Philips ID 937

...with the exciting tag of Philips ID937. What a name for designer phones!!


WHY?

OK, you have looked back through my other reviews and spotted other phones being reviewed by me. So you are asking, " Why is Trev buying more phones?"
Firstly, and honestly, the Philips ones we had, were looking really scruffy and the worse for wear. Remember that they do get a lot of use as they combine both personal ...
...needed phones with caller ID functions. This was not about identifying parishioners before I talked to them, it was about mother-in-law.!! Having gone into sheltered accommodation, she has discovered that an antidote to loneliness is to ring us about 10 times a day.! While her son-in-law is a patient, saintly character who just smiles contentedly when his dinner is being interrupted for the third time, her daughter was getting desperate. New phones ... more

I would like to introduce you to my brand new quads! - a set of four phones with the exciting tag of Philips ID937. What a name for designer phones!!

WHY?

OK, you have looked back through my other reviews and spotted other phones being reviewed by me. So you are asking, " Why is Trev buying more phones?"
Firstly, and honestly, the Philips ones we had, were looking really scruffy and the worse for wear. Remember that they do get a lot of use as they combine both personal and professional roles for me.
Secondly, and tearfully, I needed phones with caller ID functions. This was not about identifying parishioners before I talked to them, it was about mother-in-law.!! Having gone into sheltered accommodation, she has discovered that an antidote to loneliness is to ring us about 10 times a day.! While her son-in-law is a patient, saintly character who just smiles contentedly when his dinner is being interrupted for the third time, her daughter was getting desperate. New phones were an essential aid to our sanity.!! - and so I obliged.

WHAT ?

So what are the ID937's ? They are a set of four phones, each with a charging station and one with an answer machine base unit, that perform as ordinary phones around the house, but with a bit of style and with a few unusual extra functions.
They are available as single, dual and triple units as well, and if you are really eager you can add a couple more extra handsets too.

HOW ?

So let me tell you a little bit about how they function.
They each have a colour lcd screen on the front. and below this a fairly normal keypad.
In normal position on the charger, the screen is darkish with the coloured hands of a digital clock showing the current time.
When the phone rings, the screen lights up as does a backlight which illuminates the numbers on the keypad.
You can chose from a small selection of wallpapers for the lcd screen, and I have set a different one for each phone, so that I know which belongs where!!
A further method of ensuring that my study phone with its phonebook of business numbers, does not get left downstairs, is that it is possible to name each phone with a little help from the keypad. So when the lcd panel lights up, the name assigned to each phone shows too.! Neat, hey ?
When it light up for call purposes, you lose the clock but the lcd panel displays date and time functions as well.
Not unlike a mobile phone, there are little graphics on the lcd panel to show things like strength of signal, state of the battery, and whether there are answerphone or sms messages waiting for your attention.

Each phone is enclosed in a slim, black case which is glossy, satin black, as is the charging unit - so looks modern and sleek. The rear panel has a different surface that is matt and more tactile, kind of soft, if you know what I mean, and so probably reduces any risk of the phone slipping out of your hand when you run from the sink with sopping hands to chat to the cold caller from the sub-continent.

WHAT?

So what was it about this recent addition to the Philip's family of phones, that made this particular model so appealing.?
They look cool - and that has been officially confirmed by offspring who know about these things!!
They have a vast range of options, including that answerphone, which can record about 15 minutes of messages.
It is possible to send and receive text messages and voicemail.
The main base unit accepts sim cards so that sim details can be transferred to and from a mobile phone.
There is a vast phonebook facility, and you can choose whether or not to duplicate the details on any or all of the other handsets.
AND it has caller ID.! That facility does not yet override withheld numbers, or foreign calls, which show on the screen as 'out of area' for the latter, and 'ID withheld' for the former. So if mother-in-law goes abroad or gets savvy enough to withhold her number, we face a crisis.!
The phones have a Caller Log function, which can let you know who has called recently on phone, answerphone or sms. On the lcd, the number of such calls are displayed, until you decide to delete some or all of them.
A little red indicator light on the very top of the phone, also flashes when any of these events have occurred on that handset since you last used it.

Under personal settings, you can select a variety of choices for wallpapers, themes, intensity of back panel lighting, ring tones and languages.
On advanced setting screen, you can choose settings for conference calls, baby sitting calls, recall times and more.
And just in case you are very unloved and no-one calls, you can still have meaningful iner-reaction with your phones, because there are three games in full colour to be played.!

BUT?
So are there any annoying aspects that I should warn you about?
Well, be warned that these are not yet cheap. At around £45 for a single handset and nearly £200 for the quads, you may have quite a mental battle assuring yourself that this is a justified expense.
I have found it annoying that when I stop the red indicator light flashing on one handset, by deleting the call log entries, for instance, that does not automatically produce the same result on the other handsets. There probably is a setting for that, but I have not yet to discover where.
The sound is beautifully clear, and it is quite nice to hear different ringtones on each of the phones around the house. But I do not find the lcd screens just as clear. My family will all look knowingly at this comment, and smiles will develop around the house, sharing the conviction that my eyesight is dimming, and that I am too stubborn to wear specs all the time. I just think that the screen could be just a tad larger....!!??
Battery life is very good if you leave the handsets off the charger platforms, and range is supposed to be around 300 metres.!
Final BUT, is about the name! Other companies give their top phones really fancy names - mine are just ID937's 

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