We had bought this phone from Amazon, along with many others on the way. To compare, we tried: AT&T's TL9237 ~ $120, Uniden's ELBT595 ~ $70, and Motorola B802 ~$95.
This phone far exceeds those with more bang for your buck. It can connect up to 3 different bluetooth devices, but only 2 at a time can be active. It does a great job of downloading your phonebook from your cell, and can have your directory available on all handsets. When accessing the phonebook, you can choose which cell's directory to use, and can rename the cell phones that connect (i.e. Bob's Phone). I've had the phone for about 2 weeks, and have yet to have a dropped call, and bluetooth connection is outstanding. Very clear.
I have a Blackberry Pearl, and my wife has the Iphone. Both initially connected seamlessly and automatically connects to the phones upon entering the house. Two of the three other bluetooth cordless phones we tried had the issue: if you are on the cell phone when walking into the house it'll drop the call to connect to the base. Upon testing it with this product, there was a short moment of silence, but the call maintained connection with no problem. Excellent!
Each active device on the phones can have their own ringtone. This is very neat. One downfall of the phone is you have to set the ringer and ringer volume attributed to a connected device ON EACH HANDSET, and you can't change the ringer on the base (simple enough, turn the base ringer off). Although it was only 3 phones we had to do this to, it took less than 5 minutes and it was set and done, so not a huge deal.
Why it works for my uses... I simply wanted a bluetooth cordless phone that works. I don't need memo's (who uses those anyway?), fancy ringtones, headset jacks (this doesn't have them), or anything else. If you are simply looking to extend the talking capabilities of your cell phone to the rest of the house, then this phone is it. I can't comment on the answering machine because I don't use it. The max talking distance between handset and base is decent (when I tested it, it went through 3 walls, exterior wall, and traversed the length of my yard before a hint of static). The phone is very simple to use, and buttons are large (probably because there isn't any fancy shmancy crap on it). The handsets are lightweight, and pretty good quality (they look like they could survive a few drops). Batteries initially take about 16 hrs to charge, but man they can hold that charge. Great battery life. The speakerphone is pretty good too.
All in all, if you are simply looking for a phone to do a phones job for a lot less money, this is an excellent choice. Sorry for the essay... and major use of (). VTech DS6321-3 DECT 6.0 Digital Expandable Three Handset Bluetooth Cordless Phone System
We have had this phone for a few weeks now. When I first started researching Bluetooth phone systems, I was very disappointed in the reviews most phones received (not just on this site). Then I found and ordered this phone.
This phone was easy to set up and simple to use. The call quality is excellent with either a cell call or landline call (can't tell the difference). The phone quality is very good as well. It does exactly what we need:
- It pairs up to our cell phones as soon as we walk into the house (actually when we pull into the garage).
- If using Bluetooth headset when walking in the door, it pairs up after the headset is turned off.
- The distance between base and cell phone has exceeded the recommended 30 feet. My cell is usually in my purse stowed away in the closet. My husband's phone is in another room, on the other side of the refrigerator. We have yet to have a problem with pairing.
- We have yet to have a dropped cell call.
- It utilizes our phonebooks from our cell phones - probably the one of BEST features!!!
- No more having to add new numbers to a home phone directory.
- I no longer have to run upstairs or downstairs to answer cell call - The BEST feature!
- If you have a land line, you can talk on both the landline and a cell call on separate handsets at the same time.
- You can choose which ringtone is used for each cell phone and landline so that you know without looking if it is your phone that is ringing (must set this up on each handset; takes two minutes).
A couple of notes on setup:
- It took the recommended 16 hours to charge the batteries before setting it up.
- When downloading the phone books from each of our cell phones there were some numbers that were missed. To fix, I deleted and re-entered the numbers into our cell phones and re-downloaded - this fixed the problem. Having Verizon wireless helped with this task - I deleted the entries from my phone and then re-synched with my Verizon online address book (a free feature from Verizon when you create a "MyVerizon" account on the web).
- At first it seemed like too many steps to search a directory, but then I found that if I pressed the Up arrow on the middle disk it took me directly to the directories saving a few steps (duh - now that I look at it there is a picture of the directory right under the up arrow).
2 Features I wish this phone had; but all of the other features and the quality make them a barely a wish:
- Speed dial settings
- Different ringtones for different callers.
Overall the quality of the phone, the great features and ease of use make this phone a GREAT buy!
Update: 2/21/2010 - We have had one dropped cell call - ooops- Husband had cell phone in his pocket. His phone rang and he picked it up on the Vtech. While talking, he decided to go to the mailbox (with cell phone in pocket), the call didn't drop until he was about 70ft away from the base unit! Pretty decent range.
Had one Bluetooth lockout. My cell would connect, husband's would not. I simply "un-paired" my phone and his phone paired up then I paired mine and all has been great since.
Battery life on the handsets are wonderfull - can leave off the charging unit for at least a week.
Still very happy with this phone! - Cordless Phone - Vtech - Expandable Multi-handset - Dect Cordless Phone'
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