Can anyone recommend a cordless phone?

Jonathan_Powell

Hi all. I am looking for a cordless phone, or even a cordless receiver. The current landline socket is near a place the kids always get to. I want to have it in the kitchen without running wires. Any ideas?

giraffe69

Easy. I think. We bought a couple of BT phones (you can get sets of 3 or 4 if preferred) that are cordless. Previous ones were Panasonic. The main base unit(which has an answering machine as well) goes into the telephone socket but any other phones just need to plug into an electricity socket. Works pretty well. I'd just put "portable telephone handsets" into Google to see the range

silvercar

giraffe69 said:

.......We bought a couple of BT phones (you can get sets of 3 or 4 if preferred) that are cordless. Previous ones were Panasonic. The main base unit(which has an answering machine as well) goes into the telephone socket but any other phones just need to plug into an electricity socket. .....

Same set up here. Always go for panasonic as they seem to last longer. Also choose ones where you can replace the rechargeable AA batteries in the phones, they tend to last 2-3 years before the batteries need changing, so cheaper than replacing the phones.

casper_gutman

We have a four handset Panasonic setup. The technology hasn't really changed for years and years, so personally I'd consider getting an older model or even buying a "nearly new" one off eBay.

neilmcl

I've also found the Panasonic models far superior to most others.

Bendy_House

Concur with everything above. Ditto Panasonic.

Most reputable makes will do the job very well - clear speech, good reception, stuff like that. The differences show with features and how easy they are to use. For example, our old Pana set had a flashing red light to show a recorded message - one press and there it was. Our new BT set has, instead, a pulsing icon on its grey LCD display. That's bad enough, but you then have to go through 'menu', up/down, select and stuff like that to get to the message. And then more ditto to erase them (which is why no-one else in the family bothers...)

Think about what's important in terms of features, and then focus on how well the different models access them. Answering machine is one, switching to 'speaker' is another (really, this should be one obvious button), accessing the phonebook yet another. Let's face it - everything else just gets in the way. Again, our old Pana beat the newer BT (but that's only the set I - mistakenly, based on reviews... - chose.

Oh, and handling ergos - comfort, whether it'll stand upright without falling over, stuff like that.

And, yes, having rechargeable AAs is a good move - you can even upgrade these to a higher mAh to give a much longer standby.

casper_gutman

One thing that annoyed me about the BT one we used to have was that it wasn't possible (as far as we could tell) to have more than one handset on a call, and we could never figure out how to transfer a call to another handset.

On the Panasonic one we have now you can just pick up a second handset and join in (then put down the first handset if you want). 

We use the landline so infrequently that it's impossible to remember infrequently-used commands. Get one that works intuitively.

ka7e

I have an older Panasonic where you can assign different ringtones to callers in your "phonebook". It means friends and family have a musical ringtone while unrecognised numbers just have the normal ring. I can safely ignore those callers as they are cold calls and spammers! Anyone that really wants to speak to me can leave a message, but most of these calls are made by auto-diallers and my answer machine ignores silent messages.

Bendy_House

casper_gutman said:

One thing that annoyed me about the BT one we used to have was that it wasn't possible (as far as we could tell) to have more than one handset on a call, and we could never figure out how to transfer a call to another handset.

On the Panasonic one we have now you can just pick up a second handset and join in (then put down the first handset if you want). 

We use the landline so infrequently that it's impossible to remember infrequently-used commands. Get one that works intuitively.

Yup! Even when one handset threatens to go out of charge mid-call, you're stuffed - the other one won't connect.

Yup - Pannie all the way (or an equivalent).

Nile

Jonathan_Powell said:

Hi all. I am looking for a cordless phone, or even a cordless receiver. The current landline socket is near a place the kids always get to. I want to have it in the kitchen without running wires. Any ideas?

Hi Jonathan_Powell

I have this: 

Panasonic KX-TGF320 Corded and Cordless Home office Telephone Kit with Answerphone and Nuisance Call Blocker - Black

It's currently £68.99 from Amazon.

Regards

Nile

another_casualty

Wish I never saw this 😾
I have one Bt cordless handset which I am happy with . 

I say happy with ..but nearly all of my calls received have been from various scammers.
Seeing this , is pushing me towards getting a cordless phone 📞..with an answerphone !
There are only so many times that you can tell someone to go forth and multiply .
An answerphone would stop this to an extent 😸👍📞 I may see if anything is reduced on Black Friday