Panasonic KX-TC1800B

''Hello''

''Oh, Hi! How's my babe...ummm''

''Shut-up, you can be romantic only when I call you up.''

''So sorry dear, actually I have been so busy at office and then this contest nearly ending on MS''.

''What's that funny sound behind?''

''Oh! That was the flush''

''Eeks! Where are you?''

''Oh! I have a flush in my living room, come on honey, I am now the thinking man atop a potty''

''Gosh! You are so disgusting, couldn't you say that earlier, I would have called you later''

''Oh! Dear, it's Ok, why do you think they made cordless phones for''

Interesting, isn't it? Cordless phones have made life so much more better. Gone are the days when you are at dining table or maybe in midst of an interesting TV serial, and the phone rings and you have to dash across the room. Worse is when you are alone in the house and in the bathroom or even worst - in the toilet amidst a busy session and the confounded phone rings. Panic!

We got a cordless phone as a gift from our family friend on Dad and Mom's 25th wedding anniversary - the PANASONIC - KX-TC1800B I saw that number only now when it sat to type out this review...hee hee. Oh! When I was pondering as to why they code it in such arbit numbers I also noticed it has the words ''Soundcharger Plus'' written on it - better name than that alphanumeric number above.

So what's so special about this one? Actually it's quite a simple phone with some plain jane features a cordless should have.

«« OK, IT'S COMPACT AND SLEEK »»

The phone has a compact mother base - only about a inch and half wider than the handset, with a single antenna on the side (most Panasonic phones have two antennae). The base does not have a keypad. It works only to charge the handset and for making fixed connections, i.e. the power connection and the phone line. I have added my internal modem in between. The phone and base are black in color and the base has a wonderful shape. It is taller at the rear end and slopes downwards in the form of asymmetric Sine wave. The base can be kept in horizontal position or mounted on a wall. A small hook in the handset groove needs to be removed and reversed and inserted back, if the phone is to be wall mounted so that the handset does not fall.

The base has ''Locator'' button and power on & battery charge indicators.

The handset has nice round and big soft keypad, which light up green when pressed. There are some other buttons that don't light up such as memory settings, flash, redial, intercom etc. The handset houses the battery on the back side. It has a tone/pulse button on the side and a 3-level volume control (not the volume of the speech but the ring).

«« THE RANGE »»

Never bothered to measure this one. But yes, we have a small garden in front of us and some 50 m away there is a wall that separates us from the sea. I have been only this far with this cordless and the sound has been clear and crisp. Occasionally though and particularly when I am closer to any tubelight choke, some continuous hiss or some weird noise (like radio interference) creeps in. Move away from such regions and the speech is clear again.

As far as the manual goes, it talks of 900 MHz Gigarange Spread Spectrum Technology (SST). Very confusing naa? They talk of MHz and then say Gigarange....LOL. It talks of the phone constantly changing frequencies and voice transmission over the entire 900 MHz bandwidth. A user may not realize it but in lay man terms this technology keeps any outside party, trying to intercept your call, guessing and adds the element of security. I was almost taken for a ride with this funny misconception but then an inside party (mom) once heard my privy talks with my GF (through a parallel line...LOL)...Not as secure, hey hey!

«« THE LOCATOR »»

The base has a button for ''Intercom/Locator'' function, which is very useful feature. The handset if often missing and one can find it in kitchen or bathroom or between pillows. This button makes the handset beep and then its traceable. The intercom facility is only partially effective i.e. you may need to form your own call codes like 2 beeps come upstairs, 3 beeps and food is ready etc, as you cant speak from base to handset.

«« SPEED DIALING »»

Hmm, yes it has facility to store 10 numbers that can be quickly accessed. A very useful feature that saves the trouble of dialing the 7 digit phone numbers (manual says ten 21 digit phone numbers can be saved, so good for mobile number storage too). The convenience is limited though, in the sense that you need to remember on what quick dial number is, say, dad's offices phone number. Another disadvantage is that I don't remember my sister's residence number, cause I always used the quick dialing feature.

«« BATTERY LIFE »»

Frankly speaking I don't know. It's almost a year now and it charges well and the charge lasts the entire daylong. We keep it on the base for charging throughout the night.

«« OVERALL »»

I would say that it is really a good phone and can be wonderful gift. The price (~Rs 1200) is OK. But I would not quite recommend this model as there are better models with important features available such as an LCD screen that shows battery life, numbers dialed etc, caller line identification, speakerphone, address books, last 20 dialed numbers, answering machine capability, choice of different ring tones. Cordless phones with all advantages of a cell phones are available at reasonable prices.

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