Siemens E45 DECT 6.0 Digital Cordless Phone Extension Handset

OK, first I want to talk to the genious who put the headphone jack on the bottom of the phone. You have to remove your headset to put the phone in the charger. Are you kidding me? At more that 3X the price of other brands, I expected a high quality phone but got this piece of junk instead. The description leads you to believe the case is ruggedized with rubber. Not so, there's a thin band of rubber on the edges only - other than that it's plastic everwhere. It also claims to be water and dust resitant. How is that possible with a cheap plastic back cover with a 1" hole and no gasket? The voice quality is tinny when using the phone's speaker. There is a annoying delay when pressing buttons and the phone keeps ringing when you pick up an extension for a few seconds. And worst of all, it uses a proprietary battery. If you must have a Siemens phone get the S series that uses rechargeable AA batteries.

I bought this set to replace my old Siemens set that was damaged in a fire. I was very happy with the original system, but I paid the same price for this set years after buying the first set. Usually electronics drop in price, so I figured this would be a nice set. Wrong! Has much fewer features than the original set. Overpriced for what little you get. Look elsewhere.

Functions well. Excellent range outdoors. Can PIN protect your base units to prevent unauthorized DECT phones from joining. You can program and select from different bases. I have one in the garage and one in the house, they can automatically roam to another stronger base while not in a call.

Splash proof (IP54 rating). Rugged. Lame ring tones. The menus and screen are sluggish and are somewhat aggravating when speed-dialing. Several day of standby time. It makes me happy to know my phones have MAC addresses!