BT Granite slimline DECT cordless phone BT's new DECT handset, the Granite, introduced us to a genuinely new experience. Opening the box, it wasn't the phone that took pride of place under the lid, but its stand. The Granite itself was tucked away under a fold of card right at the back. Unbox the product too hastily and you might miss it. BT Granite BT's Granite: …
Screen, working methods, UI, lack of UI (not another contact list that won't talk to any of my other contact lists with a computerised system that should readily permit: transfer my contacts easily)?
Way to go with a step in the right direction but many more steps to follow?
This was one of the phones that I was considering when getting a new DECT phone a few weeks ago... It looked like everything that I wanted, except that there was no 2.5mm jack for a headset (Like any veteran of the trench warfare that is callcenters I too enjoy the familiar feeling of a headset, the fact that you can hold a semi private conversation ('handsfree' and speakerphone are 2 very different things altogether).. but maybe I'm just weird, answers on a postcard please :P
After seeing your review I'm glad I skipped this one.
anyway, I went with a siemens gigaset e455 package that came with a headset (plantronics, middle of the road one), which has speakerphone as well as a 2.5mm plug hole for said headset, and although it IS plastic and like any phone I can find flaws with it (like a lack of making my own ringtones... which wouldn't be such a problem if it wasn't for the fact that the thing has only 2 ring tones that actually somewhat resemble ringing... if only I could put the monkey island tune on it... mmmmmm):
Oh, and the base station doesn't have a charger on it, the phone stands in a separate charger. You might think this is a bad thing: it is not.
http://www.cordless-phones.uk.com/cordless-phones/cordless-phone-headset-packages/siemens-e455-single-m175
has answering machine, annoying ring tones, comes with plantronics M175 headset, 86 quid with vat unless you enter a code at the checkout.. search the store name and voucher code or something like that and it should come up.
best thing about it?
it doesn't look like a bloody spaceship. or a dildo.
Seriously, why do people insist on making these phones butt ugly?
People have mobiles now, they like mobiles, they want something in the house that looks pretty.... like a mobile... hint hint... strange cooking aparatuses and sex toys are usually kept in their respective drawers. so should most DECT phones.
Rant over.
Why does every DECT handset come with lousy ring tones? I recently bought a Panasonic that is a decent phone but the choice of Fur Elise, William Tell and various beeps and bongs is too horrible to behold.
Clearly no manufacturer can afford to supply decent ring tones on a phone that leaves the factory for £5 and which goes on to retail at £70. Such is life.
My question is, does any handset give you the option of adding ring tones in the same way that you can with a mobile. I appreciate you would need some form of memory card or data connection but does such a beast exist?
From the looks of the screen and basestation voicemail indicator, this appears to be made by the same OEM who knocks out the iDECT series of not-actually-bad-DECT-phones.
Still, the feeble clone power/line in situation does hark back to a BT DECT system I had a few years ago - atrocious product design.
Oh yeah, Anon Coward with Rant regarding Siemens Gigaset E455 again here;
If you are considdering buying this one please be aware that when in use the buttons light up orange. yes, orange.
It makes you want to cry.
what's worse, it's still probably the best one out there (that I've found... magicbox also looks good).
I bet you are wondering why I'm saying this is the best one I've found when I have so many gripes with it?
Because it is, despite all of its inherent flaws, the path of the least amount of pain. It's like the normal person at the cinema who gets unusual amounts of attention because they stand next to genetic failures.
Now, I don't mind the orange as much, as my flat is decorated in a magnolia/dark brown wood/red sort of theme (that, and the fact that the orange only shows up when I use it.. maybe it can be turned off... I haven't checked yet), but if you were bying this thinking that it fitted perfectly into your flat with it's aparent black and blue tones (and, perhaps with a white/blue backlight behind the keys you might think), please be aware, the beast turns orange when you prod it.
Somewhere out there, there is a (wo)man designing DECT phones that hates the world and wants it to know.
But this is the least hideous one I have found so far.
Oh, and it has a flat 'bottom' and can stand on its own.
I just bought a similar "super slim" GE (General Electric) DECT phone/answering machine. While the base isn't nearly so minimalist stylish as the Granite, the handset is much the same, thought perhaps a little taller (approx. 6" x 2" x 1/2"), with the same rather primative b&w UI. While most of the text in the display is on the smallish side, the phone numbers entered are quite large, making for easier reading. The handset is neither flimsy/light nor really heavy, having a nice, solid heft to it. One minor annoyance is there's no battery charge indicator on the handset display.
Best thing, though - it's shiny candy apple red, the perfect accoutrement for any respectable bordello. I guess that's what caught my eye.
You want a DECT phone? You either get a Panasonic that will be ugly but work great and have more features than to shake a stick at, or you get a B&O that will have hardly any features but work, look, feel & sound fantastic. You pay the price and don't look back (It's a shame B&O seemingly dropped answerphones from their portfolio, btw. — why guys, why?!). Anything else will likely be crap. The geek in you will make you lust after Siemens latest abominations, with "why this late?" features such as Bluetooth PC-sync. But then you will remember that Siemens builds only crap phones with slow shoddy interfaces while advertising features that are in beta at the most. Research will support this notion.
It's called BT Fusion and no-one wanted it. It's a shame really because with the right handset it was a good product that worked well. It's been superceeded by broadband anywhere which is also quite good but not really, er, 'broadband' (the handset has only GPRS and 'interesting' WiFi).
So, let's summarise:
* A monochrome display that looks like the one on the first mobile I ever owned, ten years or so ago;
* No facility for using hands-free (wired or BlueTooth);
* An answerphone with only 12 minutes of recording time - the same as the original digital recorders years ago, and a sick joke given how dirt-cheap flash memory is now;
* As usual, no central phone book (so you have to program every bloody phone - and there might be four - individually using poxy 90s-style number-to-text keys).
Frankly, I think Tony was being lenient almost to the point of sycophancy, given the limitations of the thing. Yes, it looks pretty, providing you ignore the display, although the base station's huge in comparison with its peers. Everything else on there, apart possibly from (handset) phone book size, belongs to a mobile phone ten years ago, or a DECT phone 5-7 years ago.
Clearly, in this phone, function has taken a profoundly second place to form. It's mutton dressed as lamb.
BT, this device is iconic of your contributions to communications technology for the past decade or two. Desperately try to monetise what you've already got. "Manage consumer expectations" (in other words, try not to let them know they could have better). Don't roll out new technologies until the market's baying like a pack of starved hounds, or deserting you for the opposition.
Enough said.
I have just started using my old 8210, Its a classic design,
I forgot just how good the trusty little handset is. Just got a brand new 1300mah battery for £3 and a new cover for £2 Off ebay. I might even get another 10 years use out of it.
And the call quality beats my N95 hands down.
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