VTech 1970CI Digital Cordless Phone

We compliment the VTech designers on their intelligent, intuitive product, as we were able to set up and use the phone's features by guesswork alone. You control the phone with the 12 buttons and one switch on the base and with the 11 buttons on the handset (in addition to the usual 0 through 9, #, and *). After plugging in the phone and inserting the rechargeable ni-cad battery pack, we pressed the Menu, Select, and Time/Set buttons to set the date, time, number of rings, announce mode, audible message alert, and the base-ringer mode. The VTech's voice prompts helped enormously during this process. Setting the greeting was harder, taking us about five minutes to discover that pressing the Memo button records the message. However, we easily discovered the handset's caller-ID functions without consulting the instructions.

The answering-machine functions were as intuitive as the phone itself. In our tests, we found that the time limit is 90 seconds for the outgoing message, four minutes for a single memo or incoming message, and just under 16 minutes for total recording time.

In our distance test, the handset provided excellent clarity with no distortion or buzzing to about 250 feet, at which point the signal began to cut in and out. The handset stopped functioning at about 530 feet, which is normal for phones in this class.

Given the easy setup and the great signal quality within reasonable distance limits, we give the VTech VT 1970ci high praise.

Pros:

• Easy to set up and learn
• Modern styling
• Great feature set

Cons:

• Total record time of less than 16 minutes