Vtech phone
Back in the day, your home phone was just a hunk of plastic and parts hanging on the wall. It rang, you answered, and when you were done chatting, you hung up. Even today most of us have single-purpose cordless phones at home. When you think of slick, multi-function devices, it's the mobile kind that comes to mind, not a home phone.
VTech, though, changes that perception with their top-of-the-line consumer home phone, the LS6245 ($119.99). Sleek, black and very shiny, this touch-sensitive unit looks like it belongs on the desk of a high-powered CEO. And maybe it isn't much of a surprise the device has a cellphone connection - it can pair with a Bluetooth-enabled smart phone or headset and ring when someone calls your mobile.
In Canada, the LS6245 come with a base station and a single handset. The handset, which is long and thin with a perfectly flat, clear face, looks more like a TV remote control than a phone. It and the base station are touch-sensitive, so there are no tactile buttons to push. Dialling a number is like dialling on an iPhone. Lift it off the cradle and the handset face lights up, the small LCD screen displaying time, date and Bluetooth status.
The base station, which also has a number pad, has a readout screen as well. Incoming calls appear on the handset and base station. If you miss a call, the LS6245 comes equipped with an answering machine, which means one less feature to pay for.
You can purchase additional handsets at any Future Shop or BestBuy for around $80. Connecting them with the base station is a simple and quick task. Any numbers you program into the phone are accessible from all handsets, as is the call log , a function to establish a unique ring on every handset and the answering service (which can be disabled if you really want to keep your voicemail). The phone can support as many as twelve handsets, making it an option for a small business.
But perhaps the phone's most interesting aspect is you can pair two separate Bluetooth-enabled cell phones to the base station. The VTech phone essentially acts like a hands-free device. So rather than linking your mobile to an earpiece or visor-mounted speaker, you're connecting to the base station. If someone calls your mobile, it and the LS66245 handsets sound their chime.
Using the phones takes a little getting used to. The touch-sensitive handsets require you to first hit an "unlock" button before you can punch in numbers. And while you speak into the phone, a proximity sensor recognizes it's pressed against your face and disables the touchpad so that you don't end up dialling a bunch of numbers while chatting with Aunt Beatrice. As I experienced, if you happen to move the phone too far away from your face while you're chatting, you can lose your call.