Not been around for a while again, got loads going on, hopefully i'll have a bit more time once the ...
Not been around for a while again, got loads going on, hopefully i'll have a bit more time once the kids are back at school.x
Member since:06.02.2007
Reviews:265
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The BT Synergy 4500 is just one more in a long line of BT produced phones, coming in a single, duo, trio and quad packages it is designed for homes and businesses alike. The phone is cordless with a separate docking unit for each handset, each handset is a good size fitting comfortably in the hand but not so small, like mobiles etc, that it is difficult to use properly. The sleek and stylish black handset features large easy to press buttons, they are well spaced and clear to read making the phone nice and easy to use, many phones I've used in the past have had their buttons too close or too small making it easy to dial wrongly or cut off a call when you're meant to be answering it. The phone also has an LCD display screen which shows such things as the incoming callers number and address book entries, it is backlit which is great for those of us with poorer eyesight or for use in dim light.
The phone has a large address book capacity holding up to 255 names and numbers, that's ample space for me and my family, although I'm sure a few of those young hip social networkers out there may have enough contacts to fill the space, rather fantastically the phone has a SIM card reading facility meaning you can insert your
mobile phone SIM card into the phone and it will detect your numbers allowing you to copy them into the phones memory saving you from entering them one by one or reaching for an address book every time you need to make a call.
There are 15 different melodies available with the phone, which we found quite difficult to actually set up at first, all we'd get was a few seconds of the melody before a basic ring tone cut in, however after a little perseverance the desired tone was selected and now plays whenever the phone rings, there is also a basic ringing tone in the background of it though which sets it apart from basic mobile phones, handy in a house full of mobiles, this way you'll know it's the landline you need to answer. As far as the actual tone of the melodies go, they aren't the best I've heard, they're well put together so you can tell what they are but the tone is quite rich, almost padded with cotton wool in their sound, they certainly aren't what I'd describe as bright and breezy.
It is possible to send and receive texts from this phone making it like a mobile in many ways, this feature is handy if you only need to send some quick info rather then get caught in a long conversation, you will however need to sign up for the BT caller display service to be able to receive your texts, this is at no extra charge and of course also gives you the caller display feature that shows you the number dialling in to you on the LCD screen.
The answer machine has up to 11.5 minutes recording time which should be more than enough for the average family who've left the house for the day, even on a weeks holiday you're unlikely to rack up enough messages to fill up the whole memory. A nice little feature with the answer phone system, which I've not always had on previous phones, is the message display counter, which obviously tells you how many messages you've been left, occasionally I've left a message having spoken to the person who left it between the message being left and me getting home to listen to my messages, in my laziness I'll leave the message until I need to listen to others that may have been left so if the counter is being shown as 1 message I can go out for the day and know when I get home if there's a new message (i.e counter showing 2 messages) that I need to deal with or just the old one that I can ignore for a little longer.
With 50m range indoors and a whopping 300m outdoors this phone is perfect for anywhere in the house or garden, you can easily carry it down to the bottom of the garden to do a bit of planting or peg out your washing knowing you'll have a decent enough range and signal to answer the call comfortably. The integrated antennae makes carrying the phone around even easier as there's no bit sticking out to get caught up on clothes.
When fully charged the phone has up to 10 hours worth of talk time, which is one heck of a phone call! As well as 100 hours standby time, meaning you can accidentally forget to put the phone back in its cradle or not put it back in quite right, usually the mistake I make, and there's no risk of the phone going flat over night. The phone takes AAA batteries which are rechargeable, when it is docked in its main unit this recharges the batteries, taking this form of battery though means that in the event of some kind of electricity/power problem you could use regular AAA batteries to power the phone and just hope the phone lines etc aren't effected by whatever has caused the power problems.
Having the triple unit means that you can pretty much cover all areas of the home, a phone in key rooms such as the lounge, bedroom and kitchen. Obviously they all ring simultaneously which can be quite a racket but once one handset is picked up the others stop ringing. The multiple handsets also allow you to "conference call" meaning 3 different people could use all 3 handsets at the same time (obviously speaking to one person on the other end) making a larger group conversation then a one on one call, a great option for when you (or your teenagers) have groups of friends over, they all get to speak to the caller at once, a girly gossip dream I'm sure. You also have the feature of being able to make internal calls to the other handsets, perhaps not necessary in smaller homes but larger houses or town house style buildings may benefit from this.
The main phone has a larger docking unit then the additional handsets, it is however nice and compact and doesn't take up too much space on the coffee table, from the main unit you can deal with your answering machine and missed calls. The docking units for the additional handsets are even more compact making the overall set up very tidy and space friendly, all handsets will fit in each docking unit so there's no problem if handsets get mixed up.
Price & Availability- You can pick the phone up from the online BT shop or from many electrical stores, ours came from Comet. Obviously prices vary depending on the set you want, a single starts from £59.99, a double from £89.99, trio from £109.99 and the quad from £129.99. Which overall I'd say is good value which ever package you chose, you get a stylish, feature packed phone that will last.
Go to- http://www.shop.bt.com For more on the BT phone range, prices, accessories etc….
Overall- The BT Synergy 4500 is a pleasure to use, easy to manage with fantastic modern features such as digital answer phone, SIM card reader and text capacity. It's basic features such as it's battery life and range make it very reliable and having the option of buying in different sized packages it is perfect for individuals or large families. It looks good and is a great size for a landline phone, not too small and fiddly like many modern units can be. My only complaint is that I'm not fond of the ring tones but otherwise I would certainly recommend it.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Advantages: SUFFICIENT FEATURES, LARGE MEMORIES AND LONG TALK TIME. Disadvantages: DOES NOT CHARGE LIKE THE ORDINARY MOBILE PHONES AND DOES NOT HAVE ALL THE FEATURES LIKE THE MOBILE PHONES.
apatra 21.03.2007 ·
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