OK, so this may not qualify as “doesn’t cost much”, (I spent $140) but it is feature-packed enough to be worth quite a bit.

Two of my three cordless phones died at about the same time, plus I started working from home more in my finished attic (3rd floor). After having a number of simple cordless handsets for my home telephone, I liked the idea of an integrated system. And now that I’ve had it for a while, it has been nice. The product is the Uniden CLX475-3. It is multi-handset system that includes a base station and three handsets. This is what I like about it:

  • all the handsets communicate with the single base station. So I need only one RJ11 phone jack. The handsets can be placed anywhere in the house there is a electrical outlet for the handset to sit in a charger when not in use. The base station is plugged into my Vonage adapter, but it should connect fine to any analog service.
  • you can intercom between any two handsets. So when my wife on the 1st floor wants to ask me a quick question while I’m in the 3rd floor attic office, she can ring my handset and get a high-quality audio connection without the telco and without climbing 2 flights of stairs.
  • transfer a call from one handset to another, so no more yelling, “hey, pick it up, it’s for you!”
  • a nice backlit display and keys. You can access the phonebook, callerid info, settings, commands, pictures (yup), etc.
  • multiple handsets can join a call without making the remote party too soft to hear. This is the benefit of using only one RJ11 jack.
  • a phonemail-waiting indicator on the base station and each handset. So you can look at any handset to check if you have phonemail. It’s a blinking light, so you don’t need to use the menu.
  • ability to listen to phonemail or perform any answering machine function from any handset, don’t need to be at the base station.
  • ability to screen calls (listen to the phonemail as it is being recorded) from any handset. You have to push a button to do that, but at least it is possible.
  • decent speakerphone built into each handset and the base. Actually, the base can be used independent of any handset, so even though you have three handsets you really have the equivalent of four phones.
  • standard headset jack, and a softkey to mute the handset’s microphone. This is a must for work-at-home people. My headset has a hardware mute button, so I use that since the softkey is under a menu.
  • you can configure the handset and the base station through the built-in display, or you can connect the handset to your PC via a USB cable and use the supplied software. This is one of the more interesting features. With this software you can copy phonebook entries across all the handsets, pick ringtones and other basic handset configuration, select pictures for your phonebook entries that will appear when they call (callerid) or you call (outgoing phonebook) (yes, I have face pictures of family members in the handset). It also does nice things like syncing the handset clock to your PC clock. And you can rip audio from your PC as your phonemail greeting. So basically I can create a handset profile and just copy the profile to all the handsets, or set up a profile for each handset. I can also configure the base station via the handset via the software. Basically, no more tedious configuration using the handset menu or base station menu.
  • a room monitor feature. This is helpful when a child is taking a nap but I want to putter in the garage, the garage handset can have a steady listen connection to another handset near the child.
  • the battery life is pretty good. I can do 3 hours of conference calls and the battery meter shows half-depleted.

The things I don’t like about this system:

  • It is a 5.8GHz digital system and claims to be WiFi friendly, but when I use it in my office right next to two WiFi devices it does stutter for a few seconds at the beginning of a call, which I assume is its attempt to find a clear channel. Once it stabilizes it runs fine.
  • I had an older 900MHz system that had greater range than this one. This one does reach all areas of the house and yard, but trails off after I leave the yard. Since our neighborhood pool is next door, it would be really nice if I could get reception at the pool. It barely reaches the pool parking lot, but not the pool. Perhaps placing the base station on the 3rd floor instead of the 1st floor would help reach a bit farther, but I like having the default call screener (base station) on the first floor where we can hear it from the kitchen and family room. The only wishlist feature I would like this system to have is to designate one of the handsets instead of the base station as the default call screener. The system also has what they call “DirectLink”, which is basically a way to use multiple handsets in a peer-to-peer fashion without the base station – it is walkie talkie intercom service instead of telco phone service. It does maintain a two-way steady connection and is not push-to-talk. I tried it once on a road trip with two cars, but the cars had to be pretty close (i.e., tailgating close) for good reception. And to connect to the other handset required several menu operations which took my eyes off the road for too long. Using a regular push-to-talk device would work better for reasons of range and ease.

You can add more handsets to the system for a maximum total of ten, but each additional handset is $60 each from the manufacturer. So getting the initial package is a pretty good deal.

Overall I’ve liked the system.