VTech ip5825

Except for a couple of annoying quirks, the two-handset expandable VTech ip5825 system is one of the great values in cordless phones. For $79, you get two 5.8GHz digital-spread-spectrum handsets with some handy features; in fact, what is missing may not matter to you.

Let's dispose of the niggling negatives. Atop the dial pad are five control keys. The problem is that the on/off keys are almost the same size as the menu-up/down scrolling keys immediately above them. As a result, you'll constantly hit the wrong key to initiate, answer, or end a call. And all the keys except for these five slightly confusing control keys are backlit with a bright lime-green glow. Why VTech left the handy backlight off these crucial buttons is beyond us.

At the bottom-right corner of the three-line display, you can make out a three-segment battery meter etched in the back layer of the LCD. But it lights up only when the phone is charging, rather than letting you know how much--or how little--power you have left while you're using the handsets. Fortunately, the phone displays a "low battery" warning as the batteries near dying.

Finally, the ip5825 is not a true 5.8GHz phone but a hybrid, which is why it's so inexpensive. The caller's end, from the base to the handset, transmits in 2.4GHz; only your end of the call, from the handset to the base, is transmitted in 5.8GHz. This dual-band transmission compromise is spun by VTech's marketing gurus as "combin[ing] the best of 5.8GHz and 2.4GHz technologies, providing enhanced performance." However, VTech must have added some safeguards for the 2.4GHz side; despite the presence of multiple Wi-Fi laptops in the same room as the phone, we experienced no problems either in reception or vocal quality at either end of the call.

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