I ordered and used the Gigaset A490 Cordless Landline Phone and I wanted to put down my experience with it in this post.
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| Gigaset A490 Cordless Landline Phone |
This is a basic cordless phone with caller ID and speakerphone and can be used in addition to the fixed line telephone that sits in the living room. The fixed line land phone with all the wires gets really messy so this is more convenient to handle. Being cordless it provides mobility within the house as you can move it around.
I ordered it from Flipkart for Rs. 1,170 (inclusive of all taxes) and the unit shipped with the following items in its package:
- a base station
- a power adapter
- a handset
- a phone cord
- two batteries
- a battery cover
- a user guide
Setting up
Setting up the device was pretty simple. You power up the base station up using the power adapter and then connect the telephone jack to it. Insert the batteries in the handset and place it on the base station for the batteries to charge. The handset is already pre-registered with the base station, so you don't have to do it separately. The base station is of good build quality sits steady.
Calling Features
Making and receiving calls is smooth and the audio quality is good when you are within range. You can turn on Auto Answer which will accept the call as soon as you remove the handset from the base station, so you don't have to physically press the Talk button. If you have Calling Line Identification Presentation (CLIP) enabled with your network provider and the caller has enabled their Calling Line Identification (CLI), the caller's number is displayed on the handset.
There is also a handsfree feature to direct the audio to the inbuilt speaker.
It allows to save up to 80 phone numbers with names and allows you to browse through the last 10 dialed phone numbers and redial numbers from there.
The two challenges that I have faced till now is that it won't allow to reject incoming calls and the ringer volume is pretty low.
Handset Range
The base station's signal range is rated at 300 m in unobstructed outdoor areas and up to 50 m inside buildings. In my experience, this works well within 2 floors of my house as well.
Battery Backup
The handset is powered by Nickel-metal-hydride (NiMH) AAA batteries of 1.2 V with a capacity of 650 mAh. The rated talk time is up to 6 hours and standby time is up to 144 hours.
Warranty
The base station and handset come along with a guarantee of 2 years whereas the batteries and the adaptor carry a warrantee of 6 months.
Conclusion
With lots of complaints about the cordless phones in the market, while doing my due diligence, I learned that Gigaset was formerly named as Siemens Home and Office Communication Devices which gave me the confidence to go for it. At this point I am considering it as a good choice and would recommend to anyone seeking advice.
