Amplified Cordless Phones Review

Please note that our range of phones has changed and our current range can be found here in our Amplified Cordless Phones collection.

Video Transcript For The Hard Of Hearing:

One of the most frequently asked questions we get here at HearingDirect is with regards to cordless telephones, particularly with regard to which ones to choose, why one is more beneficial than another and also how many handsets can be order etc. So, I thought I’d provide a bit of information with regards to the range of cordless phones that we do have to choose perhaps between them and some of the benefits in doing so.

What I’ve got demonstrated here is you can see a range of cordless phones, they are actually a variety of manufacturers, in fact there are two manufacturers here. We have a German Amplicomms manufacturer here, Geemarc who are a French manufacturer, and another German manufacturer here, which is Amplicomms. And they are all arranged in order here in terms of – roughly speaking in terms of price and features. These two are quite similar, and this one is certainly more of a basic phone with basic features.

But looking at cordless phones is a few factors to consider, particularly those phones that are designed for the hard of hearing that have got extra levels of volume, and some of – most of them carrying also the larger or bigger buttons and bigger screens for ease-of-use. But there are quite a few things to consider when thinking about getting a cordless phone or a cordless big button phone, or indeed a cordless phone that’s got extra volume or extra loud cordless phones. And the things to consider is what you’re looking for in terms of basic features and some of the things that you might need that are slightly more advanced.

And broadly speaking when you look at these phones here, you are looking from left here to the right, you are looking at an ever-increasing feature base, also an ever-increasing degree of amplification of volume that is available from the phones. At the front here what I’ve got demonstrated are the base units with answer machines incorporated into them, you can see different design here. These two are quite similar in design. And then the ones along the back here, these are the cordless phones but exactly the same models of phone but without the answer machine and the base. And these would be the ones to go for if you subscribe to something like the BT 1571 service or equivalent, whereby you don’t need an answer machine actually in the home, but the answer machine is available on the telephone line itself. And that would be why you’d perhaps choose these over these.

Each one of these families if you like whether you go for the answer machine or the non-answer machine version, each one of them has the facility to add extra handsets to them. Some of them available in twin packs already, and some of them are available as single units to order here or here for example, and then you’d order additional handsets to go with them. Each of them will allow an additional four extra handsets along with the base unit itself.

The key thing here is that just one of the units, in this case it’s any of the sets that you see here, they would need to be plugged into the telephone socket in the home as well as a power socket. The additional handsets will be paired back to the base unit, and therefore do not require their own telephone socket, so you can add other handsets around the home without necessarily having additional telephone sockets.

In terms of why you’d then choose between these if you like and across the range. As I said, you have got a more affordable phone in the BigTel series from Amplicomms, and those are, if you like are budget range. They still have big buttons, they’ve got big screens, they’ve got useful features, including phonebooks and speed dials etc., but they are just a little bit lower in levels of amplification of maximum volume, and probably not quite as clear in terms of their sound quality, as either of the two of these models that you see here.

And then if we look at the Geemarc range versus the Amplicomms PowerTel range as these are called, these are the BigTels here. This is the PowerTel range here. These are I’d say slightly louder in terms of the maximum volume, and I’d argue – although there are differing opinions but I would argue that they are also slightly clearer too in terms of their call quality. And the prices are broadly reflective of this. So this would be almost affordable, this would be the next in the range, and these would be are most expensive.

But in terms of trying to think about why you would perhaps choose between them, clearly maximum volume is important, and that would be this set here, the PowerTels. Also clarity as I’ve talked about, again, that would probably be here, and then in terms of some of the other features, something that I particularly like about the PowerTel range, for example, over the BigTel range, or rather over the Geemarc range is that they do have this facility for individual profiles. And by that it means that you can select, here you can see them, A and B, you can actually select different volume levels and tone levels for different users within the home. For example, somebody may have some degree of hearing loss and need the phones at quite loud whereas the other member of the household or other members of the household may actually not need that level of amplification and then they can just simply select one or the other of the profiles here. And those would be saved according to the volume levels that are preferred by that individual.

So there are lots of features of that type, that would mean that perhaps these would offer more flexibility than either of those two up here, but of course the prices to match accordingly. So really it’s about the price decision, of course, but also as you would expect, the more you pay the more you get, and in particular volume and clarity and some of the extra features that I’ve talked about. So hopefully that gives you a bit a feel for how you’d choose between a range of cordless phones we do here at HearingDirect, whether they’re needed for their extra loud volume or their big buttons or their extra large screens.

The space and time we got available here would mean we can’t go into, I’m afraid every individual feature, but we’d be very happy to take your call and explain some of the additional features available on these phones. Call us on 0800-032-1301 anytime during the working week 9 to 5, or you can email us weekends or evenings to customerservices@hearingdirect.com and we’ll respond to you the next available opportunity normally within 24 hours.