Panasonic KX TG8231B 1.9 GHz 1-Line Cordless Phone

To celebrate our new house, one of the little things that make a difference (for a day or two) is a new phone. Well, in our case it was also driven by the fact that the new house was significantly bigger than the apartment. Hence, the 2.4 GHz phone reached its limits (along with the technological disadvantage of being 4 years "old"). Despite the underwhelming performance of our previous Panasonic phone, we once again decided on this brand (simply blinded by the cool design and a good price to be honest).


IN A NUTSHELL

While this phone doesn't claim any style novelties, it's an excellent example for an understated design that's elegant and doesn't attract too much attention. The back lighting of the keys is well done and the color display a welcome but also "gimmicky" feature.

Overall, at currently under $70 this phone provides DECT6.0 clarity and extended range, both features that stifled my previous 2.4GHz phone and appear to be issues with the 5.8GHz versions as well.

Panasonic appears to insist on a few idiosyncrasies like the rocker (though here it's a "joystick") to navigate the menu and a rather cluttered display (especially when you "missed" a call which is any call you received whether you missed it or not).


DETAILS

Design: [****-] The understated design is a welcome detour from the typical Silver and flashy designs of other Panasonic phones (and many other manufacturers for that matter). The manufacturer calls the color a "Piano Black Finish" which relates high gloss clear plastics with a Black background to create a deeper shine. The buttons in the same finish blend in nicely and form a unit which is only interrupted by the slight bumps on the keys. The base follows the same design concept and the 9 square buttons aren't the most beautiful design I've seen but it works well for this style.

DECT 6.0: [*****] After the recent wave of "higher is better" the frequency advertisement finally ran out of steam as it became clear that the 2.4 GHz and the 5.8 GHz range were way too crowded and higher frequency typically reduces the working distance as well. With DECT 6.0 the frequency finally dropped back to 1.91 GHz which helps to reach further (up to 1000 ft line of sight) while maintaining much of the transmission quality. Electronic wizardry now makes it possible to keep interferences relatively low and produce a good response to the vocal range. Digital encryption makes sure the chat remains private.

DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications) = global standard for digital wireless communication technology operating at 1.9 GHz (dedicated to cordless communication in residential, commercial and public environments)

Sound: [****-] The ear phone's presence is highlighted by a rather large opening. Apparently there is a larger speaker underneath, or at least the sound quality is quite a bit better than my 4 year old phone this one replaced. The speaker phone isn't as much improved and more or less average. Either way, the phone is more sensitive and slight line noise is now easier to notice, but also easy to separate from the voice.

Display: [***--] It's in color, yippie! Realistically the color doesn't add any useful functionality with exception of the Caller ID which can turn the screen to a defined color for recognized (programmed) numbers. Beyond this gimmick, the quality of the screen isn't overwhelming and the coarse pixels actually take a bit away from the experience. There are three photo backgrounds but no custom pictures can be uploaded, neither can the color schemes be modified. Frankly most schemes are rather obnoxious (i.e. bright Blue, Yellow, Green, Purple or White background). The display sports 128x128 pixels with a total of 65k colors, capable of displaying up to 3 lines of text. Overall the colors aren't well used and more of a marketing point.

Tactility: [***--] The integrated design of the buttons limits the user's ability to quickly differentiate them by touch. Overall tactility is relatively crisp, but without the audible feedback impossible to be certain whether the button was pressed successfully. The most vital buttons (pick up / hang up) don't differ much from the other keys and while of reasonable size still require more attention than I would like. One major exception from the otherwise well sized buttons are the small soft keys which are also recessed and a bit hard to use. Three keys ("5", "pick up", "hang up") have small raised features to navigate the pad by touch, though that requires a bit of training.

Compatibility: [*****] With lots of wireless devices polluting our living spaces, it's increasingly harder for those devices to work without interference. Since DECT6.0 opened the 1.91 GHz band (w/ 60 channels) to avoid most interferences, our current microwave, wireless network (B, G, N) and baby monitor appear to play nicely with the new phone. Let's hope it stays that way. Another aspect of compatibility is the usage of a regular phone for internet telephone service like Vonage. In our case this works without a flaw when plugged into the standard Linksys IP phone modem (for Vonage).

Answering Machine: [****-] The base doesn't sport the typical display of messages, and frankly that's actually good since it also cleans up the design and you're more likely to do most of the handling via handset anyway. The total of 18 minutes of recording time is enough for our purposes, but it's also interesting that this hasn't changed much in the last 5 years (for digital answering machines), despite lower memory prices.

Phone Book: [***--] Not much improvement is provided in how contacts are entered and organized. The user is now able to narrow the search down by groups (i.e. Family) and that may speed thing up a bit. However, the name is entered by cycling through the alphabet with the respective numerical keys. There is no USB port or similar method to use the convenience of a computer to enter, store and organize the contacts. Further, synchronizing the contacts between handsets isn't very smart either and it's recommended to update on the same one while sending a copy to the other to avoid confusion. That may be limited by the maximum of 50 stored items (16 char/24 digits) unlike some other phones that allow to store a mind numbing number of contacts (100 or even 200). Either way, it's well behind the typical phone book function found in mobile phones.

Speaker Phone: [*****] Integrated in the handset, the speaker phone is loud and clear and very easy to understand. In this mode the microphone is naturally more sensitive (as it has to compensate for the potentially longer distance) and therefor more susceptible to background noise. Cross talk and audible feedback are surprisingly low even when having two active handsets in close proximity.

Battery: [****-] The included rechargeable NiMH batteries are rated at 500 mAh and that turns into up to 12 hours of talk time (ear phone only) or 500 hours of standby (or 5 days). Given that the capacity of the OEM batteries is about half of that of commercially available rechargeable NiMH batteries, it's fair to assume that usage numbers could nearly double or at least allow for more usage of the built-in speaker phone. One side effect of longer time between charges (along with the reduced size of the handset) may be the increased difficulty to find the phone when needed. (The locator button may be the one needed most.)

Extendibility: [****-] One base station can register and use up to 6 handsets (including the one that comes with the base). The KX-TG8232 has both a base station and one optional phone included. Conference calls can be made between up to two hand sets and an outside caller. Transfer from one set to another is easy to do (via soft key) and the Privacy setting makes sure that eavesdropping is not an option for nosy parents. (Frankly as the father of a 9-month-old it's not an immediate problem, but I am sure I may object to this feature at some time.)

© 2008, theuerkorn