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Functionality
VTech’s LS6245 Expandable Cordless Phone System Bluetooth-enabled telephone base, handset and accessory LS6204 handsets are intended to make life easier for a cellular-only household and or for a home that uses both mobile phones and a landline. Once you get used to the system’s unintuitive functions and its limitations, it might do just that.
Like I mentioned above, I plugged in both mobile phones that are paired with the VTech system by the front door, where they stay while I am home. The VTech handset thus becomes my phone while I am in the house, which is very convenient. If I were to add accessory LS6204 handsets to the system, this would make for an even more convenient situation. I could have a handset in my bedroom, one in my office, one in the kitchen and another in the living room near my TV remote controls ready to make or answer calls.
Without the VTech system, my mobile phone calls must be made by the front windows or door in my house. Anywhere else in the house gets poor reception, or no reception at all. By plugging-in my mobile phones by the door and pairing them with the VTech telephone base, I get good reception from both cell phones throughout the house with the VTech handset. This is perhaps the best feature the VTech system offers, and one that makes it worth considering despite some of its flaws.
When pairing two mobile phones to the system, a user can set up the handset to ring with a different tone for each. The user can select a third tone to ring for a landline. This is an excellent feature, for it helps users determine whose mobile phone is actually ringing on the system or if a landline call is coming in.
The system comes with a built-in digital answering system, which I was not able to test because it only works with a landline. That the answering system can only be used with a landline makes sense, because I wouldn’t want my mobile phone messages saved on a home phone system, even if it was possible. The answering system saves 14 minutes of digital messages, a seemingly small amount. But the answering system is accessible away from home using a pass code—a novel feature. On the other hand, it is unfortunate that the answering system is the first option that comes up in the menu. For a user without a landline, this feature can be annoying since it cannot be used. Instead, the directory should be the first actionable menu item to expedite call making.
About the directory: it is otherwise difficult to access. It takes five screen presses to get to it. No important feature on a phone (or any electronic device for that matter) should require more than three steps to access.
One other unintuitive feature is the handset’s two separate buttons for making calls. There is one button to make and receive calls through a landline, and another to make and receive calls from a cell phone. There is no reason for two separate buttons. It should be possible to make and receive both mobile and landline calls with one button. Additionally, the Off/Clear button works best when the system is connected to a landline. The cell button, located at the bottom right of the handset, works as a call and hang-up button for cell phone calls, which can be confusing at first.
When making a mobile phone call, the device requires an extra step that should be unnecessary. Before sending the call through a mobile phone, the handset display requires users to choose which mobile phone they want to make the call. If two mobile phones are paired with the system already, it shouldn’t matter which mobile phone is used to make the call. VTech should make it possible to choose a default mobile phone to make calls with, or just use the phone in the number-one position.
The VTech system makes it easy to switch between calls if you have mobile phone service, but users must get used to the fact that switching to another call is a menu feature. Most mobile phones allow users to switch to another incoming call using the send/receive button, which is far more intuitive. Perhaps VTech will consider this option its next version.
Sound Quality
Besides having the convenience of a single phone system for a two cell-phone home, sound quality is perhaps the primary reason to consider the VTech’s LS6245 Expandable Cordless Phone System. VTech uses DECT 6.0 Digital technology to provide excellent sound quality. I can honestly say that when the VTech system is paired with my mobile phones, it improves the sound quality that I would get in the best of service areas. When my mobile phone was paired with the VTech Telephone Base in the best reception area of the house, I could use the VTech handset anywhere in the house or even several hundred yards away from the house, and the conversation was clear for both parties.
Range
In addition to the points I made in the Installation and Pairing Section above, there are two more things to note about range with the VTech LS6245 Expandable Cordless Phone System. The first is its range for using Bluetooth to pair the Telephone Base with your mobile phones. The mobile phones can be up to 30 feet away from the VTech base and still be used to make calls. However, I found that the mobile phones must be much closer, about 15 feet away, to successfully receive calls. When my mobile phones were farther than 15 feet from the base, the handset dropped incoming calls. In addition, my mobile phone automatically picked up the calls that were dropped, leaving the person on the other end of my mobile phone confused as to why it took me a moment to pick up their call. The second element is the wireless range of the VTech handset to its base. In my 1,300-square-foot house, one VTech handset worked anywhere in the house, and up to several hundred yards away from my house on the outside, without any sound degradation. This range is excellent.
Conclusion
The VTech LS6245 Expandable Cordless Phone System and its accessory LS6204 handsets will add convenience to a cellular-only home or a home that uses both cellular and landline phones. The system’s sound quality is excellent and it really helps add quality reception where mobile phones would not connect to their network. However, the handset button design and functionality is unintuitive and confusing. The system handsets should not use separate buttons for making and receiving landline and cellular calls. The system is also missing key Bluetooth functionality. It does not access paired mobile phone directories as it should, and it also does not allow more than two Bluetooth connections at a time, when it could allow eight. In all, the system is probably worth buying for most people now in the market for a home phone system or for people who need to extend their mobile phone reception in their home, but don’t want to purchase landline service. But consumers who can wait might want to hold off while VTech figures out how to fix some of the system’s kinks.
By Andrew J. Manuse, of “For the Eyes of the Beholder,” a Manuse Media Company Web site.
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