Customer Reviews

Philips SE7452B Enhanced High DefVoice Digital Dual Cordless Phone Answer Machine

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(25)

 

 

I am using an SE7451B as well as an SE7450B (bought later). The SE7450B is an additional handset with a charging base but no base station - it uses the same base station as the SE7451B for communication and therefore is just another phone on the same phone line. Registering the second handset with the base is easy and quick but you do have to read the manual because you have to follow the steps in the right sequence and you have to hold down buttons that would behave differently if you just pressed them. You can also buy the two handsets and one base together as a package in SE7452B, if you need two handsets right away.

For my home phone, I have a traditional line from AT&T, and for my home office I use Vonage because of the addtional features I can get for a low price (my favorite is the Simulring feature). I am using these Philips phones with the Vonage line.

Positives:
1. No interference. Dect 6.0 is great. I got rid of a set of Panasonic 2.4GHz and got this phone - and all interference with the WiFi and the wireless video baby monitor are gone.

2. HiDef really works. The sound quality is just simply amazing for a telephone - unlike any other phone I have ever used, you get a very broad dyanamic range of the human voice.

3. Works well with Vonage. I make a lot of international calls and with some other phones there would be a 2 second delay between when I spoke and when the person at the other end hears it. When I started using this phone, that delay seems to be gone - now it is as good as a domestic phone call (All this on Vonage).

4. The speaker phone is the best yet. It is comparable in quality to a polycom star-shaped speaker phones one uses in offices (except that you can't talk across a large room - you still need to be near the phone which is ok for a home office.

5. Mute works. I considered the Siemens S450/S455 and E450/E455 but the lack of a mute button turned me away. Yes, the hold works on the Siemens, and you can turn off the hold music, but the idea of a mute is so that you can still listen in on a call which the hold function does not do.

6. Ability to copy phone book entries from a SIM card is very handy - you don't have to key in hundreds of phone numbers. I usally keep all my contact information in outlook which syncs with my windows mobile smartphone. Then I use the copy to SIM feature of the phone to copy the numbers to the SIM. Then pop the SIM card into the base station. Make sure to read the instruction manual.

7. The two handsets and the base station are always in sync. For example, I just need to set the clock one one handset. Also, if I enter a phone number in the phonebook of one handset, it immediately shows in the other.

8. The intercom and the baby monitor features are very nice to have and they work well. With the intercom, you can actually forward a call from one handset to another.

9. I like having a battery life indicator. The signal strength is also a nice to have for those days when I venture out too far in the back yard.

10. I am going to repeat this because it is that good: the speaker phone is just outstanding!

Deltas:
1. This is a nitpicky thing, but since main color display turns off to save battery life, you can't tell if you are on mute or not (during a conference call for example) without pushing a button to turn on the display. It would have been nice to have the "missed call" led indicator do double duty as a mute indicator during a call, may be in a different color.

I will post an update if I find anything new.

I purchased this base and 3 additional handsets to replace my VTech phones that I've used for 6 years that have started to have problems. I wish I would have waited and read these reviews first as I would not recommend this phone.

Pros
1-Great sound quality
2-Great speaker phone quality
3-Sim card reader
4-answering machine monitor from handset (real cool feature!)
5-you can 'name' each handset (if that's a big deal to you)
6-the microwave doesn't mess it up, like my Vtech.

Cons
1-BATTERY LIFE is NOWHERE near specs. My Vtech would last a week. I've had several occasions it didn't last the day with only a couple of short calls.
2-Annoying flashing red light unless you manually pick up every handset and manually page through every received call. That should be shared.
3-Unable to pick up another handset if the low battery tone sounds. If you try to transfer, it will DIE before you finish. Only thing you can do is run for the wall phone.
4-Tone delay when dialing, about 1/2 second after you push the button the tone sounds. Very distracting and annoying when dialing a credit card number or calling card number.
5-Inadequate instruction manual. It took 30 minutes to figure out how to add the new handsets I purchased.
6-NO INDICATOR of PHONE IN USE. The Vtech would tell me someone was on the phone and even which handset was being used. The Vtech would also tell me if two handsets were on intercom together. There is a separate indicator if the wall phone was in use.
7-Beeps for everything. you update the menu it beeps, you put it in the cradle it beeps, when somebody hangs up it beeps, you save a phonebook entry it beeps ... and you can't do anything else until it's done.
8-No range. it has nowhere near the range my Vtech phones had. I can't even go to the mailbox with this phone without losing the call. You can't see the signal meter when you're walking and talking, so what good is that?
9-Only a couple of pretty wallpapers, but they are so busy, you can't read the information on the screen when you select one. I can only select the solid screen and be able to read everything.
10-No way to add new wallpapers. Why have a cool color screen if you are restricted to only a couple of supplied pictures???
11-One reviewer said the phone book was shared. There is a manual menu function to share, but takes several minutes to happen. If you add one number, you have to copy the complete phonebook to all handsets all over again. There is no sync ability.
12-Answering machine is very basic. There are too many good ones out there for them to have made it so rudimentary. My Vtech had 3 mailboxes

Bottom line
The new DECT technology is awesome, but the programmers of the Philips SE745 series really missed the boat on being user friendly and functional. I would NOT recommend this phone.

I was in the market to replace our home phones and found my solution in the Philips SE7452B.

The key benefits for me are:
1) Truly wall-mountable. This phone base easily mounts on the wall, protruding only about 2". It is slightly more than the GE 27909EE1, but the handset on the Philips is *far* more comfortable (the GE one is like holding a smooth brick, btw). The only other wall-mount DECT option that seems to be currently on the market is from Panasonic, but it seemed nothing more than a small, awkward shelf.
2) DECT. Oddly, they do not put this in the product descriptor and on the Philips website they don't mention it at all, but these really are DECT 6.0 phones. I *love* not having to type in phone numbers across multiple phones, or having to place extra handsets where there are wall jacks. This technology is fabulous and the sound quality is superb, with no echoing or loss of volume when multiple sets are being used. The phones work equally well indoors as out in the yard.
3) Intuitive setup. You don't really need to look at the manual. These phones are idiot proof, with very logical menus and easy to see message counters.
4) Keypad locks! To be honest, I didn't know how fabulous this would be until I discovered it on the phone. With a curious 2-year old wandering about, I'll never get another phone without them.

Quibbles:
1)For some reason, I was not able to use my SIM card in the phone reader. I actually wound up calling in for a replacement, thinking that there was something wrong with the first unit sent. Both Philips and Beach Audio were super nice, easy and fast about responding. But as the second unit posed the same problem, I suspect my old SIM card is at fault, rather than this phone. Still, I appreciated only having to enter the info into one phone: with the touch of a few buttons, the same info was instantly (and exactly) transferred to the other handset.
2)Wish the holder for the extra handset had a little more weight to it. While it doesn't tip over anywhere near as easily as our old Dualphone (which was *obnoxious*), it could have been designed with more stability.

Overall: These are marvellous phones. I'm really pleased with my purchase and would strongly recommend them to anyone else in the market for cordless phones.

The one star is for the color display only b/c I haven't seen that in other cordless phones.

I've had this phone for 3 days and I regret that I threw away the box and receipt - looks were deceiving - looked like a well made phone but it isn't. I hope the product team reads these reviews. If so, developers and product manager, please fix the following!

INADEQUATE SOUND QUALITY
- I can only use it with XHD sound turned off - with it on, there was an annoying echo and I could not hear the other person nor could they hear me. And speaker didn't work without XHD sound turned off.
- Volume only goes up to 5 which is not enough.
- Occassionally I hear an echo or hollowing of the sound for no apparent reason.
- In general, inferior sound quality to my old Panasonic 5.8 GHz and I thought this was supposed to be new and improved technology.

INADEQUATE BATTERY
- Whatever the specs say is a lie. (And I followed the manual instructions for initially charging the battery properly.) Took the fully charged phone upstairs to my home office this morning around 10 am. Spoke on it once, for less than 30 minutes, and I'm down to 1 bar. I think the lack of battery life alone is a dealbreaker.

POOR USER INTERFACE (HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE)
- The buttons on the keypad require hard pressing to work and it is just uncomfortable.
- The round caller ID and phone book control above the keypad is embedded too deeply in the handset so I have to use my fingernail to operate it. Won't work just be resting my thumb on it and trying to press.
- No direct way to delete caller ID or phone book items from the actual entry - for example, can't select a number in the phone book and delete the number from there, have to select Delete, then find the number to delete - this is not intuitive or consistent with other technology.
- The red LED light on the handset flashes at an annoying increment when the handset is in the cradle or base. And the fact that it is so bright is annoying, too.

Overall, too much attention was given to the visual design/aesthetics and not enough attention was given to the actual usability or quality. I'd rather have an ugly phone that works. Philips, how about actually testing your product with consumers before releasing it?

I'd like to sell my phone to someone, but can't do that in good conscience.

Summary - do not buy this phone.

I've had this unit for a couple of months now, and find it to be well made with excellent sound quality. It looks good and works well as a basic phone.

I've had numerous cordless phones, including 5.8gHz models from Uniden and Panasonic, and I can honestly say that none of these vendors have got it all right - I submit that this Philips DECT phone "sucks less" than competing models :-).

Pros:

- Sound quality
- Speaker phone sound quality
- Default clock display (when in the cradle)
- Cordless range from base
- Design aesthetic

Cons:

- Squishy keypad (one must deliberately push the center of each key)
- Unable to configure rules for call-back from CID list (when to dial a "1", area code, etc).
- Euro-centric design of wall-mount bracket - not the standard vertical mounting holes - had to rig my own...
- Unable to use the feature of copying phone book entries from a GSM SIM card (Error message was "Read Failure"). Philips support is clueless on the topic.
- Red blinking LED on each handset whenever there were unanswered calls. The handset in my bedroom is rarely answered, so it blinks continuously to tell me that calls were missed. To make the blinking light stop, one must manually scroll through each CID entry, or erase the entire CID list... Phone designers: THERE ARE ALWAYS MISSED CALLS, AND WE CAN VIEW THE CID HISTORY IF WE CARE TO. DITCH THE BLINKING LIGHT!!!
- Chimes a bit too much. Whenever one replaces the handset in the cradle, it chimes! My wife's asleep, I'm trying to turn off the dern blinking red LED, and the thing chimes unnecessarily when I replace it in its cradle!

So, with all these "Cons", why 4 out of 5 stars? Like I said, it works well as a basic phone, and sucks less than the others I have bought...

I researched cordless phones for a while before choosing the Philips SE7452B/37 DECT 6.0 Dual Phone Bundle. The sound quality of these phones are very good. The speaker phone feature is awesome. With the speaker enabled it sounds like you are in the same room with the person carrying on a conversation. The phone works very much like a cell phone which makes it easy to learn to use. It allows you to copy the contacts off the sim card from your cell phone which saves a lot of time. The keys are lighted and the screen has a backlight so you can use the phone in a dark room.
The menu allows you to customize the phone much like you would your cell phone.

The Philips SE7452B/37 DECT 6.0 does have a lot of features so plan on taking some time to read the manual.


Things that I don't like about the phones....

1. These charger bases have a display light that blinks a bright red light when the handset is on it. It needs to dim at night.

2: Don't expect to pick up one of the handsets to join in on a conversation already in progress. The individual that answered the call must transfer the call to the other handset(s) using the intercom feature while the incoming call is placed on hold. You can plug another phone into another phone jack and answer a call in progress if this is a problem.

I am in agreement with most of the previous comments. Overall, this is a really good phone.

A few highlights:

* Dect 6.0 really helps - no interference with WiFi, or Microwaves.
* Sound quality is very good.
* Works with my ATT Callvantage VOIP service.
* Excellent speakerphone.
* Phone appears to be full-duplex, as compared to the Panasonic KX-TG1033S which really seems to be half duplex (had trouble speaking over others in conference calls)

Some drawbacks:

* My VOIP service provides a VMI (voicemail indicator) that causes the phone to chime, and indicate a missed call.

* The phone appears to eat batteries like there is no tomorrow. I get about 4 hours of consecutive talk time with 750mah NIMH batteries, just bought 1000mah batteries and I get about 6 hours of talk time. Not sure how 12 hours of talk time was calculated, but make sure that you have extra batteries charged and ready to go.

Overall, one of the better phones I've used, but the Siemens Gigaset 8800 is still the best multi-handset phone system I've used. Too bad the LCD on the base tends to die very quickly, and Siemens' support is poor.

It's a basic phone with good clarity and range, nothing special for the price. Big disappointment is with the battery life.
The claim is 12 hours per device; and that's not even close.
Per the specs:
# Battery life (standby): Up to 150 hours
# Battery life (talk): Up to 12 hours
In the real world, expect 90 minutes talk time per device before its dead and needs a full recharge and always keep it on the charger where it stays very warm.

Bought the phone based mostly on reviews. I had to get rid of my phone company's voicemail due to the constant chiming every 30 minutes or so. That wasn't so bad because this does have a answering machine.

Another gripe is the blinking light when I miss a call. I hate that thing! Another reviewer said if they put in a phone number in the phone book it automatically transfers to the other phone, well I haven't seen this happen after a month of owning phone and adding numbers.
Annoying is the battery life! Says 12 hourse if talk time is BS!

Also, to answer call waiting is not just the typical click of the flash or talk button. I also don't like the wall hanging bracket, not made for what I have in my house therefore it has to sit on the counter.
Sound quality is good and I love the speaker phone.

But if I had to do it all over again or if I would have saved the box I would not have bought this phone. I would have saved my $$ and bought something else. Now I have to have buy different batteries, have something on my already cluttered counter, have an annoying red light blinking and listen to a "chime" everytime I hang up the phone to charge to less than adequate batteries!

I purchased this phone after seeing it in a retail store. It was slick looking and had everything I thought I needed in a phone. I came to Amazon to hunt for a better price and was rewarded.

The set up was easy enough and I found it had the features I had it would, even though it was tough to get a clear understanding from the decription that, for instance, each headset could access the messages on the machine.

Aside from the hand sets being on the light side and the buttons a little mushy, I had actual functional issues with one hand set. After sitting on the charger and appearing ready, I would pick it up and it would completely power down. No clear combination of key strokes would enliven it but it would fire up, and the battery indicator would be at the maximum. Very frustrating but I tried to move beyond the gitch.

The "HD" sound booster function was completely gimicky in my experience. I found that my voice sounded slightly delayed and artificial and the callers sounded overly bright and crisp. The kind of sound where you take your head away from the hand set, scowl, and look at the phone with a furled brow. This was on both hand sets.

Now I was more critical of the phone. Battery life was a problem, I sit the phone out of the cradle and it was flat after 3 days, with no conversations on it. The blinking red caller ID indicator was undefeatable. The chiming cradle resets and menu selections got to be annoying. One of the biggest annoyances was that although each hand set was a speaker phone, it didn't rest on a desk or hard surface with the speaker and mic in a useable position. When holding the phone the speaker was great... but doesn't that defeat the purpose? (I never got to the point of installing the phonebook via a SIM card.)

Although I returned the phone for defective reasons, I feel like I lucked out because there were things about this phone that would have always annoyed me. Also, I felt like each hand set was its own phone, not a part of a dual hand set answering machine device. Like one other reviewer mentioned, you could not tell if the other hand set was in use without starting a call. In my opinion, the phone offers the allure of a sophisticated device but falls short in ints ability to offer the user configurability.