 |
Philips CD1501B
by -michelle-
Before technology went mad with computers, mobile phones and the internet, in order to communicate with anyone, we had to make do with one of those things known as a telephone, I'm sure it wasn't that long ago or maybe I'm just showing my age. A telephone is a device used to communicate with others, by dialing a series of numbers. We ... managed perfectly well with just a normal telephone before, but even the normal telephone has had to move with the times, and available to us now, is a very wide range of attractive and up to the minute, land line telephones.
I don't know why I'm bothering to review this phone really, with all the fantastic phones out there, that are available right now, but then again not everyone has the money to spend on the very latest gadgets, including telephones, so this review may be helpful to someone who happens to be on a budget, who is looking for a new telephone.
*Philips CD150*
The telephone I'm going to review is the Philips CD150, it's not the greatest of telephones, and is probably quite dated now, but it does what I want it to do. The telephone is cordless, which is a must in my opinion, I've had a cordless telephone since my son was born, I recommend a cordless phone to anyone with very small children because no matter where you are in the house or what your doing, you can have the phone with you so you don't have to leave your child alone in order to answer it, should it ring, in past years having a cordless telephone has been a god send for me.
The telephone handset dimensions are H162 x W48.3 x D28.7mm this is the perfect size for me, not to big and not to small, it's nice and comfortable to hold, not to heavy, so if your talking for a while on the telephone it's not a problem. There's no annoying ariel wafting around, as this in integrated inside the phone itself. The main display lights up amber when in use, nice and bright and easy to read. I like the idea that the light stays on for around 15 seconds after any activation with the phone, such as the phone ringing, the handset being replaced on the base and pressing keys etc. as it's handy, if for some reason you don't hear it ring, for example your using earphones with another device, if the phone is near to you, you will see it light up and know you have an incoming call without having heard it. This has worked for me a few times, a useful feature I find.
*What you get*
So in the box you will find the handset which is explained in great detail in the instruction booklet, the booklet explains everything you will need to know about the phone from pressing a single key to personalizing your own settings.
The base station, this is where your handset sits, to charge up while not in use. The dimensions of the base station are H120 x W114 x D82.5mm, and this needs to be situated near a plug socket to enable you to plug it in easily. On the base station is a paging key, should you lose the handset. Believe me, it is so annoying when that happens, a useful feature, may be very simple but it has helped me find my phone on more than one occasion.
The battery door and 2 rechargeable AAA batteries, slot the batteries in the handset, snap on the battery door and your ready to go.
Lastly you will find the power supply and the line cord. These you connect up to the base station whilst plugging the opposite ends into the appropriate sockets.
*Features*
The Philips CD150 has a duel mode caller name and number function, this means when you have an incoming call from someone stored in your phone, their name and number will display simultaneously while the phone is ringing. Handy feature again because you can see who's calling you and if you don't want to speak to them, you just don't answer the call, yes, I've done that a few times. I guess it works in the same way as caller display, only you just get the number on your display with that.
The phone has a phonebook list, to which you can store up to 50 names and numbers, I think this is an awful lot, I have nowhere near 50 stored in mine but I guess you need friends and a family that at least like you a little bit, to fill 50 spaces. To access the phone book you press the arrow buttons under the display screen and this will list all your stored contacts alphabetically.
The redial option on the phone allows you to redial your last 5 entries, I only use the redial for calling the pharmacy to get repeat prescriptions anyway, as it's forever engaged, so I don't really bother with that so much.
The last 10 calls you receive are logged into the phone, so you can check back on any calls you may have missed, as this phone has no answer machine, but many network service providers offer some sort of answer service for whichever package you choose to use for your phone anyway. I'm with Talk Talk and I get an answer service free of charge from them.
The talk time you get is 12 hrs, without interruption, this has proved very useful over the Easter holidays as my son has been on the phone for literally hours at a time, to Australia of all places, speaking to his best friend, luckily his friend called him.
The range to which you can move whilst using the phone in and around the house is within a range of maximum 50 metres indoors and up to 300 metres outdoors. I find the reception to be excellent whether inside or out, I don't get any interference on the line and can hear people on the other end of the phone very clearly.
The phone can be left off the base unit for anything up to 150 hours before it will need to be replaced on the base station, but I usually have the phone near me in the daytime and let it charge up on the base station during the night, this works well for me and I never have the worry that my phone could die half way through a call.
Then there's the usual features that include last number redial, volume control whilst talking to someone, if they speak quite low you can up the volume so you can hear them a little better and keypad lock. There are other little features that you will come across as you go along while setting up.
*Setting up and other stuff*
Setting the telephone up isn't difficult, with the help of the instruction booklet that comes with the phone that is very helpful and easy to understand. I won't bore you with all the details of what to press in order to set the actual phone up because if you are interested in purchasing this telephone, you will indeed read all this for yourself in the instructions anyway, what I will tell you is that the telephone has 10 different melodies to choose from, to set up as your ringtone, I must admit they are all terrible, I went through them all so many times, trying to find just one that I could bare long enough for me to get to the phone quick enough to pick it up. I had to choose one, so begrudgingly I set the most bearable one as my ringtone, as I've had the phone a couple of years now I'm just about used to it, but I still don't like it any better.
You can set the ringer volume at one of five different levels, I find level 2, which is the default, is quite loud enough.
You have the option to activate or deactivate the key tone, I keep this on as it's easier to know if you've actually pressed a key or not, but that's just my personal preference.
There is a clock and alarm feature which you can set up giving you the date, time etc. you can set it 12 or 24 hr clock, whichever suits you. I have mine set to 12 hr clock as I still get confused with the 24 hr clock, I never could get to grips with it.
I have to add that the battery life in the handset is brilliant, having been using my phone for a couple of years, I don't think the batteries have ever been replaced.
Then there's a batch of advanced settings for you to play around with, should you choose to, these include registration, changing the master pin, country selection, reset unit, set prefix, change recall time, change the dial mode and set first ring. I've not bothered with any of these, I just wanted my phone to able to accept incoming calls and allow me to make outgoing calls, I never wanted a telephone to start messing around with advanced settings. My phone lets me do what I need to do and that's all that matters to me.
*Negatives*
There are a few things I don't particularly like about this phone, these include:
The phone is dated, difficult to find if you were interested in buying one.
There is no loud speaker/hands free feature, this doesn't bother me, but my son gets annoyed because when he talks to his friend in Australia, he's usually playing a game on the computer at the same time so makes it difficult to do both at the same time.
The ringtones are terrible, I don't know what else to say on the matter of the ringtones except most of them are so high pitched, they are almost unbearable to listen to.
If these little niggles don't put you off then all well and good, and I'd say go for it.
*Where from and how much*
I purchased my Philips CD150 telephone from Argos, a couple of years ago, this phone is quite difficult to get hold of now, as there have been so many upgraded versions of it, however if you scout around different sites I'm sure you'd find one and get yourself a bargain, because this particular model phone can be picked up rather cheap now, Although not available right now on Amazon, when they are available they are going for around £15.00.
I'm giving the Philips CD150 cordless telephone 3 stars as it is quite dated and has annoying ringtones but over all it works as I want it to.
Thank you for reading my review which is also posted on Ciao
Read the complete review |
