Binatone System 70

After buying my Binatone phones I discovered much to my horror that my answer machine was not compatible with them, so I took it upon myself to buy the digital answrphone Binatone System 70 from Ebay for £12.50.

The picture above shows off the product well, the only thing that is not obvious is the LCD display to the front left that displays the number of messages and whether the machine is switched on or not.

After taking the machine from the box I was surprised by the size. It's quite long but doesn't sit that high. It's actual dimensions are 12 x 15 x 3cm. I didn't check this out before buying and struggled to fit it onto the table in my living room. I mistakenly believed that digital would mean small.

The System 70 plugs directly into the telephone dock and hey presto you are ready to start. The instruction booklet resembles War and Peace but is in plain English so it wasn't that hard to loearn the basics.

EASE OF RECORDING/PLAYBACK/DELETING MESSAGES

The buttons on the top are set out and clarly marked which is good for me - Pressing record allows you to record your personal message into the mic at the top - It picks up every sound within a 10 metre radius so it's advisable to do it late at night with the TV switched off.

Once you have a message the LCD flashes and pressing play surpringly plays the message - Recordings are clear and aren't muffled in any way but they don't seem very loud and callers can at times seem very distant. The volume can be increased but not to a level where you can do other things around the room - You have to stand by the machine to hear the message - This is a minor niggle and doesn't take away the fact that it does what it is meant to and that is record messages.

The machine can record up to 13 minutes worth of messages. I get nothing like that many messages apart from my mother so cannot really comment.

Each message has it's own number and by using the select, delete or save button you can delete and save messages.

DURABILITY

The machine is made from silver plastic and doesn't look sturdy at all. I have knocked it off the table it sits on once and it still works in the same way. I've had the machine a while now and the quality remains the same - It doesn't seem to suffer from any wear and tear.

The only real problem I have with the machine apart from the low volume is the screeching noise it makes when people leave a message when I'm just avoiding calls - It's quite loud and annoying but can be rectified by switching the box off.

I'm pleased with my buy and would recommend it to anyone with a Binatone phone - The booklet doesn't provide a list of phones this product is compatible with.