Our reviewer has been checking out an
iDECT phone
Information
Manufacturer: Binatone
Website: binatonetelecom.com
Despite the singular concept of its title,
the Binatone Solo iDECT phone product is not limited to a single unit. I've
been checking out the Solo Plus Twin offering, which gives you two handsets and
their charging stations. As with all the Solo products, the handsets and
accompanying docking stations are available in a choice of glossy red, white or
black.
As mentioned, this pack provides you with
two handsets, which are each powered by a pair of AAA rechargeable batteries
(supplied). A docking station is provided for each unit. With regards to the
docking stations, one acts as the base station with a built-in answer machine.
As the base station, it will need to be connected to both a mains power source
and a telephone line socket - both leads are provided. The second unit,
referred to as a charging pod, has the sole purpose of ensuring its handset is
fully charged and just needs a connection to a power source.
Solo
Plus Twin
Both handsets, which are interchangeable,
adopt a slight curved appearance - it reminds me of a squashed banana. Despite
being constantly handled, the glossy appearance (my review sample was lacquered
black) does not suffer too much from the finger smear disease. With plenty of
space available in the 20cm length, the various features and controls are well
laid out on the inner face of the handset.
Positioned below the handset's earpiece is
a 1.25" x 1.0" LCD screen - it was a pity that a more eye-pleasing
font was not used to display status and feedback information. All the various
controls, consisting of navigation/volume, menu, call, call end and an alphanumeric
telephonic pad, are raised well above the body of the handset for easy access.
There are also buttons labeled Flash, Redial and Infocom, which are separated
from the main pad by the charging strips used by the internal batteries.
The
Solo kit certainly looks stylish with its curved shape and glossy sheen. The
handsets are reasonably sturdy without being too heavy, while the mound-shaped
docking units are lightweight by comparison
When the handset is correctly mounted on
the base station or charging pod, a red light will appear to indicate charging
is taking place. The recommendation is that you will initially charge both
handsets for 1 5 hours, which should give you 13 hours of talk time and 230
hours on standby. The base station will also show a green light when the answer
machine is turned on. Up to 59 messages can be stored in the 30 minutes of
capacity available with the answer machine. An option is available to use
either an Answer only or Answer & Response setting.
Each handset has a phone book feature with
a capacity of 100 entries. An entry can be identified by a 12-character name
and contain a number with up to 24 digits, which should be enough for most
eventualities. There's also an option to store an addition two numbers in the
handset's Direct Access Memory and these will be automatically dialed following
a long press of the 1 or 2 key. Unfortunately, it does appear that you will
only be able to access numbers stored on the handset in use, as I could find no
way of synchronizing phone books on different handsets.
An
entry can be identified by a 12-character name and contain a number with up to
24 digits, which should be enough for most eventualities.
The Solo kit certainly looks stylish with
its curved shape and glossy sheen. The handsets are reasonably sturdy without
being too heavy, while the mound-shaped docking units are lightweight by
comparison.
