The iDECT X3i differs from the X3 in that it has a built in answer phone. Apart from that they are identical.
We have both; we simply re-registered the X3 phones to the X3i base making it see 6 handsets.
Firstly, forget any preconceptions you may have about these being Binatone phones, they leagues apart from what they used to produce in the past.
The phones themselves are very stylish being only 15mm thick and have a lovely clean modern look about them. The keypad is of the membrane type that helps with keeping it clean if sticky fingers get at it! There are two colours of keypad available, a limited edition silver colour and a black. We have both but to be honest we prefer the black.
The keypad is backlit as is the phones colour display. Despite this, standby life and talk-time are more than ample for the home environment.
Call sound quality is superb. We have yet to hear any interference. Effective range is on a par with most good quality home phones.
They can also be used hands free which makes them ideal for busy domestic situations.
Another feature we find useful is being able to make one handset a priority. This allows that handset ring a number of times (selectable between 2, 4 or 6) before the other handsets start to ring. Ideal if you have children you don't want disturbed or if you have a work line in a home/office situation etc. So long as you pick the call up before the number of rings has completed, none of the other phones ring.
You can use up to 6 phones from any one base station and you can name them, however the system WILL still had a digit at the end. If you name the 4th phone to be registered "Hallway" the system will display it on the phone as "Hallway 4". This is actually quite good as to make calls between hands sets you have to dial the handsets number i.e. "4" in this case of hall.
It has 10 different ringing tones and you can make internal calls ring differently to external calls. Both in melody and volume. The maximum volume that can be achieved is quite loud which is nice to see. You also have a choice of two wallpapers and two menu colours.
With an external call you are also able to add another handset in to the call making it three way. I love this feature as I hate having to act as piggy in the middle relaying a conversation. Calls can also be transferred between handsets.
With caller ID, you can use store the number straight into the handsets phonebook.
Other features include sending SMS messages, handsets show the time and each handset has an alarm function.
What we particularly like about them is that they do LOTS of stuff that we don't use or need BUT which does not get in the way of us using them how we want. Some phones are too clever for their own good, these are not one of them.
The answer machine is comprehensive. In addition to listening to the messages from handsets you can also turn the answer machine on or off.
There are two big annoyances; Name and number entry: - why do manufacturers insist on storing name and number information on the phone? Why can't they save it on the base station? Result is you have to enter every entry into every phone. Call lists: - it's great having call lists but when deleted, they are only deleted from that handset, not all handsets. Again it wastes time.
"Nice to haves" would include being able to download you own ring tone, wallpaper and to be able to import names and numbers to the base station from maybe an SD card.
In summary, despite the above niggles which to be honest most phones have, these phones are brilliant. When you take into account their price they are an absolute bargain.
If you have cordless phones three or more years old you won't believe the improvements made. Sound quality is superb and they have lost all of the chunkiness that cordless home phones usually have. They fit into the hand nicely and have a real feeling of quality and class about them, neither are they too heavy nor too light.
I can thoroughly recommend them.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
The hands free iDECT X3i has unique styling in a slim handset design with plenty of ... more
desirable features such as speakerphone, illuminated keypad, speakerphone, SMS, polyphonic ring tones. The display is an icon driven animated colour display with wallpa...
Jan 17th, 2008
(May 7th, 2009)
exceptional by (33%):
very helpful by (67%):
