Gigaset C595 Twin DECT Telephone

Had the phones for about a week and am really pleased.

Agree with all the other posts on here. The glossy finish looks great in the pictures but in reality soon gets covered with greasy fingermarks, but I'll live with that.

I like the colour display (especially in dark colour mode).
I like the way that you can easily operate the answer machine from the handset.
I like the way you can change the ringtone for some callers so you know if particular people are calling.
I like the fact that the sound quality and range is excellent.
I like the "baby alarm" function" although suspect I'll never use it...
I like the fact it can send & receive texts - althogh because it has no predictive text funtion, I'll not use that either, I'll just pick up my mobile even though that costs 2p more to send a text...
I like the way you can copy an address book entry from on phone to another - but its a shame they don't properly "sync" without you copying entries individually.

I'm not sure about the glossy handset cover - as it just gets covered in fingerprints.
I'm not sure about battery life yet - maybe its just the new batteries taking time to bed in, but quoted 10 day standby time is realistically three or four in normal usage.
Its a shame that the base unit doesn't have the same range of ringtones as the handset - so unless you use one of the few that are in the base station, you can't have all the devices making the same sound... (I've turned the base station ring tone off because of this...)

Overall though - really pleased with this phone.....

We bought this item because we thought that our previous phone set, a Panasonic version, had started malfunctioning, it took us a while to realise that the fault lay with our provider, but once the fault was fixed it was the Siemens system that we kept on using whilst our other phones went to ebay heaven, as these really are very good phones.

Setting up the phones when we got them was simple - out of the box you do have to charge them for about 10 hours, there is a quick start guide as well as a manual that I, personally, found very easy to follow. In my usage of the phones in a 5 bedroom house I've found the range to be more than adequate, and the line to be crystal clear. Once charged the battery life is in my experience more than plenty for domestic use.

One thing I like about these phones, once set up and something that is noticeably better than my previous panasonic phones, is that the power plug is very compact and the the power plugs themselves fit neatly into the phone.

Aesthetically these phones look very good I think - they are quite a glossy black and the screens (3.5 by about 3.8cm high by my measurements) are quite large for the size of the phone. The handsets sit comfortably in your hand and not too heavy,and though the buttons might seem fairly small to some, in actual fact because they are well made and you can feel that you are pushing them, (they depress slightly) they are easy to use.

Where this phone excels is in the ease of use of the answering machine and indeed the handsets themselves. Overall the menus are intuitive to use and you will find that you can soon cover the basics and even attempt some of the more enhanced features, the manual makes everything quite clear and a nokia mobile style pictorial menu on the handset is easy to follow. One criticism I do have of the menu is that one of the features I most use, the directory for names, can only be accessed by pushing the navigator button on the top of the keyboard down, rather than via the main menu. Seeing as the main menu contains sms messages, something that in my experience if you have a mobile you are not likely to use on a landline, this seems a rather strange menu design. I do find that I can access the directory and add names (up to 150) and indeed search it easily, it wasn't intuitive to do so at first. You can search by scrolling through the names or by typing in the first few letters of a name, this works well.

Making calls once you have pressed the ubiquitous green phone button is easy, and what's more you can transfer stored names and numbers between the handsets, and allocate a different ringtone to each handset and, indeed a different volume. This is handy when, eg, placing a set near a child's bedroom or in a quieter area of the house. The choice of ring tones is more than adequate, amongst the 9 polyphonic choices and 7 melodies I have been able to find one that pleases, you can also set the phone to ring with a different ring tone for different people calling.

Apart from features such as the ones I have described there are a range of other options, some of which are useful (caller id and last call list) and some of which in all honesty you probably are not going to use. You have the option of setting a handset to work as a noise monitor, to ring another handset if the noise level increases in the room - presumably in case you want to pop to the neighbour's or down the garden and leave a child. I can't say this is a function I personally would use, but other features such as the hands-free option and the volume control are more useful and easy to access. Other functions in the realms of "why?" are the anniversary reminder - you can get the phone to call you to remind you of a birthday, which seems a bit pointless.

I find this phone works really well, the clarity of the line is excellent, and once I have finished my call, the phone fits neatly into the cradle and makes a tone to tell you it has been replaced. This is a simple thing, but again a big improvement on my previous phones which somehow didn't slide into their dock so easily or sit as snugly. Overall these phones, bar the strange way of accessing the directory I have already mentioned, seem well designed and with the user in mind. Sure some of the features are superfluous in my opinion, but in general most people would be able to plug in one or more of these phones (registering additional handsets to the base is easy) and would be up and running and able to use it for its main functions of calling and using the answer machine, setting it to answer after one or a few rings, and able to make the phone do what you need a phone to do with relative ease.

I definitely recommend this siemens gigaset to my panasonic set. For anyone looking for a mid-priced phone for domestic use and wanting the convenience of a cordless phone it is a good choice.

(previously appears elsewhere in my name)

My old phone was obviously starting to fail so I began the search for a new one. I came across a company called Ligo. You can order direct or via Amazon. There are so many phones on the market that I decided to ask for some help by ringing Ligo. The sales assistant was very helpful and also obviously knew what he was talking about. I asked for a recommendation and he suggested the Gigaset C495. So I did some research on this phone via Amazon, only to find that there is a newer version the C595. Another call to Ligo where I found that this newer version is mostly the same phone as the C495 but with a different base.

So I ordered it via Amazon who pass the order on to Ligo anyway. This was on the Friday of the August bank holiday weekend so I did not expect to see anything until at least the following Friday. In the event it arrived on the Wednesday. Excellent. I spend some time going through the very helpful instruction booklet and then set it up. Easy. Everything worked as expected. Of course once I started using it I found some areas which were not set up as I liked. However, this phone is very easy to customise and I now have it working exactly as I like it.

Some other reviews have suggested that the handset is a bit flimsy. I have not found this at all, I find it just right, strong enough without being too heavy or cumbersome. My wife says that the buttons are a little bit small, but that is the price to pay for having a much bigger screen compared to the old phone. I have no trouble with the keys at all.

I like the instruction booklet. The great range of choices of layout etc. The fact that the answer phone can be used via the handset and not just on the base. And, with all the extra facilities and choices it cost just two pounds more than my previous phone which I bought in January 2007. All in all I would recommend this phone to anyone looking for a new cordless phone. Hope this is helpful.

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As a follow up :- I have another phone on an extension line upstairs. Recently some one rang us (both phones rang of course) and I happened to be upstairs so I answered the call there. This was the first time I had done that since setting up the C595. To my surprise the C595 phone downstairs continued to ring until the message for the answer phone kicked in. Later I had to clear a missed call message on the C595. I have checked with Ligo and with Siemens (Gigaset) and they both tell me that the C595 will not recognise that the call has been answered from the other phone. So it does not matter which phone I use to *make* a call but there will be a problem if I *answer* a call on the non Gigaset phone.

Of course, if I replace the upstairs phone with another Gigaset phone then it will all work as it should!! Just thought this would be useful information for anyone who has two or more phones on the same number, via extension lines.

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