SIX INCHES OF HANDHELD RELIABILITY! (Binatone iDect M1)

Member Name: hazydaze123

Product:	Binatone iDect M1
Date:	18/01/09 (272 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A simple, reliable, no-frills cordless phone

Disadvantages: Some may find the keypad a little small

Once upon a time, I was the proud owner of a very nice little cordless phone which served me well over the years. Unfortunately, as happens with so many pieces of modern technology nowadays, the dreaded day arrived when my reliable little link to the outside world died. The sound mechanism seemed to have disappeared altogether, which meant that I was not able to hear the phone ringing, nor was I able to hear anyone speaking on the other end. I had an important decision to make: should I try and get the phone repaired, or treat myself to a nice sparkly new one. Hey, I'm female - is there any doubt that I would pass up an opportunity to go shopping? Hmm.

In order to avoid any potentially pushy sales assistants who seem to hide behind the shelves and jump out at you with a sickly smile, £££ signs flashing across their eyelids and the obligatory 'd'you need any help there?' I decided to take the easy option and have a look through my Argos catalogue. The iDECT M1 System seemed to have everything I needed in a phone. It was very pretty and shiny and would go well with my new three piece suite!! Seriously though, it was a very simple, though stylish, looking phone and covered all my basic requirements. The decision was made and, after doing my wifely duty of checking with my husband that he thought this phone was suitable, it being a technical item and hubby dearest having to have the final say-so on all things technical, I trotted off to Argos and made my purchase.

***What You Get***
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On opening the box and fighting my way through the mounds of squeaky polystyrene packaging, I found there was more in there than I had anticipated. It's not very often that happens! The two obvious items were the handset itself and the base unit. In addition, you are supplied with a Li-ion battery pack and battery compartment cover, a telephone line cable for the base unit, a mains power lead and adapter, together with a charger pod.

***So What's Your Handset Called?***
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Yes, you read it right. You need to give your handset a name! And no, I didn't believe it either! To be honest, I do not think it is vital that you do this, but it is just a way of personalising the handset. We have been very boring, but logical, in naming our handset 'Lounge'. This is particularly useful if you have more than one handset.

***Where Will It Live?***
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Another decision you need to make before starting to use the handset is where you want to position the base unit. To most people, this is a very obvious point to consider, but to clarify, the unit must not be situated near another telephone as this will cause interference, nor must it be placed near to any other electrical equipment such as fridges, washing machines, fluorescent lights etc. In addition, the mains adapter needs to be near to an electrical socket and the base unit's telephone line cable needs to be able to reach the telephone line.

***Setting Up***
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Before you begin to make calls from the phone, it needs to be fully charged for 15 hours. The instructions leaflet fully explains the process of doing this, so I will not bore you with the details here. However, although it is not possible to make calls during this time, you can find your way around the phone, and set your preferences and enter details into the phonebook.

The first thing I tackled after putting the phone on charge was setting up the general display screen. This is a very simple process which is easy to follow from instructions given at the beginning of the manufacturer's booklet, but very briefly, this comprises the date, time, name of the phone (Lounge in our case) and finally the handset number. As we only have the one handset, ours is obviously number one, but you can apparently have up to five handsets with this style of phone which will be numbered accordingly.

The next step was to set up the phonebook. Again, this is very straight forward programming and, although sometimes a little time consuming depending on how many numbers you wish to include, you soon find yourself speeding up after entering two or three numbers! The phonebook can store 50 phone numbers of up to 24 digits, therefore allowing for international calls. Like most phones these days, the numbers can be stored with the person's name, and you can select up to 12 characters per name.

***Features***
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And so on to the important bit. What does it do?

The iDECT M1 has many useful features which I have mentioned below, though I have not gone into any detail as to what they do as they are all pretty much self explanatory. As I stated at the beginning of the review, this is a no-frills phone so the features are all fairly standard:-

Speaker Phone
Recall
Mute
Keypad Lock
Phonebook
Last Number Redial
Caller ID
Alarm Clock and Reminder
Selection of Ringer Melodies
Up to 10 hours talk time
Up to 100 hours standby time
iSound
A choice of 10 ringtones

The display screen really comes into its own on this phone as all the information you may possibly need to know appears in front of you. There are numerous symbols which appear on the screen, giving the following information:-

Signal level
New call
Intercom call
Memory/store
Ringer off
Redialling
Lock
Battery charge level
Phone and speaker phone

***Best Bits***
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One of my favourite features of the phone has to be the caller ID. What better way to avoid the mother-in-law?

Another feature which I have found to be particularly useful is the message envelope on the display screen. This is exactly the same as you would have on your mobile phone and simply confirms that you have received a call. It provides the date and time the call was received, together with the caller's telephone number. Therefore, if you were called while you were out, you have the option of calling that person back. Or not, as the case may be!

Redial is another feature of this phone that I seem to use a lot. The phone stores the numbers that you have dialled, together with the numbers that have been received. All you need to do is simply select dialled/received calls and press the 'ring' button. Both sets of call records can be deleted at any time, and you can either delete the numbers individually, or delete the whole lot in one go.

***Appearance***
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This is a very neat looking slider phone. The main body of the phone is glossy black with silver sides and a combination of silver and black buttons. The display screen, comprising white digits on a deep blue backlight, is easy to read and fairly spacious. When closed, the handset measures 4" x 2" and when opened in order to make a call, just under 6" x 2". The base unit is dark grey in colour and sits very discretely in the corner of the room.

***Additional Handsets***
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As I mentioned previously, you can opt to have up to five handsets with this phone. I am unable to comment in any detail on this however as we only purchased the one handset.

***Manufacturer's Handbook***
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This is the usual run of the mill instruction book supplied by iDECT. It gives all the relevant information and instructions on how to set up and operate the phone, together with safety warnings, cleaning and maintenance tips and trouble-shooting sections. I found the handbook very easy to follow, though was amused by the rather large warning on the front page indicating that you are not advised to use this particular phone for emergency calls due to the risk of a power failure. Ok. I am not convinced that many people would take heed of this warning, though I imagine companies have to cover themselves to prevent the occasional lawsuit!

***My View***
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All in all, I am very impressed with this phone. It is a simple, straight forward handset and extremely easy to use.

However, there is one very small downside, and that is the number keypad which is why I have only rated this phone with four stars. Although the numbers are quite attractively set out, they are fairly small and close together. I have quite slim fingers and still find it a little fiddly to dial the numbers. At the risk of sounding sexist, I think this phone is directed more towards us ladies, though long nails may cause a problem too. However, that is merely my own personal opinion and it could simply be down to the way I dial!

***Price***
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I purchased this phone from Argos for £39.95.

Website Address: http://www.idectonline.com

Thank you for reading.

(*Please note that I have reviewed this product on Ciao under username matthewsmum)

Summary: A good little phone

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