Picture all these scenarios .........


Scenario 1:
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You are sat down, well as ladies do, in that little room and the damm phone rings, rushing to pull you knickers up just as you realise you have forgotten to do something when you notice what it was by the dribbles down your leg!

Scenario 2:
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You have had a hard day, what ever it is doing, so you decide that a nice relaxing bath will help you relieve all the tension from your body. As you lay there, the warm bubbled filled, lightly scented water, swirls around you body, you are deeply relaxed, you don't want to move but you have to, to wash your hair. So you sit up after giving your hair a nice long soaking, gently squeeze some nice fragranced shampoo on, you give it a good lather up, just about to rinse it off, when suddenly the phone rings again! So quickly you get up and try to rinse the suds away, when ouch!!*!*, the suds have gone just where all the warnings on bottles tell you to avoid contact in!

Scenario 3:
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The kids have come home from school, they have had a play around, and used up all their energy and now they decide to tell you they are hungry. So out pops the food, in the oven it goes, then you put the chips on (kids love these for some reason, perhaps they just love food that not good for them). You have a quick browse of the TV guide and the go and check on the chips, oh good you think, nearly done, that should keep the kids quiet for 5 minutes, then the phone rings. In a rush you go to answer the phone, it's your long lost auntie Bloomer, you remember the aunt that like to keep chatting and chatting away, then the smell of overcooked chips fill the living room. In a quick panic, you have to cut the conversation short and go investigate the damage. The chips are ruined and you have to start dinner all over again, to make matters worse the kids are moaning, all they are interested in is their tummy,
when its going to get filled.


Ok, so the scenarios do sound a little far fetched but trust me, I have had similar happen to me, many, many times.

Don?t you just wish that you had a cordless phone, one where you can have beside you or in your pocket, what ever room you are in or what ever you are busy doing, at times?


I did, and now I have one, and it is a total godsend.

Well with Christmas being the usual, leave everything until the last minute and needing to browse our Empire catalogue, we spotted one, not that we were looking, it just caught our attention as we were flicking through to the toy section and as it was so competitively priced we decided to add it to our perspective order, well at just £30 from a home catalogue, who wouldn't?


About the phone
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The whole phone is quite small compared to many cordless phones or normal telephones. The design is pretty well thought out (provided small children don?t take an interest in the antennas), stylish looking and comes in a choice of 4 colours, white, navy, silver/black or like the one we have silver. It can if you want, be wall mounted or like we have sitting on the side. It comes with it's own power adapter that is pretty long, so it should be able to reach most phone sockets that have a power point fairly close.

Features
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8-Channels: When I say 8 channels, you have the option that if during a call you started to get any kind of interference that causes problems with the call, you can press a button to change the channel, this will auto select the channel for the best reception.

Volume: If like me you have trouble sometimes to hear what the other person is saying to you on the other end of the line, maybe because the line is a bit quiet, or they are not talking loud enough, this feature allows you to tog
gle between high and low volume.

Memory: With the Binatone Icarus 8 you can store up to 10 numbers of your choice. It is so simple to do too, just 4 steps and then the number is stored on your phone ready for when you need to use it. In order to dial one of the numbers stored is even easier, and within 3 presses of the buttons your call will be dialling. The only problem you may have with this is remembering who?s number is stored where, well you have a 1 in 10 chance of being right :o}.

Ringer: At the side of the phone there is a switch that you can slide upwards or downwards to select the ringer volume, either high or low.

Ring tones: You can set the phone to ring 1 of the 9 ring tones available, with the press of a button; the selection is then chosen with the numbers on the key pad. I must admit, I am a big kid at heart, I think the majority are, so me being me decided to have a play around with this feature. Upon going through the choices, I found that a few were pretty close in similarity to each other but overall it did have a couple of interesting ring tones.

Secrecy: A pretty standard feature that comes with most phones, that allows you to mute the microphone so the other person on the end on the line doesn't hear what you don't want them to hear.

Battery indicator: When your handset is switched on, there will be a green light that will appear, if the light keeps flashing slowly than this will mean that the battery is low and will need to be placed back into the base for charging. This is also a phone in use light; if the light is on permanently, or to let you know you have an incoming call by it flashing rapidly.

Recall: Another standard feature on most phones that are out, it is mainly intended for those whose phone is connected to a PBX or to use in conjunction with BT's select services, how this works I would have to be honest and say that I am not sure.

Handset locator: On the
base unit there is a fairly sized button, if for any reason you have misplaced the handset, simply press this button and it will activate a tone on the handset, this will keep sounding the tone until you locate the handset and press the telephone button. This does come in handy and it is a feature I like, but with our son being a little curious and button happy he has pressed it on a few occasions, making us think that the phone is ringing and then looking like a right idiot saying, 'hello is there anyone there?'.


Other stuff and all that
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If you do have decide to get this phone you will find that it will work even better and you can get the most out of it, if you position it fair high up, also to keep it away from most electrical appliances, as it works using radio waves so some things may cause a bit of interference.

On both the base unit and on the handset you will find telescopic antennas, the one on the base unit is best fully extended for better reception, ours is half way due to our 2 year old, best not draw his attention to it, we find that despite the antenna is not fully extended the reception is fine.

Safety note
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As this phone will only work with a phone line and power point, it will need electric to run it, in this case you will also need a normal plug in phone that doesn't need power to run it, in the event of needing to make an emergency call during a power cut or running out of 50p to put in the meter.

Also, water and power does not mix too well, so it is best not to use the hand set outside during wet weather.

Overall
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I am impressed, so many features and such a little unit when complete or otherwise. The price is very reasonable and competitive, but then all the Binatone products on the market that I have come across have always given value for your hard earned cash. Yes it may not be a top of the range phone, with
all these wonderful gizmos incorporated in it, but does serve its purpose, it does look stylish and it is at a realistic price for anyone's budget. The only thing that does let it down, is the antennas, the fact that the one on the base unit can become damaged if little hands mess about with it, but if it is well looked after and kept out the reach of small children then you should have a phone where reception quality is always there.

Very impressive!!