Decent phone

Author's Rating:

Pros: Cheap | Good signal clarity | Caller ID built-in

Cons: Rough volume control | Battery had to be replaced once, but worked fine afterwards.

The Bottom Line: 
For the price, it's a great phone that just works.

Author's Review
I actually forget when I got this phone, but I remember paying about $35 for it. If I had to name a time, I'd say it's been a couple of years. Since I bought it, it's been working great.

Why did I get this phone?
The reason I bought originally this phone is because we needed a replacement phone for our kitchen, our last cordless died on us, and we could really use a kitchen phone because we eventually got tired of running out to the living room every time we got a call.

What came in the box?
I can't remember that well, but if I recall, it had...

- The phone
- Base station
- Power cord
- Phone cord
- Manual

No big surprises in the box as far as phones go.

The things I like...
There are quite a few things I like about this phone. One is that the base station doesn't take up much space at all, which is nice because there isn't always a lot of room to spare. (The phone is in our computer room now). It has a good shape and weight to it, easy enough to hold. The buttons don't feel too cheap. Overall, it feels pretty solidly built for being made of almost all plastic. The built in Caller ID is nice, since I don't have to hook up an external unit to the phone. The ringer switch is easy enough to get to, which I like, because sometimes we get so many calls that we just want to shut the ringer off.

Now, as far as calls go, the phone does that just fine. Usually, the signal has usually been pretty clear and static free. There have been a few times of where there was a bit of static, but it doesn't happen often enough to bother me. I never stray too far from the base station, so I can't say how well the range is, but it seems to work just fine for me roaming about the house during a call. The phone has a 10 number memory, and can redial previous received calls if you bring the number up on the Caller ID and hit "Talk/Callback", which I think is nice feature. (Obviously, you have to be signed up for the service though.)

The things I hate...
To tell you the truth, there isn't much I have to gripe about with this phone. The only problem I've really had with it is that I've had to replace the battery in it, after the first died. I found out that RadioShack had the right replacement for $11.49 (#23-298). Once I replaced it, I gave it a few cycles to break it in. It's been working great since. If I had to name one other thing, it's that the volume control is a tad rough, only four steps. Sometimes one is too loud, and the one below it is too quiet, but normally it isn't much of an issue. Then again, some phones have no volume control at all, so it's better than nothing.

Overall...
It's an alright phone for $35. Can't find much to really say against it, except for the fact the battery had to be replaced once. It does the job just fine for a cheap cordless.