Binatone MD 750

Needing a new cordless with answerphone after the demise of the BT freestyle unit which had left a large multinational company with me a couple of years earlier, I visited the obvious stores.

Currys, Dixons and Comet were all much of a muchness, with pretty much the same range of phones at pretty much the same range of prices.

I decided to use service as a differentiator, but again they were all much of a muchness with the staff either unable or unwilling to answer my intercom questions for the sake of a potential £100 sale.

A little research on the internet proved my salvation, I discovered that pretty much all the twin/triple and upwards packs of digital phones on the market had the intercom feature I desired.

Why intercom ? you may ask, We live in a Victorian 3-storey terrace and the childrens rooms are on the third floor and shouting (and more importantly being heard by) the children when they are engaged in a Playstation session can be difficult.

Coincidentally that evening I was due for t'big shop (apologies Mr P. Kay) and found myself looking at phones in Asda (come and get your black bin bags).

The choice in my local Asda was basically limited to BT and Binatone, the BT looked the part and the Binatone less so.

Binatone was a brand I'd had before and not rated and Bt being the brand which had just failed.

Features on the two equivalent models, I chose the twin packs as I considered two cordless phones and the existing corded phone (emergency use in power cut) in the study to be best-suited to our needs.

There was a huge price difference £60.00 in favour of Binatone and as the experience was less recent I decided to try knowing a full refund was on it's way from the usually helpful staff at Asda, if the quality was poor.

The units arrived at home and after a small concern about which charger went with which base unit (the writing was tiny), the initial overnight charging began.

Setting up of the phones was minimal, choosing different ring tones for internal/external calls and setting a answerphone message, all other settings I felt were well set as defaults.

Plugged in the units one in the ground floor dining room at the BT(now NTL) socket and one in the desk in the back bedroom on the third floor, everything seemed OK.

Testing time, as I was in by myself this involved ringing the other phone and seeing if I could hear it and I could!

Later when the children arrived home they set about a complete systems test, running around the house with a phone each using them almost like walkie talkies.

Features that I use the batteries provided and the low power consumption let you leave the phone on the table for a long time between charging, the big display tells you when you have a message and press INT then 2 rings the children.

Features that I don't use 40 name and number phone book, caller display, built in speakerphone for handsfree usage, remote access for answerphone, calltime display, memo facility and wall mountable.

I have had the phones for about a month now and haven't come across any real issues, proving it's good to reevaluate your prejudices now and again (remember I didn't like Binatone).

All in All great value at less than £40, I would recommend to anyone except the most style conscious with money to burn.