Siemens Makes Cordless Phones Classy
Phones have come a long way since Alexander Graham Bell and the 1870’s. Of course, almost everyone carries one around with them now. But even cordless phones tend to resemble cell phones- more so now than ever, as is the case with the sleek, stylish Siemens Gigaset SL785.
The SL785 sounds like a high-end car, but in the digital cordless phone world, it is considered sort of the Cadillac model. Not only does it look good lying (or standing) around the house, it feels solid and offers a big, clear color LED screen. Let’s see your cell phone do that. There’s an emphasis on metal as well, both for form and function.
The SL785 is an upgraded DECT system instead of the previous 5.8GHz technology that most phones of the past used. This meant clear improvements in sound quality- landlines are always better than cell phones, but the clarity through this set made us want to ditch our iPhones (and we never had a dropped call either)!
We liked the ability to download contacts from Outlook (though we couldn’t get our lists from our iPhone). The SL785 can hold up to 500 contacts which was far more than enough for our household and office. We were also able to receive text messages on our cell phones when we missed a home phone call- a nifty bonus depending on who was calling (solicitors, anyone?).The Bluetooth connectivity as well as ring tones, pictures, and other online capabilities blurred the lines between your smartphone and made our landline cool again.
We haven’t had any issues regarding battery life. Siemens advice was to charge the handset and then leave it off the charger to drain the battery completely before recharging. Our biggest issue were the buttons themselves- pressing them is a a bit annoying. They are small, and it was very easy for us to hit the wrong button.
We also felt that the Caller ID list could use some improvement. It shows numbers and the time of call, but not the name. Engaging this requires that you have to further scroll down and click on an entry to see name details. The screen is a high enough resolution, we felt they had an ample amount of space of add this option. Also, only one handset can view the call list at any given time. If one handset is already looking at the call list, the handset will just beep at you if you try to do the same on another phone.
To our dismay, we found out since this model operates more like a cell phone, it certainly was not as easy to dock or undock from the charging base as most cordless phones- it took a bit of effort. But overall, we felt this phone lends some stellar attributes to a semi-decent cordless phone, that offers a pretty great feature set and great style. We were able to purchase from Amazon for around $160.
