How to Buy a Cordless Phone

Cordless phones give you the freedom to walk around and do other things while conversing. 900-MHz phones cost as little as 25-channel, 46-49 MHz cordless phones cost just a couple of years ago, and sound quality continues to improve - although reliability continues to decline.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• Cordless Phone Battery
• Cordless Telephones

1. Ignore manufacturers' claims for range; range depends more on conditions than on the phone.
2. Buy a 2.4-GHz phone for the best sound quality and range. Buy a 900-MHz phone for good sound quality and range. If your main concern is price, buy a 46-49 MHz, 25-channel cordless phone with noise reduction circuitry.
3. Expect to spend at least $35 for a usable 900-MHz phone and at least $180 for a 2.4-GHz phone.
4. Choose a phone with digital spread spectrum for guaranteed security and great clarity, but be aware that it will have annoying, hollow, digital sound quality.
5. Compare battery standby times (the life between recharges when phone is unused), which range from 7 to 30 days. Look for a nickel metal hydride (NiMH) battery on a high-end phone for considerably more life per charge.
6. Get a dual-battery phone for ultimate convenience and battery life. One battery charges in the base while the other is in use. Find out if a dual-battery model works during power outages (no other telephones can).
7. Make sure the phone beeps when the battery is low (and when the phone is out of range).
8. Decide which convenience features you want, such as speed-dial buttons (and how many of each), redial or auto redial, any-key answer, auto talk (answer a call by removing handset from base), and voice-dial technology (speak a name or number to dial).
9. Choose features to match your phone services, such as flash for call waiting or caller ID display.
10. Compare base-to-handset communication features: 1-way paging or 2-way paging beep tones (this helps you locate a missing handset), or paging and intercom for voice communication.
11. Decide what business features you need, such as call conferencing, call transfer, a hold button, a headset jack, or two or more lines.
12. Consider other features such as dual key pads (base and handset), a lighted keypad, hearing-aid compatibility, large buttons, LCD display, speakerphone, and a mute button.

Tips & Warnings

• High-end phone batteries can cost $20 or more.
• To preserve battery life, dock your phone only when the battery is dead.
• Avoid phones with integrated answering machines, unless saving space is more important than the cost of replacing the unit when either part fails.
• Customer satisfaction is consistently high with Panasonic and Toshiba phones, and low with low-end Sony phones and off-brands.
• Make sure the phone is wall-mountable if you wish to hang it.
• Unfortunately, you cannot test a cordless phone in a store (due to high levels of radio-frequency interference) to get an idea of how it will sound in your home.
• You must purchase caller ID service from your phone company regardless of the features on your phone.
• Avoid phones recommended by Consumer Reports. By the time the report is published, the models are old. Recommended phones, even if they were better, stay on the market for several years until the next ratings (vs. the average product life span of 6 months) and are superceded by every other brand.

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