benniash phone home... (Binatone Icarus 8)

Member Name: benniash

Product:	Binatone Icarus 8
Date:	24/01/04 (273 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, Reliable, Excellent reception

Disadvantages: Simple with few features

When I purchased my first house just over a year ago I found myself making list after list of things to do and buy and very near the top of my ?to buy? list was a telephone. Having lived with my mother until I was 18 and then spent the next five years (mainly at University) renting, it was to be the first time I?d ever had to buy such a product. It was actually quite a strange experience because I didn?t really know what I was looking for. Getting a fair amount of free calls each month on my mobile I knew that the new phone didn?t need to be spectacularly brilliant, just simple and reliable. Therefore baring this in mind I set off to my local Asda to view their range. I was actually shocked at all the different models on offer and it took some time to actually decide on the one to buy. In the end I went for the Binatone Icarus 8.

= The Phone and it?s Features =

The Icarus 8 is a Binatone product and comes in the choice of three colours: black, silver or champagne (greeny, gold if you ask me!). It is a touchtone phone and being cordless it comes with a power adapter and base unit. The unit is fairly small and fits nicely into a corner although a wall mount is supplied should you wish to use it.

Once fully charged the handset can be used for up to five hours of talk time, whilst if left not in use it will stay charged for around ninety-six hours. It has a range of fifty meters indoors and if you get close to exceeding this then the phone gives off a warning tone.

Although this is an analogue phone it still has an excellent reception and it?s eight channel function allows you to search for the best reception should it not be one hundred percent clear.

The phone allows you to store ten numbers that are memorised from 0-9 and instantly available for speed dialling. There is also a last number redial button. The volume of the ringer can be high or low and the system has several different melodies, although none very exciting!
If you want to talk to someone in the same room as you but don?t want the person on the other end of the phone to hear then you can freeze them out by using the secrecy button.

If you have a habit of leaving the phone all over the house or losing it down the back of the couch then you?ll be happy to know that it has a handset locator on the base. This is a simple button that when pressed will activate the phone so that it rings, hopefully helping you to find it.

On the down side this machine doesn?t have a built in answer phone, although you can use BT Answer 1571 (see earlier op!!) if you like, nor does it have a screen to see the number of the incoming call.

= Using the Phone =

The phone was very easy to set up. I plugged the base into the phone socket and adapter in the mains electricity and by placing the handset on the base it began to charge for the reccomended eight hours.

Calling and receiving calls couldn't be simpler. The green button is pressed before dialling the number whilst pressing the same button when the phone rings will allow you to take an incoming call.

The manual received with the phone is simple but sufficient explaining how to use all the features.

Having had the phone for over a year it has remained reliable without a single technical problem.

= Overall =

This phone is fairly small and from the range of colours you available it can match any colour room. It?s very simple to use and although it has no really flash features it has been very reliable and has a great reception. It currently retails for under £20 and can be found at most good electrical stores that sell phones.

Summary: