digital phone

Overall Rating: ( 19 reviews )

1. Posted: Aug 15 2008

   Replaced an old Vtech with this phone, after trying a new Vtech LS-6125-2 two handset system (horrible battery life, being returned). The E450 appears to have at least three times the battery life of the 6125. I have had none of the problems mentioned in the other reviews of the E450. The keys have accepted every press when I am dialing, and I dial fast. The **display** does not update as quickly as the phone will let you dial, but it does actually dial the number as quickly as you enter numbers. Battery life appears acceptable for a DECT 6.0 phone (they are said to have high power requirements). See below. Range from the base station and sound quality, both incoming and outgoing, are superb. Features are great. If you take the time to think through what you are reading in the manual, and play with the phone, it does everything you could want and more. Oh, and it DOES show caller ID with name. The Gigaset website and the manual seem to strongly imply that it does not, but it does. If you enter a number and name in the directory, it will display that name as well, after flashing the caller ID name and number first. It also has cell-phone-like battery level and signal strength indicators that appear to be quite accurate. Mine **did** set its own time and date from the phone company network while it was charging up during its initial 10 hour charge/learning cycle. It does not lose time, but it remains exactly 31 seconds behind National Institute of Standards time, which is probably due to my phone company, Embarq, supplying a time setting that is slightly behind NIST time. It does not update the time in the display when the display is off. Kind of quirky, but a very minor matter. When you turn the phone on, like by pressing the "Talk" key, it will quickly flash the time that it was last on. But it is keeping and will display the correct time, it just lags a second or so when you wake it up. Best of all, it is made in Germany, not China. I dislike buying Chinese goods for several reasons, and this phone, and its sisters, the S450 and S455 (and their extra handsets, the S45 and E45) are the only cordless phones I have found that are not made in China. Customer service was great to me the two times I called them. Much better than Vtech. There is actually someone there at Siemens, and they go out of their way to help you. The only possible negative that I can find is that it may, **may** not have the battery life that Siemens claims. However, it is still in its first full charge/discharge/learning cycle, and battery life can increase after a few cycles. Further the Siemens phones have a very sophisticated balanced charging system that monitors the battery. For what it is worth, the Vtech LS-6125-2 system that is going back to the store claimed about the same battery life as the E450, but the handsets for the 6125 were only good for 24 hours or less, even after several cycles and with low use. That was totally unacceptable. My E450 is at over 36 hours off of the charger now, on its first cycle, and medium to high use so far, and still showing that it is 2/3 full of charge. After a few cycles it should do well enough to be quite acceptable, but possibly not the full 160 hours standby or 12 hours of talk that Siemens claims. Still quite acceptable and far, FAR better than the Vtech 6125 handsets were. All in all, very happy with this phone.

2. Posted: Aug 8 2008

   We received the phone in great time. The phone is overall EXCELLENT. The only problem we had is that we received a deffective phone. It took approx. 10 tries to dial out. Then using the caller ID or phone book, you couldn't "quick dial" those numbers. Other than that, the RANGE of the phone was VERY impressive. I just wish we would've gotten a good phone to begin with.

3. Posted: Aug 4 2008

   Okay. I researched this phone extensively, because my Uniden system had started to "break-up" in certain rooms and around other electronics. So, I read the reviews, and I felt that the DECT technology was my next step. This is my opinion: PROS: 1. The phone is very consistent with not breaking up. 2. The speaker phone is awesome! 3. The backlight is always illuminated in the cradle. 4. There is a nice internal intercom system where you call from room to room using the phone. 5. When you scroll thru the recent calls, all you have to do is press "talk" and the phone adjusts to the area code the person was calling from (so it adds a 1 if necessary or deletes the area code if it is your home code) CONS: 1. Would you believe that in the year 2008, Siemens has a major glitch with the CALL WAITING feature on this phone? Call waiting most likely will not work when you take this phone out of the box. You will press every button and hang up on your friends by accident and you will not like it! There is a way (not easily) to find the "flash" portion in the menu, and if you sit down with another person and continually try out the various flash speeds offered, you may find one that works. I found ONE. So, now I am happy. But, it is a process, and when I wrote to the company, the informed me that they are aware of the problem and that this feature is not able to be used as of now in the US. I figured it out, and I am very glad I did, because I threw away the original boxes!! 2. Buttons don't press terrifically. There's almost like a delay in pressing. You sometimes need to press harder to activate. I am happy with the phone at this point. It's not the BEST system ever, but it's better than my previous system.

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Overall Rating: ( 18 reviews )

1. Posted: May 14 2008

   I've lived with this phone for 2 years, but have never loved it. From the start there were problems. Now it's no longer working and has to be replaced. Not a great lifespan, considering I paid $200 for the base station and extension handset. Here are the main problems with the phone: 1) Handsets go "out of range" unpredictably and drop the call, even when you're right next to the base station. 2) Battery life is unimpressive. The handsets go dead quick. 3) Sometimes I can't pick up a call. The phone will ring and I'll "answer" it on the handset, but nothing happens and the phone keeps ringing. It happens randomly and is very annoying. 4) The address book is poorly designed. You can't jump to names, but must manually scroll through your whole address book (scrolling is VERY SLOW). So if you have 50 names and you're looking for Zach, it's going to take you awhile. 5) Newer issues the phone has developed: No matter how many times I reprogram the clock to the correct time, it resets to a time about 6 hours off. No idea what the problem is. It affects the base station and all the handsets. I am really looking forward to throwing this phone in the garbage.

2. ( 1 of 1 found this review helpful ) Posted: Nov 10 2007

   I am very happy with this phone, it works well and I get great reception. But I ran into a big problem when I tried to expand my system. I went online to find another handset/charger. The cheapest I found was a factory refurbished unit for $130, new units run anywhere from $250 to $300. Yet I can buy a base unit and 2 handset/charger (Model #7091) for $125. Don't know if Motorola stopped making the handsets separately or not, but I am really confused by the pricing to the point where I am thinking of just getting a whole new system.

3. Posted: Nov 10 2007

   I am very happy with this phone, it works well and I get great reception. But I ran into a big problem when I tried to expand my system. I went online to find another handset/charger. The cheapest I found was a factory refurbished unit for $130, new units run anywhere from $250 to $300. Yet I can buy a base unit and 2 handset/charger (Model #7091) for $125. Don't know if Motorola stopped making the handsets separately or not, but I am really confused by the pricing to the point where I am thinking of just getting a whole new system.

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