad, clean modern look and solid construction. The sound quality is much more crisp than previous phones, with no ambient interference. I did a lot of research before purchasing, and we thoroughly tested before filing this review. We are very pleased with these new phones.

This is the worst phone I have ever had. Its been 4 months and I am ready to just throw it out. I have changed batteries twice, people on the other line can't hear you, caller id & answering machine stinks.

This is the worst phone ever. The handsets are always just dropping the calls for no reason. Last night a 30 minute conversation cost 2 hang-ups and went through 3 of the handsets before switching to my cell. I've had them for about 8 months and think an electronic recyler can get more use out of them. Don't waste your money and aggravation on these!!!

This phone is has great sound quality, but there have been so many quirks with things like the caller-id display, VM messaging indactor, etc that I look forward to replacing the phones for something better.

I have to chuckle about some of these reviews. My advice is to read them all and make your own decision.

One person proclaims the wonders of such a great phone (above and beyond AND despite other rather negative reviews) and I think that the person who wrote that review must be a CEO or other paid employee of the company that produces this phone.

The phone does have a lot of good features.

It is easy to store phone numbers of people who have called. It is also easy to store phone numbers that you call frequently. It has a large storage capacity which will enable me to store a lot of phone numbers and that saves me the extra steps of having to look up those phone numbers in the phone book or from the ever ready internet.

I actually really like this phone. I am pretty happy with it - more happy than I have been in a long time with a phone. The phone I have had, so far, that I liked the best had absolutely no features... it was as basic as basic gets. But it worked and worked well! I had voice mail through my phone service provider and I used an extra caller I.D. box to see who was calling, and it all worked out really well. I always knew who was calling before I picked up the phone and I knew my phone was very reliable. I could talk for what seemed like hours on that phone without having to switch over to another phone (in order to recharge the batteries on the current phone) if the conversation lasted too long.

Here are the issues that I, personally, have experienced with this phone:

Caller I.D.: The phone is supposed to identify the phone number calling and as it turns out, the first thing I see is "Toll Free Call" on my I.D. The phone does not identify the phone number first. I have to wait several seconds (if the phone is ringing at the time) to see the number that is calling me. If I get home after a long day at work and things are flashing to let me know I have messages I actually have to go through quite a process to find out who was calling. Even then I do not get the phone number. To get the phone number of the caller I have to press the flash/TALK key and that actually begins to dial the number. So make sure you have a paper and pencil ready at this point. I don't want to finish that call. My intention was not to call the number back, only to find out what the number was!

I don't know how that is helpful to me at all. It makes no sense. Why can't I just see the phone number that called me? Wouldn't that be so much easier?

I have, fortunately, kept the caller ID box I had before just for this reason. My caller ID box shows the phone number that has called me. My phone does not, even though in the very explicit instructions it says it does!

It doesn't!!!

Another downside to this phone, and part of the reason I rated it only "AVERAGE" is because when I get a phone call there is a light on the receiver that flashes. Now, that is great... it is letting me know that an "EVENT" has occurred, meaning, something I need to tend to.

However, I have to go through a series of event to "shut down" that light. In other words, if I want to be notified the next time I get a call... I have to go through quite a series of events to do so.

For example: I get a phone call. I go through the steps to find out who has called and it is easier just to look at my caller id box rather than the phone even though I purchased a phone that supposedly had caller ID features.... I check out who has called and now I have to go through a series of events to get that little button to stop flashing... and it takes a few pushes of certain buttons and then it does not even display the phone number I am hoping to see!!! D-UH!!!

It does not say the phone call in anonymous or private. So it is all very questionable.

If you get one of these phones, it is great, but much easier if you keep your caller ID box... Doesn't that defeat the purpose?

Battery life is questionable. I had a whole day when the phone was beeping and beeping. A lot of phone calls came in that day and none of them were cut off due to shortage of battery life, but the beeping was a bit annoying and I was unsure as to why the phone was beeping as it had been charged up entirely the night before.

My husband went and purchased new batteries for the unit but we haven't had to use them yet... so this issue is still in question.

I like how many numbers the phone stores. I like the looks of it. I LOVE LOVE LOVE that it has a speaker phone on it so that if I am on "HOLD" I can do other things around the house while waiting for someone to answer my call...

Like I said.... There are many good features on the phone, and if you read the instructions you may get a lot out of it... But it is NOT simple and the features sure could be a lot better!!!

I bought this item and used for around 2 weeks. The caller at the other hand wasn't able to hear us properly. The voice seems to crack in all of the calls. We verified this by using our old handset. rest of the Features are good and easy. But our peice is either defective or phone has a issue.

I've got many (too many) of these phones and none of them ever were up to specifications as far as talk time and stand-by time.
The features and audio are good. Buy them from a reputable store that will take them back.
Test them for there charge holding ability and if they aren't up to snuff take 'em back for a refund FAST!
Good luck... you may need it.

This is a great phone. It looks beautiful, the sound quality is very clear. My only concern os that there are features that are a little more complicated to use than I expected, ie storing numbers from CID into the phone book. The phone is smart enough to know that you'll want to do this but it is not smart enough to add a 1 for the area code. If there is a way to do this I have not figured it out yet. Still, I would recommend this phone.

Cons: I couldn't dial the number one first on the caller id so I wasn't able to use the caller Id to make a long distance phone call. Battery never fully charged and I followed the charging instructions to the "t". Caller Id was sub par and couldn't see who was calling. Ringer could not be turned off all the way.

Pros : Good range, cool look, answering machine worked fine.

You can tell Phillips did not think things through and work the kinks out of the product before they put it out for sale.

Our experience with this product is that it won't hold a charge for more than 12 hours, and that, when we do charge it, it takes forever. Maybe we didn't set it up properly, but if that's the case, the set up is too complicated to make this product of any value.