Uniden - TRU9465 5.8Ghz Twin 1-Line Cordless Phone Review

It's true.  You just can never have enough cordless phones.  Why?  Because they're cordless, and therefore, almost never where you expect them to be.  The answer? Simple, buy some more.

Background

A few years ago I went out and purchased a VTEC 5.8Ghz Digital phone sysem.  At the time I think it came fully expanded to 5 handsets including the base station.  I figured there were only 3 of us.  Five phones should handle us nicely.  And, we're not talking about South Fork here.  We're talking about a 2 story moderately large South Florida home.

But increasingly, especially as our youngest daughter has grown (all of 11 now), whenever the phone rings and I instinctively go to one of the base stations theres no phone there to greet me.  Yes, you can hear them chiming throughout the house, but find one?  Afraid not.  And before long I can hear the call go to the answering machine.

Uniden - TRU9465-2 5.8Ghz Phone - 2 Pack

And, so on a recent trip to Best Buy (or was it Circuit City) I noticed there was a sale going on for the Uniden - TRU9465-2 5.8Ghz Phone - 2 Pack.  It proved to be just too hard to pass up.

This Digital 5.8Ghz phone system is smilar to many other systems.  The base station must be connected to a conventional phone jack while the satellite phones need only be plugged into an electrical outlet.  The advantage of the 5.8Ghz range is that they tend not to interfere with your DSL or wireless systems.

This system came with both a base station and one satellite handset for a very reasonable sale price of $49.95.  Of course the system is expandable all the way up to 10 handsets.  For a house this size that might just be overkill.

Features

The primary base station serves also as an answering machine.  It also features a seperate dial pad and speakerphone function.  This does come in handy when the handset isn't sitting in the station.  Yes, this still does seem to happen from time to time.

Each handset also has a speakerphone function, so when I'm put on hold I can turn on the speakerphone and stand the handset up until someone comes on the line.

Both the base station and handsets have very large lighted and easy to read displays.  Often used numbers can be easily programmed into a contact list and of course if you subscribe to Caller ID, the phone will keep a running list of all incoming calls you receive.

One of the more basic, but useful features of this phone is the beltclip that can be attached to each handset.  When I take my dog out for a walk this clip comes in handy.  The range of the phone is more than sufficient to keep me in contact up to 100 yards or more from my house.

Reservations

Periodically I find that the handsets have a little more static than the VTEC units.  Nothing major, but still noticeable.  The fact that this is a Uniden system also means that all handsets in the house are not fit to be placed into any available charger.  If I were to do this again I think it would have made more sense to stick with a single manufacturer.

Mission Accomplished?

Well yes and no.  Yes, there are more phones laying around so you're more likely to find one.  On the other hand, they still seem never to be where they're supposed to be.  Maybe next time I'll pick up a couple of corded phones.

Rudi