Pat’s Favorite Cordless Phone: AT&T DECT 6.0
Monday, 16 May 2011 | by Pat's Picks
I love my cordless phone.
A colleague at work was telling me about a phone mishap on the weekend, prompting me to offer up a recommendation for a replacement. It made me realize that, for the first time in my life, I’ve finally discovered a cordless phone that delivers on quality, performance and price.
If you’re among the many “cord cutters” and no longer maintain a home phone you can stop reading now. But if you are like me and have a landline you can probably relate to the fact that it’s not easy to buy a cordless phone that does what it’s supposed to do. I’ve tried to sift through the various online product reviews and they didn’t give me the answers I wanted.
We’ve probably been through a dozen cordless phones over the years. Initially, the catalyst for changing from one to another was the search for a less-crowded analog frequency. Then we got our first digital model. The interference problems went away but were replaced by a range issue in our brick-and-steel apartment building.
A few years ago I found a vTech model that I was reasonably happy with. Until the rechargeable batteries wore out. The replacement was a proprietary NiCad battery that cost a fortune and barely lasted a year.
Frustrated, I decided I would spend my way to cordless phone satisfaction with what was, at the time, a $200 Philips model.
The ID937 looks pretty. But it has the most ridiculous button layout imaginable. In the attempt to be sleek they’ve made all the buttons the same, so you can never just instinctively find a button with your thumb. You always have to look before you press. Within weeks I had made up my mind that it was not the phone of my dreams.
About a year ago I made one last push to find a cordless phone that actually works. I made several trips to our neighborhood Best Buy. I carefully evaluated the features and settled on a Uniden model. Within an hour of setting it up I knew I hated it. The menu structure was complicated and the range was poor. It went back in the box and I marched back to Best Buy.
The friendly Best Buy employee who offered to “help” me at the cordless phone display offered no actual help. Apparently the training he had received on the topic of phones consisted mainly of an ability to read the shelf tag aloud: “This one has DECT 6.0, 4 handsets, a digital answering system and intercom capability,” he said.
“But does it have a nickel-metal hydride battery?” I responded.
“It doesn’t say.”
Eventually the Best Buy employee went away and I opened up a box to determine that the AT&T DECT 6.0 (CL82409) phone had the long-lasting NiMH battery I was looking for, and seemed to meet my other requirements. So I bought it.
And the rest is Kiernan family cordless phone history. The phone has worked flawlessly. I don’t program a lot of numbers into it and I’m not a guy who scrolls back through the missed calls on Caller ID, so I can’t say too much about those features. But the batteries get the job done, my voice is clear and it works from one end of the apartment to the other.
The base station and 4 handsets can typically be purchased for under $100. I’ve also seen 3-handset and 5-handset versions. As far as I can tell they’re comparable and interchangeable.
PS:
Eventually, someone is going to drop one of the handsets or a button will wear out. The AT&T system allows you to expand the number of handsets or replace a handset. You can buy expansion handsets one at a time. But the per-handset price is much lower when they’re bought with the base station. So I just bought another package, threw away the extra base station and reset the included handsets so they linked with my existing base unit. I’m not actually using 7 handsets at once, but I have a couple of replacements handy so I don’t have to start the phone search from scratch once this model is phased out.
Amazon link: AT&T DECT 6.0 Black/Silver Digital 4-Handset Answering System (CL82409)
