Practical Communication from General Electric

Author's Rating:

Pros: Caller ID; LCD display; Handset is light

Cons: Some buttons have worn out; Beeping when messages are waiting

The Bottom Line: 
This is a good phone for the price. It doesn't offer as many features as newer phones, but it gives you what you need and the price is low.

Author's Review
Like most households, mine contains multiple phones. There are a total of six phone jacks in my house and three of them have telephones attached. The phone that occupies my living room and gets the most use is my General Electric model 26938GE1, a moderately priced phone that helps you screen calls before you communicate. Let’s take a closer look at what you can do with this telephone:

Features of This Phone:

This cordless phone has 900 Megahertz of power with a liquid crystal display that offers caller id so you know who is calling before you answer the phone. Besides the numbered keys, there is a redial button, channel button, hold, volume, mute, and caller ID review- a memory feature that stores the last twenty calls in memory.

GE equips this phone with a strap and headset, to make operation hands- free. There is also a speakerphone on the base and a red light that indicates when you have a message waiting. The handset doesn’t have a light to indicate a message. Instead, the LCD display will tell you there is a message to listen to. If there is no message waiting, the display will say “ready”.

The handset is powered by a rechargeable nickel cadmium battery pack that is good for a few years. The phone base itself needs to be plugged into an electrical outlet and it has a large, square block adapter at the end.

Pricing:

This phone is priced in the moderate range, costing about $40 at most locations. I paid a little more for it when I bought it, but with all the new models coming out and the improved technology available, this model is becoming obsolete. This is helping to drive the price lower and lower.

Final Thoughts:

Telephones exist in practically every home in America with most families owning two or more communication devices. In spite of the popularity of cell phones, most of us still have two or more phones in different locations in our homes. I have three phones, and the one I have owned for the greatest amount of time is my GE26938GE1.

One of the main reasons I purchased this cordless phone many years ago was because of its caller id feature. I started to get tired of receiving phone calls from solicitors and I decided that a phone with caller ID would really help eliminate this annoyance. I quickly discovered how valuable caller ID can be and this feature alone has made the purchase worthwhile. If a salesperson calls me, I know because the LCD display will say “unknown caller” or “unavailable”. This has saved me lots of valuable time by helping to avoid these menacing calls.

One thing about this phone that I sometimes wish I could change is the beeping that occurs when there is a message waiting. When you press the “talk” button to place a call, the phone will beep about ten times before you get a dial tone, indicating you have unplayed messages. The beeping doesn’t sound like a busy signal. Instead, it is like an interrupted dial tone and you have to wait for the beeping to stop before you can place a call. If there are no messages in the voice mail box, you won’t get the beeps. I wish there was a way to turn this feature off because I find it annoying. It probably depends on your particular voice- mail service. Besides, I already know when there is a message waiting because it says so on the LCD display.

After so many years of use, certain buttons are not working well anymore. The number one key needs a good, firm push in order for it to register. The other keys work ok. I assume that the reason the number one key has worn out faster than the others is because it is pressed most frequently. It still works, but it takes a solid push.

I have had to replace the battery pack on this phone one time in four years, which is fairly common for this type of phone. Once charged, the cordless handset can be used for about one and one- half hours. The phone will beep at you if the charge is low and the power is close to failing. This only happens on rare occasions, since the charge is good for about ninety minutes. I normally avoid lengthy phone calls, so I rarely have problems with the phone losing its charge.

The square block adapter on the end of the cord means that you might have to rearrange your cords in order to plug it in. Since the adapter takes up space, it has to be plugged in at the bottom of a standard, double- receptacle outlet. If it is plugged in on the top, the adapter will block the outlet below. This usually isn’t a problem, and it’s common for phones to have this type of adapter. But it could mean having to rearrange your electrical cords and, in some instances, you might have to buy an extension cord if you have multiple cords like this one that need to be plugged into the same outlet.

If you use call waiting, the phone will beep at you, just like any other phone. But to switch to the other call, you must press the “flash” button. This could take some getting used to for certain users. On other phones, you can switch back and forth between calls by pressing the talk button. That isn’t how it works on this model. If you press the talk button on this phone, you will hang up on your present caller and you will not be able to answer the other call trying to come in. I accidentally pressed the talk button many times when I first starting using this phone. It took some time to get accustomed to using the flash button.

General Electric is one of the foremost names in electronics and appliances. From my experience, I have found GE products to be good and mostly reliable products that are easy to find, easy to service, and generally lower in price than other manufacturers. This telephone is typical in that respect. It isn’t the greatest phone on the market and with the improvements in technology it has actually become a little outdated. It has had a few problems (like the number one key wearing out) since I first purchased it, but overall, it has proven to be a good phone for the price. I’m not too picky about telephones and I’m not the type who would spend $75 or more for a fancy device with all the latest features- half of which I know I will never use. This telephone has proven to be a good purchase because it gives me what I want in a telephone (caller ID, memory that shows the phone numbers of recent callers, etc.) without costing an arm and a leg. This makes the GE 26938GE1 a very practical phone and a good model to consider. It’s sophisticated enough to satisfy most consumer needs, yet simple enough that it doesn’t require constant reading of an owner’s manual to understand.