Can you hear me Mother (Panasonic KXTCD 725)

Member Name: wtwildcats

Product:	Panasonic KXTCD 725
Date:	08/11/02 (1501 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cordless, Good Reception, Phone Book

Disadvantages: Short Battery Life

Well, if you use this phone, the answer will be yes. Unless you mother has an hearing impediment, like mine, then the answer is "what did you say?"

After 5 goes at asking her to turn her hearing aid to the "T" position, the answer finally becomes yes. But its worth the wait.

This phone is a digital cordless phone. 99.9% of you will probably be used to mobile phones, and this phone has basically the same features. It has a phone book, a built in answerphone, caller display (if you subscribe to it with your telephone provider), last numbers dialled and received stored etc etc.

It looks a bit like a mobile phone, and acts like one - well if you are around the house anyway.

Reception has been constantly crystal clear. I have had this phone about 1 year, probably more now, and I've always been able to put calls through and hear the person on the other end well. Doesn't matter where I've been - in my garage, sat in my garden etc, its as clear as ever.

There are many features on this phone. The main ones include:

Phone Book
Speakerphone
Last 20 numbers dialled/received memory
Volume Control
Answerpone - fully digital and functional
Handsfree facility - optional extra
Menu System
Off button
Recall Button, so it can be used on an exchange

The handset display will display numbers and letter, and any combination of those. If you pay for caller display, and I do, the phone number of the person who rings you is displayed on the screen of the phone - useful for screening calls.

Numbers are not displayed of course, if the caller has witheld their number or if they are ringing from an exchange - ie at work.

If you have pre programmed a number into the phone's built in address book, and attached a name to the number, then the name is shown; eg "Mam Calling".

You can personalise the phone even further. It is easy to ad


d extra DECT-compatable handsets to the base station, and each one can be given their own name. I have only one handset - the one which came with the phone, and I call it "Andy's Phone". Thats what the phone proudly displays when in standby mode.

The address book is something else. Its why i bought THIS phone. It can store up to 200 numbers and names in the book. No, I don't have that many friends, but I am hoping :) Any applications for friendship are warmly welcomed.

200 numbers !!! I have trouble remembering my PIN, let alone a phone number - what a boon for me.

You can assign differnet phone tones to different number - so you can tell if an incoming phone call is personal or business for example.

The phone has 20 different phone rings to choose from - some traditional, some musical.

The answerphone is all encompassing. You can store up to 15 mins of incoming messages. Everything is digital, so clarity is excellent. You record your outgoing message and the phone stores all incoming messages.

You can playback, again and again, delete, change outgoing message or any combination of the above.

The phone lights up when you press a key, you can change background colour - the choice is blue or green - I chose green.

It is easy to use, but does require the reading of the manual, or you will have no real chance to use the phone to its full capacity. The manual is 90+ pages long, and worth a read. Otherwise you wouldn't learn about its other functions... time alarm, display options, handset options, finer points of answering machine, linking other handsets to base unit etc, etc.

The one downsaide I have found is that the battery in the handset has a limited life... not meaning that talktime and standby time is limited (well, obviously it is) but that it doesn't take that long before you need to invest in new rechargable batteries - I suspect they last about
1 ye
ar per
set of rechargable batteries. It takes about 10 months for them to start losing their charge, and 11 months for it to become really noticeable.

Reception is good for about 200 meters, so thats enough for you !!!!

Quite a good phone - thats my only grip about them.

Enjoy your phoning :)

Summary: