Uniden CellLink ELBT595 5.8 GHz Digital Expandable Cordless Flip Phone with Color LCD, Answering System, and Bluetooth Capability (Titanium) | List Price: $349.99
Discount Price: $99.85
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Brand: Uniden
Binding: Electronics
Features: - 5.8 GHz digital signal; expandable up to 10 handsets, 1 included
- Digital answering machine, 15-minute maximum recording time
- Bluetooth enabled for wireless headsets and compatible mobile handsets
- Recordable ringtones; full-color LCD on handset
- Caller ID/call waiting; dual keypads, base and handset speakerphones
Great Features, Horrible Design [Posted on 2008-01-18]
I bought this phone because of the Bluetooth link. What a great feature. My wife likes to keep her cell phone in her purse, and this way when her cell phone rings, she can answer it on the landline phone without ever taking it out of her purse. It also accepts Bluetooth headsets, which makes handsfree use a breeze. It allows the user to select different ringtones for different incoming callers, so you will know who is calling without even looking at the Caller ID display. In short, this phone has a wonderful list of features and was great while it worked.
HOWEVER . . . the design of this phone is just horrible. It's a clamshell, flip phone style, but it's obvious Uniden didn't do the kind of testing necessary to ensure the stability of the hinge. From the start, it just felt cheap and flimsy. It didn't have the solid feel like a flip cell phone. After about six months of use, the hinge started to fall apart and the handset was completely destroyed after a year. In addition to the cheap feel and poor design, there were a couple of quirks with the software as well. First, the Bluetooth would lose it's link to the cell phone or the headset on regular basis, rendering the phone useless until you rebooted the cell phone. Also, it has a 100-number memory and allows you to store names and numbers, but when someone from your phone book calls, the Caller ID does not show what you have entered for that number, but simply shows what the traditional Caller ID display would show. I have a Sony cordless phone that had this feature mastered at least five years ago, but Uniden didn't get this simple feature right.
In short, if Uniden would put this feature set on a phone with no moving parts (the flip hinge) and would fix the few kinks in the software, it would be an ideal phone, but unfortunately, the shortcomings outweigh the positives. You would think that Uniden would offer a replacement candy-bar style handset to fit the base and keep the feature set. But since they don't, I simply can't recommend this phone.
Product breaks after 1 year [Posted on 2008-02-13]
I bought the ELBT 595 just over a year ago. Worked fine until a few days ago when the handset earpiece went dead. Uniden customer service told me that the handset speaker must have went out. The product is 3 months past warranty so they wouldn't do anything for me, except suggest I buy a new handset for $100! An expensive phone that lasted just over a year.
Avoid this one [Posted on 2008-02-22]
I've had this phone for about a year now. While the CellLink sounds cool (and does work ok), the phone system itself is not up to par.
The handsets feel cheaply made, and just done feel "right" in my hand. Battery life in standby and talk time is very short for my expectations - I always need to ensure the phones are in their cradles charging.
Controls/UI are ok - but some options (speakerphone mute on the base station and speaker volume on base station for example) are UI menu items and not buttons. The full keypad for the base station is nice.
Sound is awful on both ends of a conversation during landline operations. I find myself using my cell phone (without CellLink) more often than not. Range on the handsets isn't on par with previous phones I've had.
As soon as the new Panasonic DECT 6.0 line is out, I'll be replacing this system.
Even survived the washing machine [Posted on 2008-04-11]
This system is one of the more stable phone systems I have owned. I am able to easily get a day's worth of conference calls (5+ hours) with out recharging. Pairing to my blue tooth enabled phone is easy and works as advertised. Does not interfere with any of my electronics including WiFi.
The handset seems solid to me however the buttons are a bit flimsy. The biggest test was when I ran the handset through the washing machine by accident. After pulling the battery and letting it dry throughly, I re-installed the battery and it continued to work.
The biggest current issue is the cost for additional handsets seem high in this day and age.
Bluetooth Land line/Mobile line and a Cell Phone??? [Posted on 2008-06-26]
This may be a naive statement and or thought but: You've got your land line/Mobile line that can link with your cell phone. If Bluetooth and CellLink can access your cell account (keeping in mind that it's bouncing around out there in the wild blue yonder and bouncing off cell towers and your cell phone) why can't these phones (Uniden CellLink ELBT595) use the bluetooth/link-up technology and latch on to your cell account via the tower? When you link up to your cell phone with this ELBT595 it's still has to bounce a tower for account info and so on, does it not?
Maybe all info is in your cell phone but it does access a tower and transfers data.
Can anyone say "Bluetooth in the sky/tower databases?"
Why can't we use this phone as a land line then grab one of the phones and walk out the door, switching to a mobile line........ and presto chango.. You need only one phone for home and travel.
I have this phone and an extra handset. So far, so good. I like it a lot. I did not need a camera, pda, music, etc., on this phone, so it's great. But, I never seem to read anyone griping about having to use a land line and a cell.
They've combined so much technology in these new cell phones, would it really be so hard to take an extra step with the ELBT595 and allow the phone (while in mobile mode) to access a cell phone account without owning a cell phone(with bluetooth)?
Simplicity is such a wonder to me these days and often I feel technologically challenged.
Of course, I'll be a dork too, if someone replies to this, informing me that it is already being done. But... I shall save judgement on myself. I'm sure someone can and will fill in the blanks for me.
Tell me that someone else has the same q's....
Dawn
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