Which phone can I buy to pair with a cell phone at home?
April 1, 2015 6:46 AM   Subscribe

I'm looking for some residential cordless phones that I can pair with my cell phone (an iPhone 6). There are a load of link2cell phones out there , and I'm having trouble figuring out which is the best - and simplest - option.

I am looking at getting rid of my overpriced triple-play bundle and using just internet and my cell.

I plug the cell phone into a recharger every evening, and I don't want to move it around on the off chance I need to make or receive a call in the middle of the night. This rarely happens, but I'd like to plant a phone near my bed and forget about it.

Voicemail messages should go to the iPhone, not this system. Since there won't be a landline anymore, it doesn't need to be a dual system.

Suggestions? Anything else I should be aware of?
posted by AMyNameIs to Technology (3 answers total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
Instead of another phone, we use this Renny Home system, which we really like. It's a little pricy, but it works very well. Basically, it's bluetooth linked to your iPhone, so the Renny rings when you get a call coming in. It has speaker-phone functionality, so you can answer calls through it if you want to--it's essentially an extension of the iPhone. The main reason we got it is that I was getting frustrated trying to call my wife and when her phone was on silent and she didn't get the call. This solved that problem very well.

BTW--we started off with the Renny Original, but it doesn't work well with iPhones--all your sounds automatically go to the Renny. Renny home has a setting that lets you put it on Ringer only.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 7:06 AM on April 1, 2015


So I think you want a home phone with bluetooth?
posted by gorcha at 7:32 AM on April 1, 2015


I have this one.*

- The bluetooth works pretty well, connects when come through the door.
- On my setup, because I have a landline, you press a button if you want to make an outgoing call through the cell. However, it does have a cell-only mode, so it will automatically use the bluetooth if you don't have a land line. I would look for a something like this if you plan not to have a landline.
- It will sync the contacts from your cell, which works pretty well. I did it manually. If you often use contacts, you might want to make sure contacts are synced automatically.
- You can pair multiple cell phones and each can have their own ring, which is very handy in multi-cell households.
- It has a USB port for charging, which in my setup never gets used, but depending on your layout, might be something to look for.
- The- ringer is selectable, but they're all pretty unpleasant. Basically they all sound like a office phone.
- The talking-text thing I've never used, but I suppose it might be useful if it was just one phone receiving texts? I don't know, seems gimmicky to me.
- The voice quality over bluetooth is indistinguishable from just using the cell directly, for better or worse.
- The answering machine is pretty horrible, but you won't be using that, I assume, so doesn't really apply.

That's my 2 cent review.
I personally find it very useful, but I'm one of those old-fashioned types that still use a home phone as my primary contact point.

* (or something very similar, the base station doesn't seem to have a model number written on it.
I got it from Costco, so it has a multiple handsets, but Panasonic has one with just a base station, looks like)
posted by madajb at 9:23 AM on April 1, 2015


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