Philips SE4552B/17 DECT Series Cordless Phone (Black)

Comment: I've had this phone for five months, and I can't wait for my replacement AT&T phone to arrive so I can take a hammer to the Philips. Seriously. Though a lot of the Philips' technical specs are solid as is its general performance, it was designed by a robot with no intuitive understanding of how humans operate. There are just too many poorly thought-out features. For example, there is a single "message indicator" light, which helpfully illuminates when there is a voicemail. The same light, however, illuminates ANY TIME there has been an unanswered call, regardless of VM status. In order to clear the light, you have to delete ALL the unanswered calls. So the light tells you "some folks called, and maybe one of them left a voicemail". Lots of little, stupid things like this have rendered the phone far too irritating to use.

Comment: The reason I got this phone was mainly for having a lot longer battery life and it seemingly fulfills that purpose, or I guess its just having 2 handsets is a good redundancy. Its not 20 hours talktime though as mentioned by some folks, standby is about 4 days (only).

But that is all in this handset, the screen even though its colored is so ancient, my cell phone in the early 2000s had a better color screen and features. The buttons are sort of slow to respond to your input and the features are so limited and complicated, its so difficult to get to your dial list. Then in the redial mode, you cannot select a number and press call button to call, you have to press the select button to call !! I think they did a really sloppy job in usability design for this product.

Comment: This phone has a bunch of bells and whisles, but besides that, it has a very, very clear sound. I love this phone! I use this phone through my cable system and wow! I couldn't ask for anything better. Let me clarify my statements like this. This phone works for me!!!! I sounds great, it looks great, and it works great! If my view changes in a few months I'll let you know. 5 *****'s ....!!!

Comment: I just purchased this phone set, and am surprised by the negative reviews it's received thus far. I am conference calls for many hours every day, and this phone has served me well. Highlights that stand out for me:

* It uses rechargable AAA batteries. No more searching for weird proprietary battery packs when your batteries inevitably die...just get some more NiMH rechargable AAAs!

* Battery life is excellent. The phones can go for days with lots of talk without recharging. If you find yourself with two dead phones that haven't been placed on the charger, just throw in some AAAs and you're ready to go.

* You can check your messages from the handset--no need to go to the base unit.

* Voice quality on both sides is crystal clear. My house is loaded with wireless networks, cameras, security systems, etc., and you would never know from the quality of the phone connection.

All in all, I rate this five stars, and plan on purchasing the expansion set soon (two extra phones).

Comment: There is no "in use" indicator either on the handsets or the base station. I'm not a fan of butting in on family conversations or getting an ear full of modem noise. There's no excuse for this, especially in a system that's designed to have several handsets attached, indeed comes with an extra in the box. The 6 year old system which this was supposed to replace had this feature, looks like it will limp along a while longer until I find a replacement that values usable features over pretty pictures.