Vtech ia5847 - 5.8 GHz Two Handset Coredless Phone Sytem w/ Caller ID

List Price: $34.95 Discount Price: $19.88

Features:

• Caller ID / Call Waiting
• 20 Name & Number Phonebook directory
• Large Lighted Display
• Backlit Keypad
• Two Handset system requires only one phone jack

Accessories:

Home Phone Tunes HPT001 Ringboxx

Customer Reviews:

Vtech IA5847 cordless phone [Posted on 2008-03-26]
Phnes work very well, Somewhat hard to program numbers from incoming call list on caller ID. Good value for price.

Second phone that operates without phone line makes placement easier.

Vtech phone [Posted on 2008-03-28]
Retunred unit. One battery worked, one didn't and was having a hard time trying to replace the battery, which I shouldn't have had to do, decided I really didn't need it.

Impressive 5.8GHz dual handset system for the price. Keep your options open due to defects in some batches. [Posted on 2008-04-15]
For less than forty bucks, give or take ten, here's a dual handset 5.8 GHz cordless phone system with a good design, decent build quality, and does not look cheap!

You will find this phone set impressive for the price, provided yours is from a production batch that did not have the defects mentioned by some reviewers.

This system replaces our aging Panasonic 2.4 GHz cordless. The Panasonic had a short talk time (2.5 hours) and was very sensitive to interference from the microwave oven (it would garble the sound or drop calls when the microwave was on).

Seeking a 5.8GHz phone to overcome the interference problem, I decided to give the Vtech phone a try due to the nice design and backlit keypad. Although its feature set is limited, I liked the price and design of this phone. The keys are large and well lit, the display is large and clear, and the menu interface is easy to use.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the voice quality on this phone was a significant improvement over my old Panasonic. The sound is impressively clear, and there's no static or loss in quality when the microwave is running! The best part is I can be talking on the phone for five hours without having to recharge the battery.

I sometimes use an external Panasonic headset (with standard 2.5mm jack) when on long conference calls, and there are no issues with headset use. The voice quality is maintained even from as far as 40 feet from the base unit with two walls in-between.

Standard features, like phone directory, speed dial, call history, etc., are easy to use with this phone. I like the fact that the satellite base unit does not require a fixed phone line, giving you the freedom to install it anywhere where there's a power socket. You also have the ability to set separate ring tones on each phone and also turn the ringer off, if necessary.

That said, there are some features I would have liked to see which would have elevated this phone from being 'impressive' to 'great':
- The ability to conference both handsets on a call. (You can only transfer calls between handsets, and only one handset can be on the call at a time)
- The ability to cancel the button beep. (It can be annoying calling at night)
- A mute button
- Better (bolder) fonts in the display text
- The ability to change the contrast of the display text
- The ability to synchronize the missed call/caller ID lists between handsets. Currently the lists have to be cleared manually on both handsets, which is unnecessarily tedious.

CONCLUSION:
For the price this Vtech cordless system will not dissapoint for low to medium duty home use. However, if you are looking for a phone for heavy duty or office use, you should consider increasing your budget and buying a more advanced, robust phone.

So far both handsets have been working perfectly, but they've seen less than a week of use.

Other reviews indicate that the defect rate is high for this phone model and I am concerned about this. Therefore I recommend in-store purchase, where you can it return hassel free if defective, as opposed to on-line purchase.

So remember to save the packaging and your reciept. My gut feel, based on my experience with budget electronics in the past, is that if they pass the "three week test" they will probably work fine for the remainder of their useful life. (The useful life being two to three years, after which technology would have advanced anyway. So forty bucks spread over three years is a pretty good investment).

Based on my experience, I consider this cordless system to be 'impressive for the price' and recommend it. I will update this review if I encounter any issues with the phone.

SETTING THE RINGER VOLUME (in case you've discarded the manual):
The instrucations are in page 14. When the phone is not in use, press and hold either the up arrow ('^') or down arrow key ('v') for a couple of seconds and it brings up the screen to set the volume to low, high or off.

Serves its purpose [Posted on 2008-06-07]
This phone serves its purpose as a basic analog 5.8GHz cordless phone and is worth what you pay for it. The caller ID works as it should. The phone holds a charge for about a day and a half (not seven like stated in the manual) on standby. I don't remain on the phone long to measure continuous talk time. You should not expect stellar performance and features from a $35 cordless telephone set.

I didn't expect this phone to have rock solid reception. The phones suffer from static for no apparent reason, no matter what the distance from the base is. I wanted to write this "review" because I've experienced something I didn't expect to occur on a phone that uses the 5.8GHz frequency - crosstalk. It picked up a conversation between two individuals crystal clearly. I guess this is because it is ANALOG and doesn't have advanced signal encryption... None at all I guess.

I suggest anyone looking for a basic phone to pass on this one. The static becomes a bit of a nuisance and conversations may not be safe from signal eavesdropping. Vtech makes decent phones, but when they make CHEAP phones... they sure are cheap.

OK phones [Posted on 2008-06-26]
The phones work ok, but the wireless range seems to be less than the 5.8 ghz phones they replaced.

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