Siemens Gigaset S455

...the hand free option. The Siemens unit in contrast works extremely well for both receiving and transmitting whilst on hands free.

A little gimmick with the phone is the mute / hold button. Should you want to really annoy people, when pressing the mute button the phone can be set to play one of those highly irritating tunes you get when phoning large companies.
This is great fun when you receive those pain in the backside unsolicited ...
...easier to use on my Siemens than my mobile. The facility allows sending a total of 612 characters at a time and also allows multiple messages to be sent to contacts in your phone book. What further enhances this feature is the superbly clear and easy to read LCD display on the phone.
If you want to keep your messages private, the phone offers 3 separate mail boxes. These can all be protected with a user defined pin number.

Call ... more

I purchased my phones from the infamous flea bay for less than half the retail price. Admittedly they were factory returns (refurbished), but still carried the same 12 months warranty as though they were new.

I must say that I have found them to be very good in terms of features, and in actual use. The instruction manual for the phone reads like a novel with a whole host of features. I will run through the features that I personally have found to be of benefit.

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Design
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The general layout is deigned to mimic that of a mobile phone. Although it may not have as many features as newer mobiles, the basic operations are the same. As most of us are now quite used to using a mobile, this makes the phone extremely user friendly. I'm sure I'm not on my own when I say that reading the user manual is a last resort to be used only when you have cocked something up. I found that 95% of the features and operations I could relate to strait away without reading pages of baffling text.
A very useful design is the rear battery cover. Rather than having a small conventional sliding battery cover, the back section is all in one piece that snaps on. Not only does this make the handset look tidier, but it also stops the kids robbing the batteries for their MP3 etc.

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Quality
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The build quality of the phone is very good. It has a good solid feel to it and appears to be robust enough to take life's little knocks, e.g. when the handset gets dropped.
The only complaint I have is the very soft clear plastic used to cover the LCD screen. I have noticed that it takes very little effort to mark this, I feel a harder more scratch resistant plastic would have been much better.

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As a phone
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At the end of the day, behind the all the extra little gizmo's, the primary use of this product is surprisingly enough "A Telephone".
The sound quality is exceptionally good and clear, as is the range that it transmits over. Somewhat surprising is the quality of sound when using the hands free feature. Although I had this function on my old phone the mic. reception was next to useless. Having repeated myself several times I would frequently abandon the hand free option. The Siemens unit in contrast works extremely well for both receiving and transmitting whilst on hands free.

A little gimmick with the phone is the mute / hold button. Should you want to really annoy people, when pressing the mute button the phone can be set to play one of those highly irritating tunes you get when phoning large companies.
This is great fun when you receive those pain in the backside unsolicited sales calls. I have found the average time of being on hold and listening to the irritating tune is 1 ¼ minutes before they get fed up and go away. Revenge is so sweet!!

In the same way as you can with a mobile, the handset has a keylock. This is easy to set without having to go through several menu options, and is useful to prevent accidental dialling, particularly if there are small inquisitive children in the house.

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Extra Features
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Phone Book
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The phone book allows you to store 150 different numbers into each of the handsets. However should you require the same phone book on all handsets the same, a very convenient copy facility is included. Rather than have to repeat inputting the same data into each handset, numbers can be sent either individually or as a complete phone book from one handset to another.
In the same way as a mobile phone, numbers can be retrieved from either the incoming or outgoing call lists and saved directly into your phone book.
In addition to names and numbers, the phone book also allows you to store birthdays / anniversary dates etc against each contact.

Answer Machine
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On the main base unit an answer phone is incorporated. The phone offers 3 different recording qualities. On the middle setting which produces crystal clear recordings, up to 35 minutes of messages can be stored. All messages are electronically stored, the advantage of this being that should a power failure occur, all your messages will still be available.
If you are expecting a high volume of calls, the incoming message time can be restricted to either 30 , 60 or 120 seconds.

Text Messaging
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The phone has the ability to send and receive SMS (text) messages. This was one of my main reasons for purchasing the phone as with BT option 3, I get 200 inclusive texts per month from my land line. The ease of this feature is superb. I actually find this function easier to use on my Siemens than my mobile. The facility allows sending a total of 612 characters at a time and also allows multiple messages to be sent to contacts in your phone book. What further enhances this feature is the superbly clear and easy to read LCD display on the phone.
If you want to keep your messages private, the phone offers 3 separate mail boxes. These can all be protected with a user defined pin number.

Call Recording
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Hands up who has ever contacted a company or organisation then called back only for them to deny all knowledge of the previous call ever taking place??????
A handy little tool is the ability to use the answering machine to record either an incoming or outgoing call. This can be set either on a call by call basis or permanently switched on / off.

Internal calls
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The phone has a facility to be used for making calls from one handset to the other. This can be useful for contacting the other half up the back garden without the need for hanging out of the window and shouting!!

Conference calls
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The phone has the ability to allow calls to be received via all handsets
at the same time. This illuminates the need for someone to traipse around the house in order to pass the handset to someone else.

ID Withholding
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The phone can be set to withhold your number on a call by call basis. This is the only thing I have found that could be improved on the phone. This facility is only available for the next call you make. I feel it would have been more beneficial to enable this feature to all calls.

Baby / Room Monitor
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The extra handsets can be set up as a baby monitor. When a pre selected noise level is detected, the handset will call the other handset so that you can listen in. This goes one step further in that it can also be set to call an external number such as your mobile, therefore providing you with a type of intruder alarm whilst away from home.
If using this facility as a baby monitor, all ring tones and illuminated displays / keypads are automatically turned off thereby avoiding disturbance if the phone should ring.

Alarm Clock
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As the handset displays both the date and time, it can also be used as an alarm clock. This feature is exclusive to the handset being used, consequently it is possible to set a different alarm call for each of the handsets.

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Summary
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This review was originally not intended to be as long as it is(apologies for boring the pants of everyone!). As I have have progressed through it, I have found myself picking up the handset and doing the old "and another thing.......".
To a large extent this sums up what a fantastic piece of equipment and excellent buy I have personally found this to be.
If asked would I recommended this to anyone, by my ramblings shown above, the answer would be 100% YES!!

Above I have listed some of the more useful features of the phone. I will not list all the specifications for the phone as the list is endless. Hopefully I can go one better, if you are actually interested in purchasing this particular handset, please use the link below which will take you directly to Siemens download page where you can download the complete user manual. This maybe of some use to someone as it explains both the functionality with pictures and the phones technical specifications.

http://gigaset.siemens.com/shc/0,1935,hq_en_0_23014_rArNrNrNrN_prodId%3A69337,00.html

Alternatively if you want to see one in the flesh so to speak. Currys are are currently retailing them in store for £99.99. 

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