Rating: 
Summary: DO NOT BUY
Review: I HAVE SEEN THE SIMENS PHONES BEFORE THEY BECOME AVAILABLE IN USA. I LIKED THE WAY THEY LOOKED. WHEN IT WAS MARKETED IN US WE BOUGHT TWO SYSTEMS (ME AND MY BROTHER) MY BROTHER STOPED TRYING TO USE THE PHONE A YEAR AGO AND FINALY I GAVE UP ALSO FOLLOWING IS THE NEGATIVE SIDES OF THIS SYSTEMWORKING RANGE IS VERY SHORT DOES NOT WORK THROUGH MORE THEN ONE WALL TRANSFERING CALLS BETWEEN BASE AND OTHER UNITS ARE COMPLICATED YOU CAN NOT PUT THE CALL ON HOLD AT ONE LOCATION AND PICK-UP FROM ANOTHER LOCATION IN SHORT NOT A USER FREANDLY SYSTEM SHORT BATTERY LIFE BUT GOODLOOKING
Rating: 
Summary: Poor Performer
Review: We bought this phone when it first came out two years ago. This phone is fine as long as you are near the base station. Our home is 4000 sq ft on one floor, and if we are one room too far away, the phone squeals, and drops the call. The phones are stylish, but all the handsets have all been repaired under warranty at least once. Pretty phones, poor performance. Maybe the latest models have fixed the problems, but I doubt it. Make sure to get the extended warranty, or you will asset dispose these Siemens Gigasets to the ....
Rating: 
Summary: Good product with lots of features
Review: I'm a bit surprised others had problems programming this phone. The instructions are simple and it's no more difficult than programming a cell phone. Spend a few moments and learn how to use it and you'll find a range of interesting features (for instance, you don't need to put one caller on hold to answer the other line, just press the other line and the first caller is put on hold automatically). It's not perfect (I'd rather see voice mailboxes and a forwarding feature would be a nice addition) but it's still a good buy for a home office.
Rating:
Summary: Do not buy it
Review: The worst telephone I ever had. No range, interference, lost of signal, everything that you can imagine. I gave one star due to the design.
Rating: 
Summary: A lifesaver in a two story house with teenagers
Review: Well, I'm sure I'm not using half the features of this phone but I am benefitting enough from them, so it is worth every penny. DOUBLES AS PHONE AND INTERCOM It is not that our house is so large, but it is annoying when you answer the phone and it is always for someone else, that is the furthest spot possible in the house from where you are. (must be a Murphy's law). This phone makes it easy to pick up the line and identify that it's not for you and then route it to the person, it is for. (too bad it does not also turn down the stereo in the kid's room too however). All you have to do is press intercom and the number of the person you are routing it to and they are rung up. Tell them they have a call and hang up. Also if you expect it's for you and someone else picks it up, you can join by pressing join L1 or L2 as appropriate. Even when there are no calls you can use the phone as an internal intercom. Unfortunately, the men in our house use this feature to discuss the internet-based games they are playing on the internet together. NO WIRES Anyone who lives in a house 20 years old or older, understands what a pain it can be to have to run new lines to a room for a phone. This phone eliminates that hassle. All you have to do is place the cordless handset near a electrical outlet, once it has been identified to the base station. CAN OUTFIT A WHOLE HOUSE I have 3 teenagers and have two phone lines. One phone line was on both floors, the other, had only been wired to one floor (because it was such a pain). I have 6 of the handsets to one base station and this has really made it wonderful for communication in our house without all the hassle. MANAGES TWO LINES WELL Since we have two lines we were always picking up the wrong one and interrupting a call. This phone senses this and will route you to the free line to make a call. This is really handy. ONLY NEGATIVE IS YOU CAN'T HOLD THIS PHONE WITH YOUR SHOULDER However, this is a nasty habit to get into anyway, it can really mess up your neck. Since each phone has a headset jack, if you really need to work hand's free, you can hook a headset to any one of the handsets. The handsets also all have a belt clip on them for convenient clipping on your clothes. PREVIOUS UNIT I BOUGHT WAS FAULTY Will all those positives aside, the first base unit I bought was faulty. It had terrible sound quality and I returned it to the store I bought it at, for the unit I have today. When I called Siemens, they suspected everything from ceramic floors to metal bed frames causing the problem, I was having. When I got the new base unit it was clear as a bell. This product is worth the wading through the "oops" to get to the gem however. I'm glad I persisted.
Rating:
Summary: Performs as advertised--great product
Review: I have had this system for two years, and have also experienced what some may call quirks in its operation. Several reviewers have stated what I believe to be reasonable explanations for the difficulties others have experienced. It is important for people to keep in mind that with any multi-function, compact electronic device there are times when a strict adherence to defined procedures will be required for the unit to carry out a desired function--(this is NOT your father's desk phone). I have had to refer to the manual on several occassions, and found it helpful and easy to use. On one occassion, it was necessary for me to use customer sevice to re-register the system, and their instructions were very clear in solving the problem, which has not recurred. I can tell you that compared to re-formatting a Hard drive and reloading operating systems and software, that process was like brushing my teeth. In short, I am very pleased with the system, it has fully met my expectations, and I would recommend it to anyone who is comfortable with electronics.
Rating:
Summary: Very good if you don't need great range
Review: The features are quite good and the performance is fine if you don't need to cover more than a 75 to 100 foot radius in a building. (This is based on use in a 110-year-old two-story brick townhouse with lathe plaster walls, so the range in a newer wood frame buidling on a single floor is likely to be better.) The range outside is substantially greater than inside the house. One feature I really like -- we have voice mail service from our telephone service provider, and the Gigaset base station has light that goes on when there's a message -- with out previous phones we didn't know we had a message without picking up a phone to hear the fast beep on the line.
There are a couple of quirks. Example -- if you don't clear the call log before it fills up, you'll have problems picking up calls on the cordless handsets. So you may want to shut off the logging feature despite it's usefulness. Some of the complaints noted in some earlier reviews no longer apply. If you unplug the base it retains the customization you have put into memory, although you'll still have to re-enter the time and date.
I liked the menu setup for customizing the base set -- it's quite clear and it's reasonably logical. And it's a lot easier than customizing from a manual. But you do need to read the manual before you start so that you understand all the possibilities.
Rating:
Summary: Flawless phone, but not for everyone
Review: Looking for a phone at your home office that allows easy expansion and works like an office phone? Go for it. Looking for an simple dual-line phone to replace your home system and have alot of people who have never experienced an office phone system? Don't get it. It does exactly what it was meant to, and does it well. It took about 30 minutes to walk through the manual to get a concise listing of all functions and learn the phone. Contrary to other reviews here the menu systems are pretty straight forward, -especially- if you've ever had to navigate a PBX phone at work. It's very easy to switch between lines or flash to an incoming call on call-waiting. Overall ... if you need an office system at home, this one has a good price and good quality. Just be aware it, like all office-style phone systems, has a learning curve.
Rating:
Summary: Not what it's supposed to be
Review: If you use this phone system in a small space with no walls, you might love it. but put it into a normal office or home setting and it sounds like you're under water. Anything more than 50-feet, or if the signal has to go through two walls, forget it! It is almost not usable. I would rate is "0" if that were available.
Rating:
Summary: Don't buy this phone!
Review: It only gets 1 star because they won't let me give it zero stars. I probably purchased this phone at least 2 years ago when it first came out. I will never buy another Siemens product based on my experience with it and I am finally giving up and junking it for a more reliable phone. First, as other reviewers have stated, it is extremely difficult to use. I don't have time to use the manual every time I want to do something with it. The intructions are long and complicated. My office mate with a MS in Computer Science had a handset sitting on his desk but couldn't ever get the thing figured out. He has a standard wired 2 line phone now that didn't take hours of reading the manual to learn to operate. When listening to messages if you don't delete them before the end, you have to go all the way back thru the menu process to do so. It has an awful user interface, possibly the worst I've ever encoutered with a digital device and that includes VCR's in the early days. Second, remote message checking has a catastophic flaw. The 6 key is used to select hear new messages AND to delete messages after you've heard them. When I've hit the 6 key when first entering remotely it has on occasion deleted all of my new messages. There is no recovery. I now wade thru all of my old messages to hear my new messages and I never use the hear new messages option. I complained early on to Siemens about this and they sent me a new unit that does exactly the same thing. This is horrible engineering. Who would consider having the message delete key used for anything else? Third, the handset doesn't work at all anymore. It worked okay at first but it had very lousy range, under 50 feet in our office. Now it acts like it is out of sync more times than not and you cannot understand a conversation at all with it. Finally, no battery or capacitive backup! And despite what other reviewers have said, my time doesn't get reset from caller ID. I had to plow thru the sill menu process each and every time the power went out until I bought a UPS. I have a MS in EE and am a digital signal processing expert. This phone is personally embarassing to me because it is so awful and my DSP peers designed it. Shame on Siemens!
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