Magicbox Colombo 212024 Single Dect Cordless Telephone - Coral

I read the other reviews before I bought this phone and I was almost put off, which would have been a shame because its great. It has been described as 'plasticy' well it is made of plastic but its quite nice plastic and its very light weight even with the batteries. I'm told its also very comfortable against your ear for long periods, how long I haven't been told just yet. This could depend on the shape of your ear of course.

It comes with two AAA NIMH 550 mah Rechargeable batteries, which I swapped for 1000 mah batteries because it can't hurt to have a little more power. Using these batteries instead of a built in battery is a great idea because when they finally fail I won't either be searching the web for some obscure replacement or chucking the phone away. Oh and buy a set of AAA batteries (highest mah you can find and preferably branded) and charge them in advance otherwise you will have to wait 24 hours for the batteries to charge before you can use it. (I hate that.)

Another review suggests that it's a different colour to the picture, well I can testify that it's a kind of bright orange, you can call it 'coral' if you wish, and it looks exactly like the picture, at least mine does.

The display is clear and bright and makes a nice change from the usual LCD. The menu system is pretty simple we had no problems setting it up without looking at the manual. The answer phone just worked without us doing anything, no doubt there are settings for this, I'll have a look if I can be bothered. It flashes a little light when its got a message. You can't see this light in the pictures, its on the base not the phone, it's at the bottom and is long and slim. It appears to be amber/yellow most of the time but flashes red if you have a message.

Range seems ok, I went to the end of our garden the display DIDN'T flash as mentioned in another review, (could be something to do with the batteries??) the signal remained full I could hear and be heard normally. Our garden is about 15 meters long (ish).

I'm happy with it and my wife loves it, which is a very important consideration. It looks much better than the black or silver stick shaped ones that seem to be the norm, and is a vast improvement on our last, 'plasticy', off white, wired phone.

I think that covers everything, I rated it 4 out of 5 stars, it lost the 5th star because the supplied batteries were low power and look a bit naff, I'm sure the DVD remote control won't mind them. Oh and the buttons are really nice and positive.

Original review - Funky looking cordless phone that works well, with clear sound on/off speaker phone. Menu functions take a little getting used to. Display is very cool, but blinks a bit when off hook and away from base. Good answerphone function within the small, well costed package.

Revision - Phone broke down a few months after 12 month warranty had expired, due to internal circuitry on base station. Repairs effected by service centre at cost of £15. Rather disappointing for this to happen to a relatively new device. Have reduced rating from 5 star to 3 star as a result.

I bought this stylish looking phone a couple of months ago. It is very 'plasticky' looking and doesn't live up to the photos I promise you! Yes I was swayed by its apparent good-looks but the reality is it's a cheap phone and I've had nothing but problems with it. It's tempremental - most of the time it doesn't even ring! The answer machine doesn't kick in amongst other complaints. I'm sending mine back!