5 out of 5 people found this review helpful.
If Only No Network
Date of Review: Feb 12, 2002
The Bottom Line: I think that it's a good product minus that one serious problem of disrupting the network. If you don't have a network, go for it.
As an add-on to the other 2.4 GHz offerings from Sony, this seems like a great deal. And it was: Radio Shack was offering a free handset with each base station and base stations were on sale.
Not one to normally spend $80 on any phone, I splurged and purchased the Sony set with a base that had its own handset and get the extra handset free.
The handset is well-designed and very comfortable, even for long periods of time. The headset jack helps even more. The charger station for the handset has a small footprint that doesn't take up desk real estate. Just put the base station on another desk.
I love the jog wheel. It makes it easy to access the phone book and to program in phone numbers and names. The feature set is pretty easily understandable after going through the manual once.
However, there are serious problems, as well as these great features. Foremost, the accessory handset disrupted my 802.11b home network. The base station handset operated in the network space with no problems, but the extra handset would completely overpower the network.
Second, and more an annoyance than a problem, there is a slight echo in the handset. Again, this problem only showed up in the accessory handset and not in the one bundled with the base station. The handset also seemed to amplify the sound of the contact of the keyboard keys and the clicking of the mouse when used around my computer.
Having called Sony tech support on these matters, they told me that the unit was functioning within their limits and that there was nothing they could do. I still believe that it may have simply been one faulty unit that pumped out too much power. However, there is no remedy for that.
Since I purchased it as a package and Radio Shack sold out of handsets due to their massive sale, I have to return the whole package, which is a shame because the base station works great. I simply won't spend that much on one working phone and one inconvenience.
