A good basic phone but does have some sound problems (BT Studio 3500 Single)

Member Name: jillycat

Product:	BT Studio 3500 Single
Date:	29/10/09 (145 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cordless good memory for phone book and button to find phone if lost!

Disadvantages: clarity and sound quality can be poor. display and answer phone not held if a power cut

Why this phone
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This was a phone we selected for our home based on a couple of criteria about 18 months ago. We wanted a phone with a built in answer phone, that was cordless and from a well know manufacture as our experience with very cheap phones wasn't very good. This phone to seemed to tick all those boxes so it was duly bought from Argos. At this point I had never heard of dooyoo so didn't look at any reviews on this phone I think if I had we may not have picked this one.

What is it?
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This is a landline phone by British Telecom. It is a sliver phone and needs to be plugged into an electric socket to work. The handset needs 3 AAA rechargeable batteries to function and these are included with the handset. This version is a single handset but you can buy this phone in twin, trio and quad versions but as I don't have one of those I can't comment on how those work.

This phone has several features not all of which that we use so for the purpose of this review I am going to focus on the bits we use and how we find them. I will then list the other bits at the end so if you want to know if it has a specific feature you can find out.


Instruction manual
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It is easy to understand the information as it is clear and concise. The index at the front helps you locate easily the functions that you want to use and how to set them up. Alongside the text there are small picture boxes to show you exactly which button to press and what the display should say if done correctly.


Set up
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This is really amazingly straight forward insert batteries to the phone. The bit on the back slides off without to much problem and reinserts very easily. You then plug the phone in into the socket and the electric socket and hey presto after a short while of charging you are ready to make a phone call. Now the instruction manual says that you should let it charge continually for 24 hours before making a call but we found it was ok for a quick test phone call of a few minutes after about 20 minutes of charging but for longer calls you are probably best letting it charge up fully the first time.


Making a call
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Firstly once you have taken it off the base this doesn't automatically make the phone ready for dialling you would need to press the phone button to open the line up. This is useful in our household with a toddler as it means he doesn't accidentally make a call every time he lifts it off the base. It will however answer a call by just lifting off the base.

The buttons are soft to touch but do need to be pressed firmly for the phone to recognise them.

Once you are connected the clarity of the connection is not always fantastic and on occasions there is both static and white noise on the line or an echo effect which can be a bit disturbing. I find that if you redial the number this often clears it but it is very annoying when it happens. Another issue with the clarity and sound is that the volume always seems to be quite and no matter what I do if there is a background noise i.e. a screaming toddler it is not always easy to hear the person on the other end. The people that I am on the phone to when I have asked questions about noise have never heard anything or been trouble an echo or me sounding quite.


Redial
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One of my favourite features on this phone really has it stores the last ten numbers and you simple scroll through them for the one you want simplez as the meerkat would say


Phone book
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This is a useful feature for me as with my dyslexia I find it hard to remember numbers so this phone stores them for me. It can hold up to 50 numbers but I personally haven't that many in it. The process of putting them in is simple and the instruction manual really talks you through the process in an idiot proof way or at least this dizzy blonde found it to be. As you add extra names in it re-jigs them to have them in the correct alphabetical order for you. To phone some one from your phone book it is very easy you just navigate down your list and press the call button and the rest is done for you. Unlike some features on the phone the phone book remains held on the phone memory if there is a power cut.


Secrecy button
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Does what it says really if pressed the person at the other end can't hear what you are saying. I have only used this by accident really.


Display screen
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This is another area that I am slightly disappointed in really not because it doesn't tell you the time or how long you have been on the phone or who is calling you if the number is in your phone book because it does. But the display is really hard to read depending on what light you view it in which can defeat the object really.

If there is a power cut or you un-plug the phone from the mains the display goes back to the factory settings and you need to re programme the date and time which can be infuriating.



Answer phone
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The answering machine is capable of storing up to 13 minutes of incoming messages this is really a lot of messages and if you are lazy like me and forget to delete them this space can hold a lot of messages we have had up to 30 stored at one time.

If you have a message there is a red flashing button that will alert you to this rather than a beep. I personally prefer a flashing light as beeps just annoy me and our cats.

It allows you to record your own voice mail greetings this is again simple and straight forward to do. You can select to have either an answer only message where they can't leave a message or one where they can. Again the instruction manual talks you through doing this process in a simple and straight forward way.

There are two pre-recorded messages are also available already. If there is a power cut these default messages kick in for you once the power is back on.

Messages can be played back through a loudspeaker in the base, or privately, through the handset depending on what you choose we I have to say only really use the base for playing messages.

You can if you choose pick up you answer phone messages remotely I have never used this feature but I guess if your waiting for an important call this would be useful.


Ring tones
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There are five ring tones available and you can actually set a different ring tone for some of the names in your phone book if you choose. The rings are neither wonderful nor annoying just basic rings really.


Find button
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This has come into its own now I have a toddler who loves phones and wanders off with it you simply press the find button on the base your phone will ring till you find it and press a the phone or on the base. A very useful function in any how with a toddler I think.



Range
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We have a small house really and find there is no problem using the phone in any room in our house either upstairs or downstairs where the base is located. It is advertised as having a 50 meter range inside and a 300 meter range outside. But I find that if I go much beyond the patio which is a lot less than 300 meters away from the base the signal gets to weak and it becomes even harder to hear someone on the phone.

Overall
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Pros
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Cordless
Good phone book facility
Easy to set up
Answer phone easy to use
Good instruction manual
Find button
Redial facility holds up to ten last numbers


Cons
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Clarity not always great due to at times echoes, white noise and static.
Hard to hear the other person on occasions
LCD display difficult to see in certain lights
Doesn't hold answer phone message and date and time when power gets turned off


Recommendation
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I would recommend this phone to people who want a basic entry level phone but if you are after something a bit more sophisticated I would say spend a little more to get a better quality phone to due to the poor sound quality. I think when we replace this one we will look for the next model up. If you have any hearing issues such as slightly deaf this isn't the phone for you as it is very quiet.


Where from and price
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As I mentioned we bought ours from Argos the current price is £34.99 you can also buy it from Amazon and other small electrical retailers


Other features that we don't use:
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Alarm.
Call waiting
Call transfer.
Keypad lock.
Up to 10 hours talktime.
Up to 160 hours standby time.

Summary: A basic phone from BT that has some good qualities but just not a great phone

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