I was looking for a new home phone and after stopping at the local Frys, I realized that home phones were just as ugly as when I bought the last one: seven years ago. However, the VTech I5871 (what a horrible name) stood out and after quickly reading the specs, I went for it. It has a sleek design that’s a little inspired by Bang and Olufsen’s TV remote control (no offense, B&O!). I like the aluminum surface with the simple button layout. So, how does it perform?
Phone
he sound quality is good and I like how the buttons feel. The speaker button is very simple to use and efficient. In speaker mode, the volume is loud enough. There’s a USB port to sync with a PC and a jack connector for a headset.
Base
The base looks cheaper than the phone, but it’s still much better than most home telephones. The answering machine is easy to setup with the LCD screen. It’s much more convenient than having to listen to a menu and press the right number. Good job here.
Smartness (or lack of)
The phone has a (washed-out) color screen to display contacts. On the specs, it says “The feature-loaded i5871 also allows you to download your phonebook from Palm or Outlook directly into your handsets”. Sounds great, but in reality you have to export your contacts to a text-file! Secondly, the phone has only room for 100 numbers – what the…? I can get a 1GB SD card for $10 and it’s really weird that a $130 handset can’t hold more than 100 numbers. Even if you had less then 100 numbers in your contacts, each contact has only one number. So entering the home, office and mobile number from someone actually takes 3 contacts – even the most basic cellphone handles more than one number per person.
Expandable
The VTech I5871 can handle up to eight handsets that can be used as intercoms.
Conclusion
The VTech I5871 is a good looking phone but I was quite disappointed by how it manages contacts – it is inferior to the most basic cellphone. If you consider purchasing this phone, just skip the whole marketing pitch that claims that it could have anything to do with outlook. I think that the idea of having a phone telephone that talk to outlook is excellent, if implemented properly.
Update 5/28: The handset keeps losing its connection to the base, that’s kind of annoying.
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