Customer Reviews

Siemens 8825 Gigaset 2.4 GHz 2-Line Expandable Cordless Speakerphone with Answering System

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(77)

 

 

This is a great multi-line, multi-handset, cordless phone system. It's a big improvement over the previous generation from Siemens (the Gigaset 2420), and it's far better than the Panasonic system that I bought (the KX-TG4000B).

Gigaset 8825 features that I love:
1. HANDSETS -- The handsets are "dense" - just heavy enough to feel solid and high quality - much better than the old, light, "plastic", cheap ones from the Gigaset 2420 system. The handset speakerphone is a feature I didn't think I would want or need, but it works great. The ability to give each handset your own "name" (like kitchen, or family room, or upstairs bathroom) makes the intercom capability much more useful than trying to remember where handset #3 is!!!
2. BASE STATION -- The speakerphone works fine - almost as good as a Polycom speakerphone. The "MUTE" function on the base station works great - I just wish that the handsets had a mute! The base station has attractive clear backlit buttons for some functions, like Speakerphone/Mute, Calls, Voice-Mail, Intercom, Flash, etc. But it does NOT have clear backlit buttons for the telephone number keypad used for dialing - a big flaw.
3. ON-LINE PRODUCT REGISTRATION -- May seem like a trivial thing, but I love the fact that Siemens lets you register your purchase on-line via the web site. I wish that the registration process directly solicted feedback -- They currently only ask for the essentials.
4. MULTI-LINE MADE EASY -- Unlike the Panasonic KX-TG4000B, you can easily join a call already in progress. So, if Gramma calls and one family member answers the call from one of the cordless handsets, anybody else can easily join the call by pressing "TALK" on one of the other handsets or the base station. On the Panasonic KX-TG4000B, the first person to answer must "invite" others to join using a complicated Conference feature.

Gigaset 8825 FLAWS:
1. HANDSETS -- Although significantly improved over previous generation (2420) handsets, the 8800 handsets still lack a "MUTE" button -- critical for conference calls. Siemens needs to add an explicit physical button to quickly select MUTE (when the baby starts crying), not just a "menu item". Also, the telephone number keypad used for dialing still has black plastic buttons with no back-lighting. This makes it impossible to dial in the dark. Siemens needs to make the telephone number dialing buttons clear and back-lit, on both the handsets and the base station. And, there is NO way to start a new call on Line #2 -- when you press "TALK" it always selects Line #1, without giving you a choice. The only way to get Line #2 is if one of the lines is already in use -- then it gives you a choice (e.g., Join line #1, or Use line #2). Finally, the handsets need explicit buttons for volume, just like the base station. Using the menu system on the handset to change the volume is tedious and time-consuming.
2. HANDSET CHARGING CRADLE -- The new handset charging cradles do NOT have a light indicating that the phone is charging. There should be a RED light indicating that the phone is charging and needs charging, and a GREEN light indicating that the phone is already fully charged.
3. BASE STATION -- As mentioned earlier, the telephone keypad needs clear and back-lit number buttons for dialing in the dark. The base station also needs a rechargeable battery back-up, in case of power outage.
4. DIRECTORY -- Although you can "transfer" directories of names and phone numbers from one handset to another, a centralized directory always shared across the entire system would be a huge improvement for home environments.
5. VOICE QUALITY -- Although voice quality is greatly improved, I would still pay a premium price for a cordless phone with higher quality voice. Why can't somebody make a cordless phone that sounds like a wired phone? I want CD quality voice on my cordless phone!

CONCLUSION -- The Siemens Gigaset 8825 is the best multi-line, multi-handset, cordless phone system I have ever owned. But, if Siemens makes additional improvements, I'll buy the next model to get needed enhancements.

After spending quite a bit of time reading product reviews, and looking at a number of cordless phones in person, I finally settled on this Siemens 8825 set.

I must say that I'm quite impressed overall with this phone and its performance! As others have said, it is literally PACKED with features, from callerID, voice announcement, multiple voicemailboxes, call directories that can be sent between base and hand units, intercom, speakerphone in base and handset(!) and many many others.

You can register up to 8 handsets with a single 2-line base unit. Each handset may be registered with 2 different base units as well. It is important to note that the handsets use standard NiMH rechargeable AA batteries. This makes them very easy and economical to replace in the long-run.

The sound quality is oustanding - from base and handset phones. It is at least as good as my old trusty Panasonic "Sound Charger" which set the standard for good quality analog cordless phones. In 3 weeks of use, I have not experienced problems with handset hanging up calls that one other reviewer mentioned.

The callerID features are particularly well implemented. Incoming calls appear on the display of the base unit and all handsets (even during calls if you have callerID call waiting service). You can call a number from the callerID log, as well as save it to the directory. There is only ONE master callerID log - so using a handset to review and delete call log entries deletes them from the base unit as well.

The digital answering machine offers 4 mailboxes. By default, callers on line 1 go to mailbox 1, line 2 to mailbox 2, special ring1 to mailbox 3 and special ring2 to mailbox 4. Or, you can enable an automated attendent, that allows callers to direct themselves to a particular mailbox.

Unusual for cordless phones, Siemens has provided a configuration for "long DTMF" which enables touch tones to be held out for a longer period. This is useful if you're in a bad area or over a noisy connection, and need to communicate with an automated service (such as your bank, a calling card, etc).

While the manual is not always complete, the features and menus are generally logical and well laid out. If you're technically savvy, you should have no problem learning the features. Siemens does provide an 800# to call for help as well.

Having said all that, this phone set is not perfect. You cannot hear the actual touch tones being sent when dialing a call (i find this annoying but the numbers do show up on the display). The handset is small (about the size of an older cell phone), and does not balance as easily as a full-sized cordless handset. There is no battery backup for continued operation during power outages. The base unit offers speed dial for up to 10 numbers, but you must remember which number was stored in a speed dial location (the speed dial prompt only offers you single digits). The redial function does not keep trying if your caller is busy. The voice announce feature for recording your announcement is highly unreliable (you may have to try 5 or 6 times before it understands you recorded something). When recording greetings for the answering system, the unit always cuts off the very last half-second of your message.

The handset has its own set of limitations not found on the base unit: you cannot mute your call (you can put it on hold however). You can choose an outgoing line from the handset ONLY if this capability was enabled from the base station menus (this is confusing at first). If a line is in use, you can choose to conference in or call out on the other line however. Or, you can configure certain handsets to ONLY connect using a specified line. There is no "speed dial" on the handset. You must page through the directory (you can hit the first letter to jump to that location in the directory).

Even with all these limitations, the sound quality, and other features more than balance to earn a 4-star rating.

I bought this phone to replace a few different cordless handsets, a seperate digital answering machine and a speaker phone in my home/home office. I am talking about the 8825 (as I can't believe that some other reviewers are.) Overall, this is a great system with a few caveats. Many people have complained about things like the inability to turn off ringers or answer certain lines from the handsets. This is almost exclusively due to the extremely poor documentation. If you are not "gadget inclined" DO NOT BUY THIS PHONE. It has many drill down menus which are poorly explained in the manual. You can only really understand them by doing some trial and error. As far as the quality goes, I have been quite impressed. The speakerphone has great sound BUT is not a full duplex as advertised. When you start speaking the other side cuts out. I live in an apartment building in NYC and have an 802.11b wireless set up. I doubt a more cordless phone hostile environment exists. That said, I have not really had any problems with reception - even while running the microwave. Occasionally there will be a click, but that maybe happens once a week or so and can't be heard by the person on the other side of the call.

The downside of the system:

It is missing several key features I would have expected on such an expensive phone system. I am going to list them below. Please keep in mind that I am fairly technically inclined, and have called Siemens to confirm that these features don't exist so you can be confident in my review:

1) There is no way to leave a memo on the answering system. For example, on most inexpensive answering machines you can push a button and leave a voice memo when standing over the machine. I find this really helpful if I want to leave a message for my wife and I know she will be calling in remotely to check the messages.

2) There is no way to transfer a call to any of the mailboxes after you answer it. The best you can do is to record the call.

3) The documentation is TERRIBLE!

4) If someone calls repeatedly, the caller ID log will only tell you the number of times they called and the time of the most recent call. You can't find the times of each individual call for the repeat dialer.

5) Although you can route certain Caller IDs to individual mailboxes, there doesn't seem to be a way to route all blocked or private caller IDs to a mailbox. You can only use the routing feature if the caller ID is in your directory.

6) The Caller ID announce feature is a gimic. It only is announced at the base station. Even with the volume all the way up, it isn't loud enough to be heard very far away. (Yes, the volume buttons are backwards.)

7) If you want to delete all messages, it requires drilling through several levels of menus. You can, however, use the delete key to delete an individual message while it is playing. (Maybe this is a safety feature to keep you from doing it accidentally.)

8) On the cordless handsets the volume can only be accessed by drilling through several menu levels. This makes it pretty useless as you have to take the phone from your ear to see the screen. In other words, you can't fix the volume without telling the caller. (This obviously isn't as much of a problem if you use an optional earpiece.)

9) There is no mute function on the cordless handset. There IS a hold feature, but that kills both the ability to listen or speak. There is a mute for the speakerphone though.

10) The call timer disappears as soon as you disconnect. This makes it difficult for an attorney to capture this info for a billing log. My old phone would leave the call time on the screen for about 10 seconds after the call.

11) The answering system does not have the ability to listen in on a room through the remote access. (Believe it or not, this is a usefull feature for me to call in and be able to hear if a print job has finished.)

As I said, overall I am pleased with the purchase and can live without the missing features. The phone seems quite solid and I expect it to last for a long time. One plus is that Siemens includes an 800 number where they will answer any questions you have. A bonus on their 800 number is that it is really easy to get a human on the phone without getting lost in a sea of voicemail prompts.

The phone has several features I haven't used, so there may be more shortcomings based on your own expectations. I guess the moral of the story is not to EXPECT this phone to have anything.

We have had our Siemens 8825 for only a few days. So far its doing almost all of what I think a phone system should do.

First of all, as one of the other reviewers stated, read the manual and be prepared to spend 2 to 3 hours on understanding the system, otherwise do not buy this phone system.

Several others have missed the " Automatic Line Selection" feature which allows you to disable the automatic selection of line 1 (factory default) and choose manual (i.e. either line) or selection of line 1 or 2 individually for each handset.

I recommend all Users go to Appendix C: the Base Station Menu Tree to quickly understand all the features of the system. The manual needs work; the feature of auto line selection is not in there.

My only complaints are the lack of two obvious features: mute on the hansets which diminishes the otherwise excellent speakerphone on each handset. Also, the inability to stop the answering machine once it begins recording from any of the handsets (you can do that from the base. Also, to make the cool voice announce Caller ID truly useful, Siemens should have made the feature work on each handset (as set by the user) as well, instead of only at the Base.

Otherwise an amazing system that actually delivers.

If you don't like to read instruction manuals, don't buy this phone. If you are patient, willing to study the manual and really want a 2-line cordless phone with multiple handsets, this was the best solution I found. Pluses: Good range; good, not great audio; lots of usefull features. Minuses: Can't just put a call on hold and pick it up on another handset, you have to transfer the call and know which handset to transfer to if you don't want to transfer to them all; can't speed-dial from from handsets. I had an old ATT (pre-Lucent) 2-line with digital answering and was used to heavy, high quality hardware with great audio (and 1/100th the features of an 8825). Siemens follows the modern philosophy of offering features and not necessarily going out of their way to make a product that "feels" rock solid or sounds above average. Would love to see a product with old-fasioned quality and 8825 features even if it cost more.

Years ago when Siemens came out with their first cordless phones I was the first to get one and I was probably the first to take it back. Poor reception was my biggest beef.

Now comes the 8825 and the reception is fantastic. After a couple of months of using the unit I've found a few problems with the system that are again making me think about getting rid of it. The first is the speaker phone on the base, when I'm talking people on the other end can hear me just fine but I can't hear them worth a darn. The sound is choppy and I thought maybe it was because Siemans put the speaker underneath the handset (very strange) but removing the handset and trying the speaker phone without the handset in the way didn't yield any better results. A call to Siemens customer service didn't help, they told me to reset the base. Also the volume on the base speaker phone just isn't enough. My other complaint is when pushing the buttons on the base and the cordless handset their's that dreadful delay. I use the a speakerphone alot and this may be the reason I get rid of the phone. One other strange problem is the absence of a flash button on the cordless handset. Siemens has you using the talk button to switch between the calls which I found not working right a good part of the time. The base however does have a flash button and it works just fine in switching between calls.

On the good side the cordless handset is wonderful, good volume and even better volume using it's speaker phone. Menu is well laid out and the display is easy to read. The corded phone (except for the speaker phone) works well.

I was hoping for the perfect phone from Siemems but I guess I still haven't found it.

I had owned the 2420 previously, so I was a bit biased. It had it's faults, but overall was a good value. Probably the biggest thing I disliked about it was the handset holder... I was constantly finding out hours later that the handset had slipped and I was "offline" (blissfully ignorant of missed business).

They fixed that with the 8825. The desktop unit has a better feel to it, and the LCD screen is much more readable now as well... the previous one had a yellowish tint to it and less of a slope, it seems. I don't use all 4 mailboxes, so I can't comment on that. I do miss the dataport, but simply got a 3-way 2-line splitter ($4) that does line 1, line 2, and line 1/2. It works good with my fax. Since I have distinctive ring on line 2, I have programmed the 4th mailbox (where distinctive ring calls get routed) with a message "If you are hearing this, the fax is not responding. Please call back at xxx-xxx-xxxx and leave a voice message".

I also programmed the remote and desktop to use manual line select, so I can use either now... some reviewers commented about this, but it's pretty simple to set up in manual mode, and to use (1 extra step on the remote, dial the number then press which line you want to use).

The audio quality of the outgoing message recordings is superior to anything I've heard. Flat and neutral, with very little hiss. I had tried to save a buck by using the AT&T 2462 2-liner, but it's OGM quality was about the same as talking underwater, if that good. The 8825 rocks, in this respect.

As I'm using this for a home office, with no family to worry about, I have not used or tried the transfer/join features. And like other reviewers, I'm a bit peeved about Siemens putting the volume up/down control in reverse order from most American systems. But I guess that's cuz I'm American, and it's made in Germany. It may make sense over there. This is a minor issue tho, cuz once I set it, I've not used it since.

The voice caller ID function is gimmicky, but entertaining for company. It might be practical if the caller ID was out of sight, but 99% of the time, it's close enough to pick up the remote or glance at the base unit LCD.

The range is adequate for my 1 acre spread, and has no problems going thru the steel walls of my garage/workshop out back. It also doesn't "click click click" and conflict with my 802.11b rig like the 2420 did. In fact, the remote is crystal clear.

Overall a great value. I wish they made mailboxes 3 and 4 'ring' programmable (both are for distinctive ring, but I'd like to set up a 6 ring limit before pickup). I can only find how to program line 1 and 2 for number of rings before auto answer, which is a hassle if I switch to toll saver mode, because the fax sometimes doesn't pick up on the first ring like it's supposed to.

It does have an pseudo autoattendant function, but it pretty much limited to a general greeting with "to leave a message for frank, press 1, to leave a message for sue, press 2, etc., It does not offer call forwarding, or pager functions.

Cheaper than the Panasonic 4000/2000's (also a great system that I use at another office), with all the features I need and probably the best audio quality I've ever heard, I think it's the best value in the 2-liners corded/cordless, that I've tried (there aren't many out there either).

Had a Gigaset 2420 - very expensive, worked great for about 2 yrs - then like everyone else that bought one experienced bad display and warbling when on calls. Looked for replacements and found the Gigaset 8825 had the best feature set for the money - bought into Siemens again for even more $$$$ The phone out of the box had clicks and pops in the cordless conversations - then lately ( 1.5 yrs old ) the caller ID on line one no longer works. Sad - Very Sad I have to see if I bought this on one of those credit cards that automatically extends wty - Siemens does not want anything to do with it - their 800# support only helps their newest prey - the tech I reached on their toll # only said the phone was shot and bring it to a service center. Collectively people have lost a lot of money to this company. I for one will not buy any Siemens product again - ever.

I researched what was available at the time and settled on the Siemens 8825 and added 3 handsets for a total of 4.

1) Setup was quite simple after reading the manual, though I would of layed it out differently, but that's just my opinion.
2) I have never had any problems with the base or handsets since I purchased them.
3) The separate voice mailboxes worked great for me. I use it for my business and home phone. It intergrates well with the phone companies features. (mail, etc.)
4) I have not experienced any problems with my wireless network that operates on the same 2.4 GHz.

The only complaint I have is occasionally I will hear a clicking sound in the handset when talking on the phone. This is usually caused by outside interference such as a microwave.

Overall it has done a good job and been very reliable. I would definitely reccommend the Gigaset 8825.

After purchasing this phone from Amazon.com, I absolutely could not wait to use the phone system. It read in the description like the 2.4 GHz phone of my dreams with its small size, two lines, hidden antenna, answering machine, advanced caller ID, and directory features that appeared to be similar to my cellular phone.
Yet in reality, it's horrible because Siemens took a phone that could have been easy to use and made it absolutely as hard as possible.
The command and menu system on every phone is arduous and almost nothing can be done at a touch of a button. When you pick up a phone line, it automatically defaults with a preference to one line or another (meaning I can't select to use line one instead of line two without digging through menus). The phone defaults to disallow call barging -- great if you want privacy on the Siemens system, but horrible if you want to have two people talking on one line. The list goes on and on, but can best summarized by saying it will the least simple phone you have ever owned.
I can program my VCR, I can program my ReplayTV, and I have a computer navigation system in my car. I can absolutely tell you that this is the most difficult phone system I have ever seen implemented in a "home / home office" two-line unit.
The speakerphone on the handset works fine, but there's no mute button on the base. That means if you're on hold using the speakerphone your every word (or background noise) is broadcast. Siemens thought out this phone very, very poorly.
So if you read about the phone and you're excited -- you're right -- it's a great phone on paper. After spending nearly a month with it as a highly motivated buyer I can tell you that it's a horrible phone in reality and I'll revert back to 900 MHz before keeping it.