Binatone I-DECT X1 TWIN

...and shortcut controls. The Binatone iDECT X1 also features a speakerphone for hands-free talking. The base has one small button that acts as a pager, which will ring the handset when pressed, ideal for finding it when it's gotten lost amongst the sheets on a lazy Sunday morning, or thrown down behind the sofa.

Performance.
A phone, no matter how basic or advanced, is completely useless or anyone and everyone unless it performs ...
...vaguely given to me by Binatone when I researched it. Needless to say, iSound does not live up to expectations, and one must only wonder what the effect, or lack of, would be in noisier environments than a silent bedroom. The second major important performance consideration is the distance from the base to which the phone continues to operate fully without distortion of the wireless signal. I have been unable to fully test this, but it worked within ... more

I bought this from Asda for ca. £28. The main appeal was its price, relatively good experiences with Binatones in the past and above all the 'inverse display' feature promoted on the packaging.

Packing & Contents
This phone is very well packaged in an appealling slim and small box. In fact, I'd say it's one of the smallest packs I've seen recently. It comes complete with the phone, charger, BT cable, manual and warranty and two batteries to get you going.

Setup
This is a simple two minute job; just plug the charger and BT cables into their respective wall and base sockets. The batteries fit one behind the other through the bottom of the handset, with a drawing pin-like screw-in retainer to keep the compartment closed (a rather neat and innovative method, and in my opinion much preferred over the traditional battery compartment with sealed battery packs). The batteries are already partly charged so you're good to go right away. Handset connection to the base is automatic and takes just a few seconds.

Design
The handset has got to be one of the slimmest I've seen. Imagine a tubular container, like that for talcom powder split in half down the middle and you've got the shape there. The top and bottom are completely flat. On the front, from top to bottom, are the earpiece, 3-line LED display, phone control buttons and standard 3x4 numeric keypad. Underneath this is the small circular microphone. The handset is predominantly aluminium coloured, with the keyboard having white buttons on a white background. It really looks quite appealing if not sexy. The handset is very small, at approximately 4cm wide and 7-8cm tall. Whereas by no means ergonomically designed, it's small size does give it the advantage of tucking nicely into the shoulder, and it does fit nicely into the hand, particularly for those with smaller statures. The base is flat and round, like two table mats placed one above the other, with the bottom one slightly smaller in diameter. They are both white. Cables plug into the lower 'circle' on the right hand side. Note however that there is slightly too little room for the L-shaped power adapter jack, so the cable will twist awkwardly at 90 degrees to the connector. This isn't bad, but it's definitely a small design fault. There are two pins and two square ruts on top of the base into which the phone slots when docked. This way, it stands straight up on the base. One advantage of this is that the phone cannot be accidentally knocked off the base, something which is easy to do with other less snug fitting setups. Conversely however, it may be difficult to easily slot the phone into place for charging with just one hand, particularly in the dark. Both the phone itself and the base feel strong and sturdy to the touch, and they do not in any feel 'breakable'. That is to say, I would expect this phone to take a fair few knocks before showing any signs of wear and tear. The semi-circular design also helps with this.

Useability.
As may have been mentioned on my other reviews, I'm partially sighted. For this reason, useability is very important to me. If a product isn't useable, it doesn't matter how sophisticated its features as they will inevitably be inaccessible to me, the user. The inverse display, basically a LED display with white text on a black background was a major appeal, but sadly disappointed. Contrast is poor, even when looked at under a magnifying glass or CCTV, and the brightness is faint even when in the dark. Also, the backlight does not remain on for more than a few seconds, which may be problematic for those who take a while to read the screen. I personally was unable to read the text on the screen at all due to the contrast. Therefore, the rest of this review is speculative and based on information I gained with sighted assistance.

Talking of useability, the keypad construction is also an important consideration, especially if the phone will be used frequently. Here too, it is disappointing. The keys are plastic and feel cheap and 'dough-like' to the touch. That is, they do not 'click' firmly when pressed, but sink into the phone and slowly rise back up again. This makes dialling, particularly at speed, difficult. Also, there is quite a lag between a key being pressed and a response on the phone. This is particularly noticeable when dialling with the numeric keypad, and could potentially be problematic for older-style interactive phone systems that quickly time out when no user input is detected (e.g, telephone banking systems).

Features.
This phone has, for its main features, a 15 minutes answering machine, Caller Display, a 20(?) name and number memory, Call Log and adjustable ringer melodies. IT also has the 'patented' iSound technology (later). These, at least, are the features printed on the packaging. The keypad also has keys for Redial and Recall functions, required to use many Calling Features offered with telephony voice services (e.g 3-way calling). The telephone control buttons basically feature a square, with four small buttons, one at each corner, and a central plus-shaped cross acting as both navigation, volume, and shortcut controls. The Binatone iDECT X1 also features a speakerphone for hands-free talking. The base has one small button that acts as a pager, which will ring the handset when pressed, ideal for finding it when it's gotten lost amongst the sheets on a lazy Sunday morning, or thrown down behind the sofa.

Performance.
A phone, no matter how basic or advanced, is completely useless or anyone and everyone unless it performs well. Cordless phones do introduce some complications regarding clarity of sound, signal interference, etc, but this, by today's standards, is no excuse for poor performance. Sadly, this phone does not live up to expectations given everything else said so far. In my very first test call to a UK landline operating with a corded handset, the destination party reported poor sound quality and some 'crackle', even though I myself did not hear anything unexpected from the X1's earpiece. This in itself is unacceptable, particularly as I was sitting right next to the base at the time, with no other electronic devices in the vicinity that could possibly cause interference of the type described. I then tried the speakerphone, and whereas the other party noted some improvement, it was minimal and not all that impressive. As mentioned above, this phone incorporates iSound technology. Basically, as this is a Digital handset, iSound attempts to improve sound quality further by filtering out undesirable noise from the microphone end. I'm not too sure if this also includes an element of background noise cancelling, such as that found on many Bluetooth cell phone headsets, but this is the description rather vaguely given to me by Binatone when I researched it. Needless to say, iSound does not live up to expectations, and one must only wonder what the effect, or lack of, would be in noisier environments than a silent bedroom. The second major important performance consideration is the distance from the base to which the phone continues to operate fully without distortion of the wireless signal. I have been unable to fully test this, but it worked within the confines of my house, no less than 20 feet from the base and through 3 plasterboard walls. The phone itself is rated for operation within 50m of the base station indoors and 300m outdoors, although from other reviews of this product this seems a rather over-enthusiastic estimate by the developers. One final comment on the performance, and one that is a real annoyance, is the low range of volume settings. By low, I really mean a choice of two volumes, either high or low, which, although not really noticeable when used normally, do have a significant effect when used with the speakerphone. The high volume setting in particular seems to cause distortion, and this is even noticeable when just listening to the dial tone or the beeps made when the phone is dialling a number.

Documentation
The manual for the X1 is admittedly good, clear and well laid out, in comparison to other Binatone manuals and those of other brands. It was easy to locate both the diagram showing the phone's layout, and instructions for particular functions, such as adding numbers to the phone's memory or turning the phone off complete (a rather useful power-saving feature, and particularly so for when you don't want to be disturbed).

Overall.
So, to summarise. For a sub-£30 phone, it's esthetically pleasing, slim, compact and well-constructed, much more so than many more expensive models. It has a good feature set that, though standard, provides everything one would need for day-to-day use around the home or small office. However, it is heavily let down when it comes to performance, with several useability issues, most notably the ineffectiveness of the display, sluggish keypad, and sub-par sound quality. All in all, I feel one would be better either choosing something a little more expensive (for don't get me wrong, Binatone can and do make some fine products), or choosing another brand. I will be keeping this phone for the 28 days grace period offered by Asda prior to returning it, admittedly just because I cannot live without a cordless phone, regardless of its poor quality.

I give the Binatone iDECT X1 a 2-star rating. 

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