Philips SE6581B/17 DECT Series Cordless Phone with Answering Machine (Black) by Philips Peripherals and Accessories
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Digital camera reviews of Philips SE6581B/17 DECT Series Cordless Phone with Answering Machine (Black)
Digital camera Review: EXCELLENT FEATURES THAT CAN'T BE BEAT
Summary: 5 Stars
I have been researching cordless phones w/ answering machines for almost two months. (I wish someone had a service where I could simply check the features that I want and then I'd automatically be matched to the right product.) There are some features I absolutely can't live without and some that would be icing on the cake. So far the Philips SE6581B/17 DECT Series looks like a winner.
According to the user manual that I read online before purchasing, it has most of the features I'm looking for: Base unit has a keypad; Expandable to at least four handsets; Handsets can be renamed for the room, ex. "kitchen", "bedroom"; Handsets can be located or paged; CID numbers can be edited or formated to easily return calls; Handset LCD displays the time and date; Ringtones can be assigned to specific phone directory entries; Base and handsets have speed dial; Base and handsets share one phone directory up to 200 entries; Answering machine has greeting only mode; Answering machine has a message counter; Answering machine has 30 minutes record time; Messages can be retrieved from handsets; and Incoming calls can be screened from handsets.
I can't tell if this system has a "line-in-use" indicator or not. I like this feature to prevent one person's attempt to place a call while another person is already on a call.
Unfortunately, there are few features this systems doesn't have: Night-Time Mode, so handsets can be programmed to turn off at night and back on in the morning; Battery back-up, so the phone can be used when there is no electricity; Room monitor, so parents can listen to what's going on in another room. Also, during my research I found a system that had a shared phone directory, plus private directories for the base and each handset. Another system had three separate mailboxes on the answering machine.
This Philips SE6581B/17DECT Series is very expensive compared to other sytems, but I hope it's worth it. Needless to say, I am concerned about it's reliability after others commented that their handsets stopped working during the first year of use.
Digital camera Review: Echo City
Summary: 1 Stars
Sound quality was horrible with echo and static. Also had very limited number of ring tone selections.Digital camera Review: Misses the Mark Product Design Faults
Summary: 2 Stars
Amazon started this purchase off wrong by pointing me to a two line handset addition to this one line base station. After setting the rig up there are some annoying problems/features and some deal killers.
A fatal flaw is that the Base Station appears to listen in on calls placed from another wired desk set (two brands are involved) and it takes forever for the base station to drop the connection after the desk set has been hung up. It can be confirmed that the base station is the probable because if the phone line from the wall to the base station is unplugged the connection is immediately dropped.
Another fatal flaw is the base station's handling of the fast dial tone AT&T uses to signal that I have a voice mail message in their central office voice mail box (this occurs when I am using my phone, it acts as a back up answering machine). I called customer service and their solution was to pull the power to the base station, thus "re-booting" it (must have hired some Microsoft engineers).
Other reviews I have read noted an annoying delay in the key tone under certain circumstances and I agree with that.
Another design flaw is the use of a flashing light to signal both the receipt of a call (an entry is in the log book) AND an answering machine message. There is no need to flash the light just to let you know you had a call. A scroll appears on the screen. But it should flash if you have a recorded message.
Another flaw. If you had an incoming call entry in the log book and want to return it there is no way to insert a 1 for long distance calls. In our area I cannot use the auto function provided because we have a few area codes and two of them have both local and 1+ dialing. So you have to save the number and edit it to insert a 1 or write it down and dial it manually. My older, cheaper phone had a better design, I could edit the logbook entries directly and put the 1 in.
So I have to constantly select Line One from my two line handset eve though I have a one line base station (thanks to Amazon) and put up with the other problems. I may have a lemon so I am going to try to get Philips to swap out the base station to see if the line drop failure problem is a software glitch and not a design error.
I would not buy this again.
Digital camera Review: NOT TOO GOOD
Summary: 1 Stars
Nice looking but it's not well crafted, too confusing when other calls come in, display on handset confusing when calls come in. Not a great put together phone, i like the idea but not all there.Digital camera Review: One very sweet phone
Summary: 5 Stars
I just got this baby, and am already very happy I bought it. The sound is like you are in the same room with the caller. Answering machine works great & gives the same quality sound, no more wondering -who was that & what did they say. Ireally like the various ways one can store numbers, a phone book, direct calls, off the most recent calls and of course from both the hand set and the base station. Just what we wanted and feared no longer existed.