Yet another gadget for me to play with. (BT Diverse 4016 Executive)

Member Name: merv

Product:	BT Diverse 4016 Executive
Date:	06/11/02 (3195 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good quality sound, Packed with features, Up to the minute

Disadvantages: Ring tones, Incoming SMS only with BT network mobiles

About two years ago we bought a Phillips ‘Onis Vox’ digital phone with an inclusive answering machine in the sale at The Link. It has never been a particularly easy phone to operate and of course once the guarantee period ran out things started to go wrong. Notably the ‘sticky key syndrome’, which I would have been warned about had I had the foresight to read appropriate internet reviews before I bought it.

Reluctant as ever to spend any money I’ve put up with this for several weeks much to the annoyance of my wife who found it increasingly difficult to answer the phone. Very frustrating, and as she pointed out to me, quite costly, as it usually resulted in her dialing 1471 to see who was trying to get through and then calling them back at our expense.

Coincidentally as a very minor shareholder in BT, I received an e-mail from the company a couple of weeks ago inviting me to purchase several of their products at supposedly generous discounts.

Never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, and after a bit of internet research I found that they were offering me the opportunity to purchase a Diverse 4016 Executive digital cordless phone for £20 cheaper than I could get it anywhere else.

We decided to go ahead, ordering over the net, payment by credit card, no postage and packing cost, all for £89.99.

It arrived two days after I ordered it and I have to say that our initial opinion is that it is very good value, much better than the phone its replacing and with lots of useful additional features.

It is a state of the art cordless phone and answering machine which because it is digital has superb sound and speech quality and security which prevents calls being overheard or picked up on other cordless phones. There is a massive 200 Name and number directory, which can include everyone on my Christmas Card list, all the local services, doctors, dentists, theatres, hairdressers, taxis, resta
urants, cinemas, leisure centres, football grounds, etc. and still have plenty of room left.

The Diverse really does have loads of useful features such as ‘Walk and Talk’ which allows you to communicate with additional handsets within a 300 metre range. This can be really useful and can also be used as a ‘baby sitter’ as it can react to noise levels. I would imagine that this would be an incredibly cheap system to use if you had a small business with a couple of employees in the same area you wanted to keep in contact with, particularly with the Call Director feature which allows the calls to be switched to a desired extension.

In addition it has an excellent speakerphone allowing you to hold a conversation without holding the handset and enabling other people in the room to hear and contribute to the conversation. It can also handle Caller Display. When you subscribe to a caller display service, you can see call information such as the number of the person calling. The name is also displayed if stored in the memory. The 20 number call log stores the last 20 numbers received whether you answer the call or not.

Similarly if you subscribe to Call Waiting in conjunction with Caller Display you can see who is calling whilst engaged on another call providing the number of other caller is not withheld.
There is an LED on the handset which alerts you to a call coming in when the line is in use and flashes to tell you when you have had new calls. The handset’s clock feature allows you to set an alarm call. You can also set your telephone to ring and remind you of one important date. I’ll have to get to grips with this function before my anniversary!

You can adjust many of the features including the volume and melody of the handset ringer. The choice of melodies isn’t exactly brilliant. We receive quite a lot of phone calls for one reason or another and already ‘The Entertainer’
is starting to wear a little thin.

Innovatively it comes with the additional feature of SMS Text Messaging, which enables you to send and receive SMS text messages over compatible fixed line telephones and mobile phones. Word of warning though, if you were persuaded to buy it because of this last feature, you may be disappointed because although it can send SMS messages to all mobile networks it can only receive SMS text messages from BT mobiles. This is apparently likely to change in the future, but at the moment it’s a distinct disadvantage if your family all have Orange mobiles with the ‘Out There’ message package. You must also subscribe to Caller Display to use SMS.

The answer machine gives up to 15 minutes digital recording time with consistent quality reproduction and fast resetting. Remote Access enables you to access your answering machine from another tone dialling phone. You can playback, fast forward, rewind or delete messages using a ‘TouchTone’ keypad. A PIN number prevents unauthorised access. The Date/clock/alarm feature lets you know the time and date a message was left and also allows you to set the alarm as a reminder or to wake you up

Private playback via the handset lets you listen privately to any messages left on the answer machine via the handset and a secrecy button lets you speak to someone else in the same room without the caller overhearing your conversation – your caller will hear music (I don’t know what yet!) while you hold.

There is a choice of outgoing messages, you can use the pre-recorded announcement or record your own outgoing message. Alternatively you can set the Diverse to play an advisory announcement for you callers, once again ideal for small businesses.

Two last tips.

1) Buy the phone and you get any three of BT’s additional services (Caller Display, Call Waiting, etc.) free for three months, and

2) ther
e doesn’t seem to be any restriction on non-BT shareholders taking up the offer (at least I can’t see any) – the website is www.btshareholders@rocom.co.uk.

So far so good, I’m delighted with my new toy – not bad eh, digital camera, dvd player and up to the minute digital phone; I’ve really arrived in the 21st century.

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