In my humble home we have cordless phone, one in each room, except for toilet and bathroom of course as 'one shouldn't be disturbed whilst in those rooms', and these cordless phones are indeed a great thing to have around the home, for several reasons.
But one thing that cordless phones can't do is work during a power cut... a little like nor web repair personnel then..??, so if your home has a power cut, for some reason, then you're cordless house phone is as useful as a plastic frying pan.

This is why I decided to invest in a corded phone after my house, and several others around me, had experience a third 'power cut' within a month, which is a bit of a nuisance at the best of times.
But I didn't want to spend a fortune on a cordless phone as I knew that it would spend most of it's time in a cupboard somewhere and only brought out when needed, (a little like my parents then..!).
So, after a bit of a search around I decided to buy a cheap, yet quite stylish little number that would be useful in a power cut.
The one I went for was in fact the BT Duet corded telephone, in what they called chalk white colour, which at the end of the day is simply white.

The phone itself looks like any other corded slim line phone, with the ear piece being at the top and a little indent at the bottom which is the microphone where you speak into.
It's got the standard buttons, numbers 1 to 9 in rows of three, with some of these numbers having the letters of the alphabet on them in groups of three or four. Then the star key, the zero and the hash key in the bottom row.
The four other buttons are below the numbers, these are redial, pause, secrecy and call waiting/recall.
The ringer volume, or control, is on the side and is adjusted by a little sliding button which is small enough to stay hidden yet big enough to be able to slide up and down without slicing your fingers to pieces.

It's nothing special, being made of a white plastic material and moulded in such a way as to look and feel as sleek and comfortable as possible. There's no LCD display to show you what number you've called or who's calling you. But it has the basics that make it a phone worth having, such as...
Last number redial
Secrecy button
Ringer control, off, hi and low option
Recall button
Memory pause button
Call indicator light
Call waiting indicator, (if you're service provides this)

And there's no hands free options or external loud speaker.

The hand piece nestles very well in the cradle, with a little piece of plastic which, when pulled out slightly, grips the body of the phone in position when, or if, you have this wall mounted.
Personally, as I only bring this out in power cuts I don't have it wall mounted nor do I have it nestled on a desk for too long. But when it's out of the cupboard it looks nice enough to leave out without feeling embarrassed about being old fashioned with a corded phone.

It can be wall mounted or simply left on a desk or table, either way it doesn't look out of place at all. When the phone is in the cradle you can see the little red light flashing when a call is oncoming, and this light continues flashing during a call as well, which is pretty useful if the ringer is turned off, other wise you can here the ringer well enough so this light becomes redundant really

There are a choice of two ringer levels, yes two, hi and low, and a silent function as well, but that's enough for me, considering that I only use this in power cut emergency's.

The call quality is pretty good too, with very little back ground noise being heard as the ear piece is a good size, fitting snugly against the listeners ear, cutting out a lot of sound around the room.
And I've asked people who I've called about the sound coming from me when I make a call and they have never complained about loss of sound or cracking along the line, which is what you want really, a good clean phone line.



And what about the price for this sleek 'chalk' white corded telephone..?
Get ready for this...
You can pick this up at most retailers, both on and off line, such as Argos, amazon, and probably even you local pound plus shop for around £10.00, which is a bargain indeed.


In all, it's a fine looking phone that does what a phone is supposed to do without all the whistles and bells., it rings and you answer, you dial a number and the call gets put through. There's no complicated LCD screen, not is there a built in answer machine that takes a degree from Cambridge to figure out.
It does exactly what it says on the tin.

© Blissman70 2012