Philips SE 6352

My last digital cordless handset a Philips Onis 200 with an answering machine purchased 4 years ago was slowly malfunctioning. Unfortunately the buttons on my otherwise well made Philips Onis 200 handset started to suffer from loss of contact after a few years; mainly the On/off button. At that time in 2002-2003 DECTS (Digitally Enhanced Cordless telecommunication) handsets were still a new phenomenon in the consumer market and there was lots to talk about but today DECTS handsets are relatively common.
So what’s changed in 4 years, surprisingly the technology itself hasn’t changed much but predominantly 2 things have changed:
a) DECTS handsets are now much cheaper
b) they are now made from poor quality plastics and look less robust
Apart from that some manufacturers have added a few extras such as SMS text, polyphonic ring tones, games and some phones now come with colour screens very much like mobile phones. Should you be impressed? Well, not really as none of those extra features adds to the call clarity or technology of the handset you are buying to make and receive voice calls. You can see where this is going…? Next year you’ll probably find an all in one telephone handset with built-in camera, web cam, note book, memory/SIM card reader (well some handsets already have these!) Bluetooth, etc. etc.

BUYING CRITERIA

Despite all the new fancy extras added to phones nowadays my first priority to buying a replacement phone was it should be a digital aka DECTS handset and secondly it should have an answering machine.
With this in mind I narrowed it down to 2 phones Idect X2I Twin Telephone with Answer Machine currently retailing at Argos for £59.95 and this Twin Philips SE6352S Digital Telephone/Answer Machine currently selling at Argos at £89.75 apparently reduced from £109.75 or so they say to get rid of surplus stock!

ERGONOMICS

Comparing the two; the Idect is a much smaller stylish sleek looking black phone not much bigger than a mobile phone. It has a swanky base which lights up each time you replace the handset back to base for charging. The display has an inverse display with black background and doesn’t stay light up and goes dark so you cannot see how long you’ve been talking unless you press a button. The Philips SE6352S handset on the other hand is longer in size and more traditional looking. Although it is bigger it does not feel heavier, it’s quite light as the silver phone is made from cheap lightweight plastic. It’s easy to hold and easy to operate the buttons. The buttons are very easy to press, sometimes too easily pressed meaning you have to delete extra digits if they accidentally get entered. One problem of easily pressed buttons is sometimes when holding the handset in the palm of your hand the speakerphone button on bottom left hand corner [SEE first PHOTO] gets pressed and the speakerphone will come on. The buttons in the previous Philips Onis handset I owned were rubber like with more definition and older Philips Handest had a more solid feel to it [See last PHOTO]. The rectangular menu button in the centre allows you to scroll up and down through the features. The menu itself is very easy to use and self explanatory. I would have preferred this button to be circular rather than rectangular, like a jog dial as in the Pansonic handsets or Sony remote control handsets as these are far easier to operate and control.
My rating: 7/10

SET-UP & INSTALLATION

Both the phones were very easy to set up after the initial 16 hour charging period. I didn’t even have to consult the manual. The menus particularly on the Philips SE6352S handset were easy to jog through and set up phonebook, clock and alarm. You can even assign different ring tones to certain callers e.g. differentiate between work and friends. This Philips handset also has a large memory to store up to 250 names and numbers.The Idect menus in comparison took more effort to set up as the display wasn’t as simple and colourful as the Philips SE6352S handset.
My rating: 9/10

CALL QUALITY, RECEPTION -Making & Receiving Calls

One of my main concerns is that call should be clear with no hiss, crackle on the phone, something my old Philips Onis 200 was very good at to start with but after a few years I started to notice noise on the line. This however is not due to the handset alone but also due to the broadband filter splitter we use to split the telephone line and the computer broad band line. Both phones seemed clear enough on voice calls. However, I felt on the Philips SE6352S handset the volume could not be adjusted to higher than Level 5 and often we couldn’t hear the phone ring as it seemed a bit low. This is one of the downsides of this new Philips SE6352S handset. It does have a host of other extra features like SMS, but I haven't tried this it's just an extra on there that happened to be on this model. One big improvement over the old Philips Onis series is the colour 4 line display so you can see the last 4 numbers dialled like you can on a mobile.
My rating: 5/10

ANSWER MACHINE

The second most important reason I bought this phone was the answer machine and what a disappointment this has turned out to be! Although the recording time on this new Philips SE6352S handset is 30 minutes same as the old Philips Onis 200, the message recording quality is appalling. If I compare this to my old Philips Onis 200 phone I ’d give this 1/10 and the old Philips Onis 200 10/10. Yes, it’s that bad. When you playback a recorded message the voice sounds distorted, with vibration, and noise. It’s so bad that sometimes its really hard to recognise who left the message as they sound so different. I cannot believe Philips have gone back from their excellent Onis 200/300 answering machine sets which had excellent recording, with crystal clear speech to something that’s really inferior. You can use the pre-defined answer message or record your own outgoing answer message and I found my voice sounded so different and ‘tinny’ nothing like the call quality of the Onis 200. One reason I can think of that may have contributed to the poor voice recording is that the outer shell of this new Philips SE6352S handset is made from a lightweight plastic whereas the older Philips Onis 200 was made from a much harder more durable hard resin type plastic that had a metal feel to it. I won’t comment further on the Idects as that answer machine was only 15 minutes and seemed to cut peoples messages off.
To read the review of the old Philips Onis see link at at of this review. Even though the Philips Onis is an old model they are still available through auction sites and some online retailers though not on the High Street.
My rating: 1/10

*Photos of my old Philips Onis 200 and new Philips SE6352S handset are included in this review -see photo 4.

How can Philips IMPROVE the Philips SE6352S handset?

Improve the clarity of voice recording on the answer machine
Make the volume adjustable and louder on handset

OVERALL

Is this the handset for me? Sadly not. Although the display and menus have become more colourful and User friendly the call quality has suffered especially with the answer machine recording and playback of messages. There are a host of features including a sim card reader very useful so you can copy all your phone numbers over in one go. However, despite the high tech features if you're predominantly looking for DECTS handset with answer machine you will be disappointed with this answer machine. So I cannot recommend this handset if you were definitely looking for a phone with answering machine facility. However, as a handset itself its not bad and I rate the handset as 6/10.
My overall rating: 5/10

I would suggest a Philips handset if they were the same build and call quality as the old Philips Onis range otherwise till I can recommend a good Philips twin handset under the £100 mark I’d suggest any of the Panasonic or BT handsets. I wouldn’t recommend any of the Binatone phones (including the Idect phones - also made by Binatone) as although they may look stylish the battery life on Binatone’s isn’t particularly good.

Other Suggestions:
Please note all the suggestions I have listed below have been researched for the above buying criteria and I have personally seen and handled them. My first choice is the Panasonic as listed below closely followed by the BT Diverse 6250 which has a far superior build quality.

1.Panasonic KXTG8122ES Digital Telephone/Answer Machine-Twin -still has colour display screen with 40 minutes recording time on answering machine! (£99.95)
Panasonic KXTG7122ES Digital Telephone/Answer Machine-Twin £79.95 (20 minutes answering machine)
2. BT Diverse 6250 Digital Telephone/Answer Machine - Twin (£99.95)-if you want solid handest of good build quality (Note- this is not colour just LCD display with blue background)
BT Verve 500 Black Telephone Answer Machine - Twin.(£99.95) if you want a slim stylish looking DECT cordless telephone with answer machine, but you may compromise on practicality as the buttons on this phone are tiny. Prices are correct at time of review on 25/06/07 as always these prices will be down 30-50% within the next 6 months as newer products emerge onto the market; always check price comparison sites like Ciao, pricerunner etc.

Other Ref: Philips Onis 200 " A step forward in Communication (Update over 4 years)http://www.ciao.co.uk/Philips_ONIS​200VOX__Review_5334674

An opinion of connoisseur_haggler ciao.com 2007