BT Mango

...in a Panasonic when the BT Mango caught my eye and I thought 'wow, cool phone'. Unusual, bright colours of cream and orange and a distinctive shape with a slider mechanism which opens to reveal the number pad. I was sold by its looks alone and when I checked the functions, the deal was done. Unfortunately, it was even more expensive at £109.99 but too late, I'd made up my mind. Also unfortunately, I should have slept on it, instead of acting on impulse ...
...to my workplace, which the BT shop suggest doing. It came in its normal box with no brown paper/cardboard outer wrapping, just clear plastic, so everyone could see what I had bought! Hmm, think they should rethink that one myself.

My fears about my impulse buy were realised when I saw it for real as it looks a bit plasticky and just like a child's toy. It's available in black too although this was out of stock when I ordered but I ... more

When my cordless phones stopped working, after playing up for some time, I thought it would be relatively inexpensive to replace them. I wanted a trio set with an answering machine and headed for the internet to browse the different makes available. Crikey, they were more expensive than I thought for what I wanted - the price hasn't come down as much as I'd expected since I bought my original digital cordless phones. Most were around £80 plus instead of the £40 or £50 I'd expected. Of course, cheaper sets are available but I didn't want to give up some of the functionality I was used to - even though in all honesty, I probably could have lived without some of it. I couldn't believe for example that there are still digital cordless phones with only 10 or 20 spaces for phone numbers. If you think that most of your contacts might have a home/mobile/work number, then 10 is just useless. I was also willing to pay a bit more because we have bought cheap cordless phones at work and ended up replacing them because their range was poor and moving more than a few feet away from the phone lost the connection.

I was quite interested in a Panasonic when the BT Mango caught my eye and I thought 'wow, cool phone'. Unusual, bright colours of cream and orange and a distinctive shape with a slider mechanism which opens to reveal the number pad. I was sold by its looks alone and when I checked the functions, the deal was done. Unfortunately, it was even more expensive at £109.99 but too late, I'd made up my mind. Also unfortunately, I should have slept on it, instead of acting on impulse because when I looked at it again the next day, I wondered what I'd found so attractive about it!

When I'm buying electrical items or phones, I like to know absolutely everything about what they can do so I can compare. Unfortunately, most websites just list the major functions, and some say that it can't do something when other sites say that it can. Very confusing. I'm never daunted though and I downloaded the manual to read through before buying, so I knew for sure. Sad, I know!

**The Arrival**
As I'd ordered it in the evening, it arrived 2 days later and because it had to be signed for, it was delivered to my workplace, which the BT shop suggest doing. It came in its normal box with no brown paper/cardboard outer wrapping, just clear plastic, so everyone could see what I had bought! Hmm, think they should rethink that one myself.

My fears about my impulse buy were realised when I saw it for real as it looks a bit plasticky and just like a child's toy. It's available in black too although this was out of stock when I ordered but I do think that the black would look a bit classier. My friend's first comment was, 'why have you bought a baby monitor?' followed by a fit of giggles. Others reactions have been a bit puzzled as to why I thought this phone's looks to be appealing but hey, it grows on you after a while.

**Functionality**
The display, although not colour, is large, backlit and easy to read while the menus are really simple to use. I haven't found this to be the case with some other BT models. The menu buttons are large and easy to operate and the manual says the range is 300 metres outdoors, although any obstruction will reduce this, and 50 metres indoors.

It has a 255 name phone directory, clock, alarm, memo facility, secrecy button, handsfree, call screening, and 15 ringer melodies to choose from, 5 standard and 10 polyphonic. (Strange when the BT shop says it only has 10) The cool thing here is, like many mobile phones, you can select different ring tones for people in your phonebook - if you can remember which tune you assigned to them! Great for saying to my son - you answer it, it's one of your friends. You can, of course call internally between phones, transfer calls and page the other handsets too.

Another handy thing is that it has a sim card reader so you can copy your mobile phonebook straight to it and it can then copy the phonebook to each handset.

Yes, it does have caller display (don't they all if they have a screen?) yet again, some websites including Ciao, say it doesn't. Now you know why I downloaded the manual! It's also GAP compatible which apparently means you can add other digital phones to the base station.

The answering machine has 11 minutes of record time which isn't particularly long but is fine for me and it gives remote access to your messages. You have the option to record your own message or use the standard one and you can opt to have the answering machine kick in but not allow messages to be left. Messages on my last phone were accessed from the handset and only in loudspeaker mode whereas this allows both loudspeaker and normal for privacy. (you can't playback from the base though) It has a time and date-stamp of messages and the quality of playback is good and clear. The phone can be set to alert that you have messages with a beep every 10 seconds (I turned this off in case it upset my poor dog in my absence!) and it also flashes a light on the base to indicate too. I have noticed though that if you save messages, the light continues to flash until you delete them. On the plus side, it doesn't flash to say there's a message if the caller hasn't actually left one. Again, with my last phone, I'd come in to numerous 'messages' showing and they'd all be hangups. The calls are still logged though and show via an image of a telephone with the number of calls you've had.

SMS texting also comes with this phone, (you need to have caller display) but I haven't bothered to try texting yet and from what I can see, it doesn't do predictive text. At the moment, some of BT's call plans, e.g. BT Together 2 & 3 offer 100 free texts per month so it may be worth using if you are on one of these plans but otherwise, it was 10p a text when I last checked. It also allows you to set up separate user areas to keep your messages private but this means texters have to add the user area number to the end of your telephone number.

**Performance**
Well, despite my misgivings about its looks, it performs well, with the adjustable ringer volume being much better than my last phone and the ringer can also be switched off completely. The clarity of calls is good and you can also vary the earpiece volume when you're on a call. As I've not had this phone long, the battery life is great so far. (Batteries are 2 AAA NiMH rechargeable) The manual says it should give 9 hours talk time and 72 hours standby on a single charge.
.

I mentioned it had a slider mechanism - my son took me in hand and showed me how to use it properly i.e. "see that orange bit of plastic that doesn't do anything on the front?" er, yes, "well push up on that and voila, it opens much more easily than the way you were trying"! Easy when you know how :) The manual says you have to open the slider AND press the call button (if off the base) to take a call but I've discovered that it works with either one of them. Makes you wonder who writes these manuals…

**Drawbacks**
The handsfree facility is a bit disappointing as it's not particularly loud. It's enough to hear when doing other things nearby but you still have to be fairly near when speaking for the other person to hear.

No call-barring - It has call screening allowing you to intercept calls after they go to the answering machine but it doesn't have call barring which my last phone had - both outgoing and incoming. Great for barring calls to mobiles when my phonebill went through the roof, thanks to my son and it could also divert specific numbers straight to the answering machine without ringing - now that was very handy at times! As BT charge for call barring, this might explain the lack of this facility.

Keypad number buttons - It has a keypad lock function which, as it's a slider seems a bit pointless to me and although the buttons are a reasonable size and easy to depress, they could, perhaps be better as I've found I occasionally haven't pressed firmly enough as a digit hasn't registered onscreen. You can press 'clear' though to let you go back a digit, rather than starting all over again.

**Conclusion**
On the whole, I'm happy with my phones and can't really fault how they perform. I especially love having different ringtones for my callers and even without the manual, it's very easy to operate. Now if only I'd ordered it in black….. 

...less