Fire! Fire! Oh no, it's only my phone ringing (Panasonic KXTG1311EH)

Member Name: dee778

Product:	Panasonic KXTG1311EH
Date:	12/08/09 (588 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good value for money. Clear reception.

Disadvantages: Horrible screeching ringtones

I have recently had Virgin phone line installed. The cheapest option was to have one main connection into the house, and to buy a set of cordless digital phones so that we could have a phone upstairs. this was cheaper than asking Virgin to run extension cables.

I decided to buy a Panasonic, as I felt it to be a quality brand, at the same time giving good value for money. Whilst not the cheapest, it was at the very low end of the range.

I bought a set of triple cordless phones for £39.99 from Argos.

~~how the phone looks~~

The phone looks like a quality product. The handsets and base units are black and have a satisfying weight about them that makes them seem more robust. The base units are small so that they do not take up too much space. I find them fairly attractive - about the size of a mug, with an attractive oval hole that the handset drops into.

The handset keys are nice and large, and clear to read.

The handset display has an amber backlight and the numbers are very easy to read, even in the dark.

~~what I wanted from my phone~~

My previous cordless phone was a Binatone phone, and had a really poor range. Every time I went into the garden or to the back of the house, the signal would start to break up. I wanted to make sure that my new phone had a better range. I wanted a good standby time, and I (less importantly) I wanted a big address book.

~~what I got from my phone~~

range
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I couldn't find any reference to the range of the phone on the web, so I took pot luck on this one, hoping that the slightly higher price would mean a better range! When I got the phone the instructions said that the range is 300m outside, and 50m in rooms, and I have found this to be a great improvement on my previous phone. The signal is always clear - even at the bottom of the garden.

address book
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The web boasted a 50 name and number memory, which I took to mean the address book, and which seemed very impressive. When I received the phone, the instructions told me that I could store up to 15 numbers in the handset memory. 15 or 50? I guess it could have been a typo - or perhaps I misunderstood what name and number memory is!

When I started to input my numbers into the handset I didn't actually care how many numbers it could hold because I found that the only way to find a stored number was to scroll down the numerical list. In other words, it is impossible to search for a specific name, you just have to scroll down the whole numberical list until you hit the jackpot. The numbers are stored in the order they are input, so if you want them alphabetically, that's the way you have to input them.

This scrolling is pretty useless for anything more than 5 numbers anyway. I find it quicker and easier to use my paper phone book or my mobile. The only reason for inputting 15 numbers would be so that the caller ID comes up when the phone rings - but I really don't feel that it is worth the effort.

ringer melody
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This is where the Panasonic disappointed me. Big Time! There are 20 monophonic ringtones on the phone, and although I know that we have all become accustomed to the mellow tones of polyphonic sound on our mobiles, I really wasn't prepared for the shrill drone of the Panasonic! I ended up choosing a noise that sounds a bit like a shrill bird playing an irritating 3 note song over and over again. Believe me, this was the best of a bad bunch. Other "melodies" reminded me of a particularly tacky doorbell set, and included ear piercingly high versions of 'London Bridge is Falling Down', 'Lest Old Acquaintance be Forgot', 'Jingle Bells', and the theme from Swan Lake. Other "melodies" just sounded like car alarms.

If the phone rings late at night, I genuinely have such a shock at the horrible screeching that I worry that I may be set for a heart attack.

other features
~~~~~~~~~
Standby time is 120 hours, which is useful. The talktime is up to 10 hours. So far (after two weeks of use) both of these times seem to be accurate. The handsets have not unexpectedly run out of battery.

The phone has all of the usual digital features such as caller ID, call timer and keypad lock. I have not found that anything significant is missing from the repertoire.

It is possible to add another handset to my existing three if I chose to do so.

~~conclusion~~

This phone was one of the cheapest on the market, so I didn't expect great things. We all rely very heavily on our mobiles for outgoing calls anyway, only using the land line for incoming phones.

I am very happy with the robust build, the appearance and the range of the phone. Generally speaking the phone performs well and fulfills all of my needs.

Summary: A basic digitial phone

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