Panasonic KX-TCD 517E DECT Digital Cordless Telephone With Answer Machine - Twin Pack

This was a replacement for our primary domestic corded phone.

What do you get?

Two handsets, a main base unit, a second base unit, two transformers, two belt clips, one telephone cable and four rechargable AAA batteries.

The initial setup.

Couldn’t be easier. Install the batteries in the handsets. At appropriate locations connect the base units to the mains with the transformers. Leave for 30 minutes to let the batteries gain some charge and then connect the main base unit to the telephone wall socket with the telephone cable. The phones now work and you dont’t need to refer to the instructions to make that first call.

The manual.

Easy enough to follow for the technically disinclined but since the phones work more or less out of the box you can do as much, or as little, additional setup as you want and as your confidence grows you can of course explore the more obscure menu driven functions. There are enough fun and obscure features to keep the more technically minded amongst us amused for serveral hours. (You will need to enable caller id before you can use all the features)

Using the phone.

The design, feel, functions, range, display and sound quality are all as you would expect from a unit of this price. Feature access is simple and intuitive.

Why choose this phone.

For me it was being able to clip the phone to my belt and use a headset for those long conference calls.
The ability to sync the address book between handsets and the base unit. (Handset to base unit is on page 25, handset to handset is on page 67 of the manual)
The built in speaker phones that let you listen to those infuriating customer service menu options and make selections at the same time.
Remote access to all answer phone functions from any touch tone phone.
Conference calling with the built in speaker phone.

Conference calling using the handsets.

I also liked the use of standard AAA rechargeable batteries (NiMH, 700mAh capacity, cheap and easy to replace) and the Page function which lasts for 60 seconds and gives you a sporting chance of tracking down a handset thats gone AWOL.

Unlikely to be used (by me) but interesting functions are call recording at the double press of a button, walkie talkie between handsets with a range of 300 meters, intercom between handsets (not really sure what differentiates intercom and walkie talkie) and memo alarm (read alarm clock or egg timer).

And so far I’ve resisted the temptation to configure the phone to flash red and play Symphony No 5 in C minor when the mother-in-law calls. (Reasonably safe of course because she should never be here to hear it!)

Problems

I keep confusing the OK button with the Go Back button. (Old dogs and new tricks)

Battery life is fine, we exercise the batteries by not leaving the phone on the charger, and we get a week on a charge; the address book works, the display's fine, Caller ID works, hands-free speakerphone mode works, range is excellent, certainly all around our garden is fine.

There are a few small niggles.

As others have noted, the volume is probably the biggest bugbear. We're forty-year-olds with OK hearing, and on full volume it's just loud enough. I would not recommend this phone to anyone who needs (either because of hearing loss or because of a noisy environment) a loud phone. Hands-free is fine, it's just the ear-speaker that has the problem.

The address book is probably the other main annoyance. It works fine, but the data is held in the phone, not the base station, so sync'ing is a pain. There's a function to let you transfer all the numbers from one phone to the other - yippee - but it does *exactly* that - transfers all the numbers, even the ones that are already there! So then you get duplicates (or worse) in the second phone, and have to delete them all by hand. Sigh. How hard would it have been to get this right?

Now BT provide Caller ID for free, the ability of the phone to (a) let you know who's calling and (b) store incoming numbers in the address book, is really handy.

Getting started is easy and the well illustrated operating instructions manual is almost 100 pages long (all English) and is simple enough to follow. Anyone used to navigating their way around a mobile phone, video recorder or digital watch should have no problems understanding this phone. Most of it is pretty intuitive and you should be able to get up and running without resorting to the manual which is only really required for the more advanced and less used features.

Battery life is very good. The technical specifications quote 120 hours in standby mode but I managed to get 188 hours on my first 7 hour charge. Although it's not possible to overcharge the batteries (according to the manual) it is nevertheless recommended that to maximise the life of the batteries you should only charge them when the low power indicator starts flashing (from this point it takes 7 hours to recharge - the indicator light at the top left corner of the handset will change from red to green when fully charged). Because of this I rarely place the phones in their cradles and tend to leave them on the coffee table and desk like a remote control. Even when the main handset was placed inside a cupboard it was still able to receive incoming calls and to store them on the answering machine.

One thing I have noticed and agree with another reviewer on is that the volume on the second hand set is too low even when set on maximum which is rather disappointing considering the price. I think that Panasonic need to tweak this a bit. Thankfully the built-in answer phone speaker in each handset is much louder and can be used for hands free calls.

There have been some concerns from others regarding the phone's compatibility with coexisting on an ADSL broadband connection and indeed this did cause me to pause before placing an order. All I can say based on my own experience is that I have encountered no problems whatsoever. My Broadband connection is with BT Yahoo and I use the ADSL microfilters supplied with the welcome kit.

Phone numbers entered into the phone's 200 number address book are not automatically copied to the second handset. However, it is possible to copy either the full address book or just one contact from one phone to another whilst in intercom mode. This then gives you the best of both worlds: individual address books if phones are used for different members of the family or duplicate address books if you just plan to have one downstairs and one upstairs.

For those who like to play around with ring tones this phone offers 15 polyphonic choices ranging from various bells to music excerpts. They are all clear enough but I'm quite content with the default setting ( I have a pet hate for mobile ringtones).

As always with Amazon the whole ordering/delivery experience was quick and painless. From ordering to receiving took 4 days (and this was just after Christmas) with delivery to my place of work by Securicor Omega. If only all Internet companies were this slick.

In summing up I would have to say that this is an excellent phone in every respect (except volume on handset 2) and that the feature set offers just about everything you could usefully want (minus gimmicks like wallpaper or games). Some of the features on offer do require you to subscribe to caller ID but Panasonic provide you with a free 3 month subscription to try out the service. Okay the phone is not the cheapest but like most things in this world you get what you pay for. If you think you have a need for the features it offers then you might like to consider placing this phone on your short list.