Hands-on Review: Panasonic KX-TH1212B DECT Cordless Phone w/ Bluetooth Cell Link

What if your cell phone…

… could become your new home phone — cancel your landline and save more than $240 a year!

… could be connected to multiple cordless telephones throughout your house?

… could be charging and placed in one location for best cell reception, while you carry on a cordless conversation?

Tired of Playing Hide-and-Seek?

So many people these days have canceled their home landline telephone service to, instead, use only their cellular telephone exclusively as their “home number”. But the problem is that once you get home and you set the cell phone down somewhere (and relax…), your cell phone starts to ring and you are dashing all over the house trying to find it before you lose the call to voicemail! Remember when you had a “home phone” and you had extensions all over the house, within reach no matter what room you were sitting?

With the new Panasonic KX-TH1212B cordless DECT 6.0 telephone “system”, your cell phone multiplies its inexpensive phone service cost and affordable minute plan to up to 6 much more comfortable, longer battery life DECT 6.0 cordless handsets conveniently placed throughout the home. Each handset has a built-in speakerphone, Caller ID and Caller ID Call Waiting, Dial-by-name Address Book, Handset-to-Handset intercom/paging, and interference-free 1.9GHz operation — frequencies that are not shared with Wi-Fi, baby monitors, or any other consumer devices.

• Panasonic Link-to-Cell built-in technology connects your cell calls to your home handset extensions.
• Features easy initial registration using the Bluetooth Auto-Link feature (then cell phone automatically links to base via Bluetooth everytime you enter your home).
• Your cell calls will ring through on your new Panasonic DECT Link-to-Cell handset(s), including Call Waiting calls!
• Charge your cell phone while talking on this cordless phone and speak on a crystal clear connection.
• Improve the range in your house and eliminate those dropped calls; you can also still use your cell plan minutes to make calls.

First Impressions?

Whether you’ve got a home phone line and a cell phone, or just a cell phone, this is an amazing cordless phone system that works very well! After all the reviews I read on this, I must say I was a bit questionable regarding this phone. But, I decided to take the plunge. I found the performance of this phone, on both the landline and Bluetooth connection, absolutely flawless! Setup only took less than 15 minutes, as easy as you can sync any Bluetooth device to your mobile phone — of which, the manual does any excellent job of guiding you through. Finally, plug in your home phone line (if you have one) and that’s it!

Although the DECT 6.0 cordless phone system operates in a frequency range untouched by other consumer devices, Bluetooth operates in the same frequency range as Wi-Fi. If you put the cell phone too far from the Panasonic base unit, or you install the system right next to a Wi-Fi router, you will hear some obvious “clicking” in your conversation. Simply make sure you dock your cell phone in it’s charging station within 6-10 feet of the base unit, unobstructed if possible, as the instructions say to do, and you won’t have any problems. I have never had and issue with connectivity and I believe that is why.

Paring with your Bluetooth cell phone is very simple. I have mine connected with my Blackberry Curve, but this Panasonic system will allow up to two separate Bluetooth connections — so you and your signifant other can share the system. Simply leave your Bluetooth activated on your cell phone and, when you leave in the morning, it will automatically disconnect and when you come home it will automatically reconnect with your cell. It is completely transparent, just set it and forget it!

The cordless phones will ring if it is landline or cellular call, allowing you to answer either from any extension as well as allow you to make outgoing calls through your land or cell from any extension also. You can set different ringers for landline and each cell phone in order to tell if it is a landline call or cell call ringing in. It even gives one short ring when a text message is received, so you’ll know to check your cell phone for your text message.

Each handset can be set with its own ringer volumes and ringer tone choices for each call type: landline, cell 1, and cell 2. Three ringer-sounding rings are available, as well as 7 melody/musical rings. Because you are able to set different cordless extensions differently, you can place a cordless extension in a baby’s room or guest bedroom without disturbing them when an incoming call rings the rest of the house.

Save Money — Cancel your Landline!

If you plan to use the system without a landline, you’ll want to enter the programming code so the cordless handsets will automatically default to selecting the cell phone for making outbound calls. Simply pick up any handset, press the Menu button, then enter #157. It will beep to let you know the programming change has been accepted. When you enable cell-only mode, the landline is completely disabled and you will not be able to make (or receive) landline calls through the cordless even if you do connect a landline until you enter the same Menu #157 code again to re-enable the landline jack. You can toggle this feature back and forth at any time, if you ever need to change it.

Final Thoughts…

This system is absolutely great! No more running through the house to find my cell phone or missing a call all together. I simply reach over while watching TV and answer as you would any house phone regardless of which line or phone is calling in.

Pros:

Select a seperate tone for cell phone 1, cell phone 2, and your landline (if you’ve connected one), so you’ll know who is receiving the call by the type of ring tone. You can even choose an incoming call on cell phone 1 to ring only cordless handset 3, while incoming calls on cell phone 2 will ring all cordless handsets! Now that’s flexibility!

It has two bonus features that I absolutely love: First, each cordless handset has a verbal announcement feature that will speak the Caller ID information through the handset speakers so you don’t even need to look at the Caller ID to know who is calling! In addition, the system has a “Night mode” on each handset to temporarily (and automatically) turn off the ringer on the cordless extension during the times you program — without affecting the ringing on the other cordless extensions!

Adding additional handsets is super easy! The battery replacement (which you’ll likely to need in about two years or so) for other cordless telephones usually costs as much as a new phone! The Panasonic cordless handsets in this system use two, standard, rechargeable AAA batteries which can be purchased anywhere for well under $10 for a set of four! A+ to Panasonic for using an standard AAA battery, instead of some proprietary and expensive battery pack!

Cons:

If you are talking on a landline call and then your cell phone rings, you’ll hear only your cell phone ringing and you can’t answer it until you end your landline call. If you are on a cell phone call and the landline rings, you won’t even hear it ring — let alone be able to answer it! For people that have canceled their landline entirely, this won’t matter much anyway. Other than that small inconvenience, for those people who still use a landline, this system has many features for the very small price and certainly delivers what it promises!

Order Now!

For less $79, you’ll receive the Panasonic base unit plus two KX-TGA930T cordless handsets. Add additional cordless handsets, for up to 6 total, and have a phone within reach throughout the house for less than $35 each (and that price includes the batteries and charger)!