Vtech VTC-VT-I5867 5.8 GHz 1-Line Cordless Phone
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- Digital Technology: DSS
- Multi-Line Operation: Single Line Operation
- Transmission Band: 5.8 GHz
- Type: Cordless Phone
- Features: Caller ID Call Waiting Answering System Speakerphone Handset Locator Interphone LCD Display
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Vtech does it again, great product
Pros
Recordable ringers, custom wallpaper, color screen, 5 gigahertz
Cons
No big ones at all
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
Grab the sams club bundle for a much better deal. Custom ringtones and wallpaper will attract the teen crowd. Great product.
I've owned several v-tech phones, in fact it's usually the first brand I look at when I need a phone or I recommend one to others. I've had one of their 2 gigahertz band units for years, it was a fantastic unit unfortunately the lightning strike on the telephone pole in the backyard took it out about 3 weeks ago. I have to admit I wasn't too sad about it since I'd been looking for an excuse to replace it with this unit. Walmart carries this phone but only with one handset, so far as I know Sams is the only one carrying the complete setup with two handsets and the extra batteries for the base.
The features offered by the vtech phones are always far and above what everbody else has from what I've seen. I was attracted to this phone for the ability to record your own custom ringers and upload images to the phone for your own color wallpaper. This is also a 5 gigahertz band phone, there is much less interference from household appliances in this radio band and unless you're using wireless A access points in your home (and most aren't G and B are much more widely in use) there are no worries with interfering with access point equipment. (Not that I ever had one single problem with the earlier vtech in that respect but since they use the same frequencies there's always the chance).
What's in the box:
The sams club setup comes with everything you need:
Two handsets
Additional charge base for the handset being used away from the base
Three sets of 2 standard AA nimh batteries
Base
USB cable
Audio cable
Software
Instruction book
Quick setup guide
Setup:
Before doing anything plug in the base and the additional charger and fully charge both handsets. Install the spare set of batteries in the base to charge those as well. They recommend a full 24 hour charge. I suppose if you're like me and you've got a fast charger in the house for AA batteries it would be fine to charge 'em that way and plug 'em in the phone.
Set the clock etc.
Setup the mailboxes if you're using them.
Setup your stored numbers on each handset
Fancy stuff:
Recording the ringer was really easy and doesn't require any software you just plug one end into the output on your soundcard and the mini plug end into the headset jack on the phone. Go into the menus to find the ringer controls and then play your tune, it only records ten seconds but that's plenty long.
The picture setup was just as easy. On one of the handsets the usb connector was a little bit flukey but after a bit of contact cleaner and a little patient fiddling I was able to get their software to see both handsets (one at a time) and upload the image I wanted. You can use just about any format and size image, the utility they give you is capable of making it the size you need, works well and not hard to use at all.
Everyday use:
The phone will tell you if the phone line is disconnected (I believe it also will tell you if the line's dead the same way) and the extra handset will tell you if it can't communicate with the base. Unlike a lot of cordless phones, this one will work at short range at least for a short while if the power goes off (I keep a small corded phone around for that situation anyhow but it's nice that they thought of this, I imagine the extra battery also doubles as memory backup also).
Extra handsets are easily added by programming them with the base id which is printed on a sticker on the bottom of the base. Some answering machines have a problem if the caller immediately hangs up the phone in that they will record the dial tone--very annoying--this machine doesn't do that. The controls are easy to use and if you want you can program it to make a tone every so often when there are messages. The base has its own ringer that can be turned on or off, with two handsets I leave that off because I rarely carry the handsets around. There is a page function in case you lay the handset down someplace and can't find it.
Every phone call I've made with it has been crisp and clear. The color screen is bright and easy to read. The base doesn't have a speaker phone on it like my old unit had but I didn't ever really use that much so it's no loss. The only function that's not really intuitive on this phone is redial, on the old unit it was availabe as soon as you turned the phone on, on this one it's a bit more buried (I haven't even had a chance to figure that one out yet).
I love the ability to program the ringer, no more obnoxious electronic noises, you can put whatever you want there and the onboard memory can hold several custom clips. This is the only phone I've seen that can record ringer tunes directly itself, I believe Panasonic makes one that has downloadable ringtones but from reading the box it sounds like a pain and there may be a charge for it as well. There are some controls for ringer volume but you can also control it somewhat based on the volume you record at.
This unit uses standard AA batteries which is a welcome change, the old vtech used AA's but they were installed in a custom holder and thus the extra battery I bought for that unit was an obnoxious $30.00 instead of the $6.00 a set of nimh batteries costs for this unit.
I love this phone and I fully expect to get the long term reliability that I got from my old vtech 2 gigahertz model.
update: Found the redial, it's in the same place as it was on the old phone, the difference is that the old black and white screen was always active and you could see it there in the lower left corner, on this model the color screen doesn't come to life till you press a button so you can't see it there. I suppose the color screen is a power eater so they had to have it shut off this way, now that I know it's the left button over the ON there's no problem. I just couldn't find it because once the phone is ON there's no redial anymore you have to hit OFF to get the redial option again.
The features offered by the vtech phones are always far and above what everbody else has from what I've seen. I was attracted to this phone for the ability to record your own custom ringers and upload images to the phone for your own color wallpaper. This is also a 5 gigahertz band phone, there is much less interference from household appliances in this radio band and unless you're using wireless A access points in your home (and most aren't G and B are much more widely in use) there are no worries with interfering with access point equipment. (Not that I ever had one single problem with the earlier vtech in that respect but since they use the same frequencies there's always the chance).
What's in the box:
The sams club setup comes with everything you need:
Two handsets
Additional charge base for the handset being used away from the base
Three sets of 2 standard AA nimh batteries
Base
USB cable
Audio cable
Software
Instruction book
Quick setup guide
Setup:
Before doing anything plug in the base and the additional charger and fully charge both handsets. Install the spare set of batteries in the base to charge those as well. They recommend a full 24 hour charge. I suppose if you're like me and you've got a fast charger in the house for AA batteries it would be fine to charge 'em that way and plug 'em in the phone.
Set the clock etc.
Setup the mailboxes if you're using them.
Setup your stored numbers on each handset
Fancy stuff:
Recording the ringer was really easy and doesn't require any software you just plug one end into the output on your soundcard and the mini plug end into the headset jack on the phone. Go into the menus to find the ringer controls and then play your tune, it only records ten seconds but that's plenty long.
The picture setup was just as easy. On one of the handsets the usb connector was a little bit flukey but after a bit of contact cleaner and a little patient fiddling I was able to get their software to see both handsets (one at a time) and upload the image I wanted. You can use just about any format and size image, the utility they give you is capable of making it the size you need, works well and not hard to use at all.
Everyday use:
The phone will tell you if the phone line is disconnected (I believe it also will tell you if the line's dead the same way) and the extra handset will tell you if it can't communicate with the base. Unlike a lot of cordless phones, this one will work at short range at least for a short while if the power goes off (I keep a small corded phone around for that situation anyhow but it's nice that they thought of this, I imagine the extra battery also doubles as memory backup also).
Extra handsets are easily added by programming them with the base id which is printed on a sticker on the bottom of the base. Some answering machines have a problem if the caller immediately hangs up the phone in that they will record the dial tone--very annoying--this machine doesn't do that. The controls are easy to use and if you want you can program it to make a tone every so often when there are messages. The base has its own ringer that can be turned on or off, with two handsets I leave that off because I rarely carry the handsets around. There is a page function in case you lay the handset down someplace and can't find it.
Every phone call I've made with it has been crisp and clear. The color screen is bright and easy to read. The base doesn't have a speaker phone on it like my old unit had but I didn't ever really use that much so it's no loss. The only function that's not really intuitive on this phone is redial, on the old unit it was availabe as soon as you turned the phone on, on this one it's a bit more buried (I haven't even had a chance to figure that one out yet).
I love the ability to program the ringer, no more obnoxious electronic noises, you can put whatever you want there and the onboard memory can hold several custom clips. This is the only phone I've seen that can record ringer tunes directly itself, I believe Panasonic makes one that has downloadable ringtones but from reading the box it sounds like a pain and there may be a charge for it as well. There are some controls for ringer volume but you can also control it somewhat based on the volume you record at.
This unit uses standard AA batteries which is a welcome change, the old vtech used AA's but they were installed in a custom holder and thus the extra battery I bought for that unit was an obnoxious $30.00 instead of the $6.00 a set of nimh batteries costs for this unit.
I love this phone and I fully expect to get the long term reliability that I got from my old vtech 2 gigahertz model.
update: Found the redial, it's in the same place as it was on the old phone, the difference is that the old black and white screen was always active and you could see it there in the lower left corner, on this model the color screen doesn't come to life till you press a button so you can't see it there. I suppose the color screen is a power eater so they had to have it shut off this way, now that I know it's the left button over the ON there's no problem. I just couldn't find it because once the phone is ON there's no redial anymore you have to hit OFF to get the redial option again.
