Philips CD245

Recently we have been haunted by our cordless home phones! Ringing once during the night with no caller, giving us the fright of our lives, cutting out during a call and crackling so we can't hear the other person talking! We decided we definitely needed to invest in a new set and what better time than the sales!

We searched around a few shops and online and felt the best deal we found was from Tesco. Reduced from £49.99 to £29.99 The Philips CD245 Duo Digital Cordless Phone Set was just what we were looking for.

The Packaging

The phones are packaged neatly in a cardboard box. Included in the box are the 2 phone handsets, the 2 phone bases, one of which includes an answer machine, 2 mains adapters, the cable to connect the main phone to the phone line and 4 rechargeable batteries, 2 for each handset. All items are well packaged but still very easy to unpack.

The Look

A stylish looking set all in silver. The phone handsets themselves measure roughly 6" x 1.75" x 1" and are very easy to hold. The main unit with answer machine measures roughly 4" x 4.5" x 3" and the smaller base unit for the second handset measures 3" x 3" x 2.5". Both base units gradually narrow coming to a peak at the top. Quite a neat and compact set overall. The phones themselves and the answer machine all have off white buttons with black digits printed on them. Each phone has a display screen with a funky orange backlight.

The Set Up and Initial Use

Before using the phones the rechargeable batteries must be inserted and the phones placed on their bases with the bases being connected to the mains power. They should then be left to charge for 24 hours until fully charged. Once they are charged the set up is really easy. The main base station must be connected to the phone socket and then connected to a mains power point. The second base unit can be placed anywhere as long as it is connected to the mains power. Now the phones are ready to use.

Functions

The main base station has the answer machine built in. This is pretty straight forward and simple to use. There is a play/stop button, which as it would suggest plays the messages and stops them. They are played back in order of first recorded first. There is an LED orange indicator light which is on when the machine is on, it blinks slowly at 1 second intervals when there is a new unread message and quicker at ½ second intervals when the memory on the answer machine is full. There is an on/off key to switch the machine on and off if required. A delete key deletes the current message and can delete all messages by pressing and holding. Two arrow keys allow you to repeat or skip messages and there is also a volume key allowing you to increase or decrease the volume during playback. Also on the base unit is a paging key to locate the handset when it has been misplaced!

This phone has a phone book function where you can store up to 100 numbers, each entry can have up to a maximum of 24 numbers and 12 characters for the name. The phonebook can be accessed by pushing the button with the little book symbol displayed on it. To add entries into the phonebook you access this facility by using the menu button, scroll through to phonebook and then add entry. The name needs to be added first followed by the number.

If you don't want to access the phonebook, or perhaps use the same numbers frequently you can use the redial list. This stores the last 5 numbers dialled and can be accessed using the scrolling buttons.

An intercom function can be used between handsets, but only those registered to the base units. Not really sure if I would use this function, I think I would probably just shout! Although I suppose it could be handy in a very big house.

External calls can also be transferred from one handset to the other, this is easily done by placing the caller on hold and then entering the handset number.

You can set the time and date on these phones allowing you to check when calls were made. There is also an alarm function.

A loud speaker function allows others in the room to listen into the call and the keypad can also be locked.

Call ID is also available on this set, displaying the number of the person calling on the screen.

One function I love (sad I know) is the choice of 10 polyphonic ring tones. Really cool I think for a land line! It's great having a funky ring tone for the home phone, although it does take some getting used to I don't know how many times I've stood wondering what the noise was and where it was coming from and then missed the call!

My Opinion

This is a digital phone set, which is supposed to give a better sound quality than analogue and I do definitely feel the sound quality on calls is clearer. It is a nice looking set with all the functions needed. The hand sets are a good size and fit nicely into the hand. Sound quality on ring and calls is very good and I do like the volume control, which can be used during a call if the caller isn't quite loud enough or too loud as the case may be.

The instruction manual with the phone set is very well laid out and easy to follow as is the set up of the phone.

Overall I would definitely recommend this phone.

www.philips.com