Comment on Panasonic KX-TG7645M DECT 6.0 Link-to-Cell via Bluetooth Cordless Phone with Anwering System, Metallic Gray, 5 Handsets by C. James.
Talk about a gatet that makes life easier! Fantastic,
I had no idea this Cell to Cordless Bluetooth feature existed and it is one of the single best technology investments I have made in a very long time.
I have a personal cell phone, a work cell phone (Blackberry), and a home phone land line, and for years have had to either carry my cell phones around the house with me or go running over to where ever they are charging at the moment when a call comes in.
Well no more. The Panasonic KX-TG7643M came to my attention while looking around for a Father’s Day gift. It is a Speaker Phone, Answering Machine, has Battery Back-Up, and I got the Base Unit and 3 handset option, and the keypad in the base unit.
First the star feature, Bluetooth link to my cell phone. Out of the box the manual is a little daunting and obviously Panasonic knew this and had a quick start on the inside cover for very basic operation but including cell phone pairing and a cheat sheet in addition to the full manual for more commonly used advanced feature, very nice balance of documentation, a rare thing these days.
Out of the box it was about 5 minutes to the point of trying to link my first cell to it, less than a minute later it was done, same for my second cell phone.
Next I transferred in the phone books from each cell phone, and in under a minute for each it added the 300 or so numbers on my two cell phones and the nice surprise is that it keeps each phone book in it’s own group, however you can look at them combined also.
So for some test, the buttons for Cell 1 and Cell 2 had turned green meaning they were ready to go so I used Cell one to call cell 2 and answered cell 2 from the Panasonic base unit, worked perfectly.
Next I called out using Cell 1 and then Cell 2, again both worked perfectly. I then have my friend call each of the cell phones and I had configured the Panasonic to use the cell phones own ring tone for each, and so when it rang it had the cell phone ring tone letting me know which phone the call was coming in on, it also tells you on the base unit display and the handset display which line it is using.
I originated a cell phone call through the pani and then picked up the phone and left the house, it linked control back to the cell phone and there as not even so much as a beep or click, the call continued now from the cell unit. Works coming home while on a cell call, as soon as you get in the house (one minute actually) the cell auto links back the to pani and you can continue the call from the base unit or any of the handsets.
Can’t tell you know nice it is to have all of this in one consolidated system now. So far so good, however I was replacing a Motorola cordless phone system that I had done a lot of homework of to get a great speaker phone, something I use a lot, and so I was a little worried that the pani might be crummy as most are, but it is actually as good as the Motorola was so no issues, you make make it plenty loud, and talk at a normal level.
Caller ID is has a voice feature and will say the Caller ID information out loud if you turn it on, this is really nice on the handset in the bedroom in that I can just listen to know if I need to pick up or not, no need to try to sit up enough to read the display while half asleep.
The last feature I will really highlight is the battery back-up. This is unlike most cordless phones offer, the batter back-up does not just save your settings until power is returned, it actually power the base unit and allows you to using any of the handsets during a power failure.
It has a ton of other features and they are pretty much as good or better than you find on any of the phones these days, lots of customization options, ability to link in your cell phone and land line voice mail, block specific phone numbers (not by the phone company, on your phone), set ring-tones to numbers, decide which handsets or set all to be able to get and make calls over the cell phones, and you can even use this with no land line at all, just tell it to only use the cell line(s) and it will but seem like a typical land line call. Oh you can also have a Bluetooth or wired headset if you don’t like speaker phones for hands free operation.
If you have one or two cell phones and chase them around the house, hit dead spots in the house, want to have your cell phone charging and not be tethered to the wall while taking calls on it at home, want to use those free or cheap off-hour minutes from your cell but using a nice home phone, then this is a great answer and for a pretty good price.
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