Cordless Caller ID Phones

Most of these phones are Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications (DECT) phones. This is the European standard for digital cordless phones, developed from the British CT2 ('Rabbit') and Ericsson's CT3 standards in the early 90's. DECT is becoming an international standard - the North America version is called PWT, although most cordless phones there use a different standard, WDCT, which works at 2.4GHz (DECT uses 1.9GHz). Dectweb has a good introduction, whilst there's more on the history of the competing standards at http://ganges.cs.tcd.ie/4ba2.97/g6/nkeating/index.html. Digital cordless phones have many advantages - much better call quality, range and security to name but three.

The final acronym you need to know is GAP, Generic Access Profile. This is a common interface for phones to talk to base stations. In theory, any GAP-compatible phone can be used with any other, so you could even use a handset from a non-Caller ID phone to display the Caller ID from a basestation that did support Caller ID. In practice, GAP is a bit too flexible for this to be relied on, so it's always wise to go to someone who really knows about these things - specialists such as Freedom Phones will always be much more helpful on this kind of detail than the pimply youths down at Dixons. When GAP works it's great - it allows you to use any base-station with the best of the handsets such as the Ascom Avena 133, the BT Executive handset, the oh-so-stylish Bang & Olufsen or the oh-so-yellow Ericsson (great if you tend to lose handsets!).

The DECT market in the UK is incredibly competitive, which means that it is very tempting for manufacturers to skimp on component quality. This leads to poor speech quality, when the whole point of digital phones is that they should be as good as a corded phone! Alcatel are the worst offenders in this respect, and their phones should be avoided as a result. I get the impression that it is only above a RRP of £90-100 or so that DECT phones show off their full potential - below that point people always seem to have niggles. The trick of course is to find a cheap phone with niggles that you can live with <g>. I've tried to give some kind of indication of prices and places to buy in the entries for individual phones below, but these will all be out of date by the time you read this. Prices are continually dropping - I'm always interested to hear of new deals.

If you can afford it, try to get a phone with a backlit display.  The best are :
The Ascom Avena 133/133 Plus - if you can find it, and the styling is love-it-or-hate-it
The BT/Siemens Diverse Executive Handset - Only as an extra handset (or in the 2011?), & your cash helps BT's profits.
The BT Diverse 2020/2026 is nice, but possibly too small to be comfortable.

Going down below the £100 mark, look at :
The Panasonic KX-TCD955E/965E - packed full of features and reliable.
The Phillips Onis series - high-quality, reliable phones.

The £60/80 Binatone 3100/3200 is the best of the 'cheap' DECTs although the build quality is not in the same league as those mentioned above. Lower down the market, it seems to be a question of having a look round you local superstores to see what deals you can find - even the likes of Tesco sell them. Staples seem to be good sources, Homebase have a surprisingly good selection and have their 'price guarantee', and Argos are good with their 14 day money-back guarantee, but I would repeat: it's well worth going to a specialist such as Freedom Phones or Phoneshop.uk.com for expert advice. Stores in the Dixons group (Dixon's, The Link and Curry's) always have a good selection, but are generally expensive - John Lewis is probably the cheapest source of mainstream phones. The absolute lowest I have seen is Tandy offering the old Binatone 1500 for £40. Tottenham Court Road and its equivalents also have a number of DECT phones at bargain prices if you know what you want.
Before you start wondering, I've no connection with any of the companies mentioned above!!!
Even if you decide to buy off the web or a catalogue, do try and see the phone in the flesh first - this is where Dixons group stores come in handy, even though I wouldn't buy one from them!  Not only do they all seem to have their little quirks that are only apparent when you have them in your hand, the ergonomics vary wildly.  For instance, the Samsungs seem to be designed for women and Koreans ;-), and feel tiny in my (admittedly huge) hands; the Ascoms fit very nicely but not everyone will like their boxy lines. There is no point going for the smallest phone possible - they are less comfortable for extended use, and you will probably be using the DECT phone for much longer than a mobile, while portability is much less of an issue. It may also be the case that an otherwise attractive phone lacks some minor feature that you deem essential.

Cable customers who require DECT phones to work with the Bellcore or CCA standards for Caller ID used to have Hobson's choice - the C&W CWD3000 and the Alcatels, none of which I would otherwise recommend. However, I think that since DECT phones are sold throughout Europe, many of them support all standards mentioned by ETSI.  I know that the Phillips Onis' are BT only, and I would guess that the BT/ Siemens ones are as well.  Other than those, I know the Binatone 3100/3200 and the Panasonics work,  I'd put money on the Audiolines working, I'd take a fair guess that the Samsungs do, and phones such as the Ascoms would be a fair bet. Please let me know if you have DECT phones working on a cable line!
If you assume that any DECT phone that uses the ETSI standard as used in Germany will work on a CCA line, then according to Stefan Frank you can use Ascom Adessos(discontinued) and Avenas, the Alcatels, Binatone Modus, the Bosch 558, 658 & 757, DeTeWe BeeTel,  Deutsche Telecom  Sinus 44 CLIP, 54, 511CLIP, T-Concept C710 & T-Easy C310,  DFG Quicktel 60, the Ericsson DECT 140,  the Hagenuk Home Handy Pico Voice, the Loewe Alphatel 3000 DE & DA,  the German Phillips Onis Memo, Quelle SL10,  the Panasonics,  the Samsungs, the Sanyo Digitalk, , Siemens Gigasets, the Swatch Cordless II (tasteful as ever! ;-) ), the Thomson T7800 and the Tiptel Dectline S & C are all worth investigating for cable customers.  The quality DECT phones can be cheaper on the Continent, but I'm not sure of the logistics of ordering from somewhere like http://www.telecom-store.de/ (which has an introduction in English).

There are a couple of analogue cordless phones that support Caller ID, but they are both £60 or so, you might as well get a digital phone. There are lots of  ISDN DECT phones, hardly any of them available in the UK.  Peter Strangman's site gives you some idea of what is available.

Alcatel

Ascom

Avena 122 Price : RRP is £70 for handsets, £100 for 122, £130 for 122 Plus - Tandy have all these, Freerose have the 122, Dixon's Group have the Plus for £110 now.  Standard : BT and Bellcore  Website :  http://www.ascom.co.uk/ascomphones/cradle1.htm
There really isn't much to say about this phone - a high-quality, well-thought-out bit of kit. Anyone looking at the Phillips Onis and the Panasonics should consider this.  The handset comes in grey or blue, and fits flat face down or perched upwards (see website). The styling isn't to everyone's taste, the handset is a little boxy, but it fits in my (big) hand very nicely. The single-line, 14 digit display isn't backlit, but if that's a problem go for the Avena 133.  The Plus model has a 22 minute answerphone but unfortunately looks like it doesn't have a number indicator on the base, just a flashing LED. It's nicely laid out otherwise - maybe they thought a bigger display would ruin the looks?  There have been complaints of poor voice quality on two phones on a Telewest line, but this does not seem to be a general problem.

Avena 133 Price : RRP is £140 for 133, £160 for 133 Plus. Phoneshop.uk.com has the 133 Plus for £144,  Freedom Phones used to have the Plus for £150, and http://www.telecom-store.de/  has them for DM286 (about £90) & DM 362 (about £115) respectively, with the handset for just DM189  Standard : BT & Bellcore  Website : http://www.ascom.co.uk/ascomphones/cradle1.htm#133
Just as solid as the Avena 122, but with a 4 line backlit display, NiMH batteries, more memories, name memories and menu-driven access to them.  I guess it's the equivalent of the BT/Siemens Executive handset, well worth going for if you can afford it.

Audioline

DECT6000 Price : £73 from phoneshop.uk.com   Website :  http://www.phoneshop.uk.com/dect/aud6000.htm  Standard : BT        One of the cheapest Caller ID DECT phones around. Comes in green or champagne. All the other Audioline phones are dual-standard, so this may be as well. The Audioline DECT 3055 on sale in Staples for £90 seems similar.

FF988 Price : £51 from phoneshop.uk.com, £60 from Comet, Tandy and Staples.  Website :  http://www.comet.co.uk/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ProductDisplay?prrfnbr=  298207&prmenbr=927&CGRY_NUM=257672&catname=Phones  Standard : BT and Bellcore    This phone is unusual on two counts - it's the only analogue phone in this list other than the Phillips Icana, and it works on BT and Bellcore systems. If you're going to spend 60 quid on a cordless phone, you should really get a digital one.. FWIW it comes in white or black.

Bang & Olufsen

BeoCom 6000 Price : £325, £150 for extra handsets - presumably these would work with other GAP-compliant basestations?  Website: http://www.bang-olufsen.com/default.asp?id=318  Standard : ? I guess multistandard as it sells in BT, Bellcore and DTMF standard countries.
Painfully stylish phone to go with the rest of the Scandinavian lifestyle. If you can live with the price, it's an attractive option - a 200 name-and-number phonebook, held in the basestation or in the handsets.  The use of a wheel to scroll through the phonebook is a nifty bit of design.  Of course, for some people the ability to turn down their B&O stereo from the handset will be a clincher - but somehow I doubt such people could bear to live with any of the dreary grey phones that the rest of us must put up with.....  Recent reports have suggested that new versions of the BeoCom 6000 don't pick up Caller ID in London whereas older models do.  If anyone can shed light on this, please let me know - my guess is that since some of their other phones are merely Ericsson internals in a sexy box, this may be a version of the Ericsson 260 problems (qv); alternatively B&O have sent a wrong batch to the UK.

Betacom

Binatone

Eurotel 1500 Price : £40 from Tandy!, £59 from Comet, £81 from phoneshop.uk.com Argos have a two-handset pack for £110  Website : http://www.binatonetelecom.com/eurotel1500.html   Standard : BT

Perhaps the most widely available of the cheap Caller ID DECTs - apparently Argos are selling them off for 50 quid now. Which! found that it had a much shorter battery life than most DECT phones, and its Caller ID detection can be a bit flaky, but other than that its OK - the 3100/3200 is a better all-round bet. The 1500 can definitely send caller ID data to non Caller ID handsets such as the BT Diverse 2010. There is an answerphone version, the Eurotel 2000, but I've never seen it in the UK.

Eurotel 3100 Price : £60 from Dixon's group, Argos & Tandy; Argos have the 3200 for £80 and extra handsets for just 30 quid.  Recently Homebase had the 3200 for an incredible £66. Snap them up before they're gone!  Website : http://www.binatonetelecom.com/cat1.html  Standard : BT and Bellcore!    These are probably the best of the 'cheap' DECTs, with neat little handsets and an improved version of the Phillips software - they remember calls that do not leave a Caller ID. The 3200 is the answerphone version. Scott Allison at Freedom Phones is very keen on these (although he can't compete with Argos on price).

BT

Diverse 2016 Price : £111 from phoneshop.uk.com, £125 in Homebase sale, £130 from John Lewis, £140 from Staples, Dixons group, Argos, ?£150 from BT; ?£146 from Viking Direct, Argos, Tandy   Standard : BT,?  Website : http://www.bthome.com/e_shop/index.html
This is the 2011 with a 12 minute answerphone.  For some reason (price point? <g>) this gets the grotty 10-memory, non-backlit display unlike the 2011. The Ascom Avena 133+ would be a better bet, alternatively I'd recommend BT's own 2026 or an extra Executive handset. It's a shame, as the answerphone is one of the better ones - there's a nice number-of-calls display on the base, and when it plays a message, it shows the caller's number on the handset.  BT also sell the DECTfax, a fax machine that doubles as a DECT base-station, and two two-line DECT phones, the Diverse ISDN (aka Siemens 2060) with Caller ID and the £400 Diverse 2-line analogue phone which doesn't have Caller ID. The Diverse repeater station is unique and may be useful for some people.

Diverse 2020 Price : £160 at Tandy, but Debenhams of all people were meant to be selling them for £110  Website : http://www.bthome.com/e_shop/index.html    http://www.freedomphones.co.uk/dect.htm#2020 has details, and I think it corresponds to the Siemens 3010 Pocket at http://www.siemens.de/ic/products/cd/english/index/products/  cordless/features/3010p.html
This is BT's new 125g baby, which has more in common with modern mobile phones than traditional cordless units.  It crams most of the usual features into a case just 137 x 43 x 20 mm. All in all, an impressive phone - the only complaint would be that a phone this small can be tiring to use for long periods

Diverse 2000 Deskphone Price : £152  Website : http://www.shop-athome.bt.com/athome/plsql/show.  determine_template?atoz=true&catno=400762&keyno=201597&go.x=22&go.y=10
This acts as a handset for any Diverse base-station (for that matter, I guess any GAP-compliant base-station), but why anyone would pay so much for a desk phone is beyond me. I guess you could use the base-station as a mini switchboard. There's also a Diverse socket for £110 at Phoneshop.uk.com.

Diverse 2000 Executive Handset and Charger Website : http://www.shop-athome.bt.com/athome/plsql/show.  determine_template?atoz=true&catno=400762&keyno=201475&go.x=37&go.y=1   Price : £100  Memories : 100 name & number  This is a much nicer handset than the normal Diverse handset with several nice features. It's expensive, but warmly recommended - see the Ascom Avena 133 for something similar.  However, it may be unique in that apparently Siemens make a headset, the Gigaset 2000H, for their version of the Executive Handset (the Gigaset 2000 Comfort).  This is available for £50 or so from the likes of www.teleshop.to/ and makes a possibly unique hands-free cordless solution.

Diverse 3010 Classic Website : Nothing on BT's yet, but  http://www.phoneshop.uk.com/dect/3010.htm has a good summary, and the Siemens equivalent is at http://www.siemens.de/ic/products/  cd/english/index/products/cordless/giga3000/giga3010cl.html   Price : £68 at Phoneshop.uk.com, Dixons Group have it for £80 or so.
Finally BT/ Siemens have come out with a phone to challenge the likes of Binatone.  This has only just appeared in the UK (beginning of March 2000), so it's too early to say whether it's a good buy, but Siemens quality at a sub £70 price is very appealing in theory.

Cable & Wireless

CWD3000 Price : £110 from Tandy, £130 from wirefree.com  Website :  http://www.phoneshop.uk.com/dect/cwd3000.htm  Standard : BT and Bellcore
A rebadged Samsung, the CWD3000 was notable for being the first DECT phone that would provide Caller ID on all UK cable networks. It's expensive and not particularly good quality, although it does have things like an answerphone that associates the Caller ID with each message. For the time being, cable users don't have much choice, but see my introductory comments.

Ericsson

Ericsson 260 Price : £150 from Ericsson Direct on 0990 237237, £160 from Dixons group. Tandy has the handsets for £70 and the phones for £160  Website :  http://mobile.ericsson.com/spg.asp?template=features&Grid  =grid2&Menuleft=menu_left_E&Subheadtext=sh_E1.Xa&Menumid=  menu_mid_E&Menusub=menu_mid_sube&vchSuppressName=Features  &Combo=inc_CordlessPhoneCombo&Man=Man_link2&ProdId=8911   Standard : BT
Like the non-Caller ID Ericsson 230, this is a popular, well featured phone. It has a 100-number address book, digital answerphone, memo facility etc. However, it has two problems. Unfortunately the early ones did not display UK phone numbers correctly. In particular, city numbers containing a space such as 0171-999 1234 had the space replaced with a zero. This was not a fatal problem, but it did prevent the phone from looking up numbers in the address book, and users couldn't return calls from the call log. Ericsson fixed this in November 1999 - if yours shows this problem I would get in touch with Ericsson. See DejaNews for some of the discussions about this. Oh, and the other thing - the phones are rather plasticky. Some people criticise them for their poor sound quality, others rave about their 'natural' sound - I think these phones need a demo more than most..   Ericsson make handsets in grey, blue, green and yellow! Presumably these would work with other base-stations.

Hagenuk

Panasonic

KX-TCD955E Price : 955 - £99 from phoneshop.uk.com and John Lewis, £110 from Comet and the Dixon's group.   965 - £135 from phoneshop.uk.com, £150 from John Lewis  Website : http://www.panasonic.co.uk/ukhome/navigate.asp?MenuItem=2255  &NodeType=P, http://www.phoneshop.uk.com/dect/pana955.htm  Standard : BT and Bellcore

Shame about the name, but it has lots of nifty little features like different ring tones for certain numbers. It has a 50-call name-and-number call list, and a 70 entry phonebook. Unlike the Phillips, the backlit 16-digit display can accomodate UK numbers in one bite - in fact, the more I see of this, it starts looking a better bet than the Phillips all round. It also seems to have less effect on modems whose speeds are reduced by BT and Phillips phones. The phone can be put in its cradle either way up, and comes in a nifty shade of metallic blue. The KX-TCD965E is the same phone with a 14 minute answerphone, while the 951 and 961 lack Caller ID.

Phillips

Icana 5350 Website : no longer on Phillips site  Price : £50 from Tandy, £54 at Homebase
Silly name, but other than the Audioline FF988 this was the only analogue cordless phone with Caller ID available in the UK AFAIK. It seems that Phillips have finally realised that analogue phones were a waste of time now that DECT phones were available for a similar price. Acording to Phillips, the Icana did not support Call Waiting ID; Tandy think it does <shrug>. Note that the more common Icana 5250 does not have Caller ID.

Onis 6211/6311 Price : £76 in Homebase sale, £81 from phoneshop.uk.com (6311),   £90 from Comet, Staples; widely available  Website : http://www.philipsconsumer.com/products/onism/onism2.html   Standard : BT

The Phillips Onis range are justifiably the most popular Caller ID DECT phones in the UK.  They have dinky base-stations, good features and have good call quality.  On the flip side, their 3 digital ringtones are irritating, and their 10-digit displays must scroll to display UK numbers, annoyances which relegate them to second place beside the Ascoms, BT/Siemens and Panasonics. Another nasty problem is that apparently you can't unregister a handset from a basestation, which is a pain if your basestation dies.   However, they do have Call Waiting ID, but this is reported to be somewhat flaky.  Note that the Onis 6210 does not have Caller ID. Both it and the 6211 are being replaced by the Onis2 6310 and 6311 respectively. From what I can tell looking at the Phillips website's Onis feature comparison table, the only difference is that the 6311 adds a speakerphone on the handset - they still haven't changed the 10 digit display.

Onis Memo 6411/6511 Price : £90 in Homebase sale, £108 from Phoneshop.uk.com, £119 from Argos,  Dixon's group;   £130 from wirefree.com   Website :  http://www.philipsconsumer.com/products/onis/onisfamily.html   Standard : BT
The Memo version of the Onis adds a answerphone with a capacity of just 6 minutes.  Frankly, you might as well pay the extra for the Vox version. The Onis2 Memo 6511 is replacing this model - I think this at last adds call screening.

Onis Vox 6611 Price : £125 from phoneshop.uk.com, £140 from Dixon's Group, Argos, Tandy.   Website :  http://www.philipsconsumer.com/products/onis/onis.html   Standard : BT
The Vox version of the Onis gives you a proper answerphone with proper voice prompts, unlike the beeps of the Memo, and is generally thought of as the one to go for if you can afford it - one uk.telecomer did a detailed comparison with the old Memo 6411.

Zenia Price :   Website : http://www.philipsconsumer.com/products/zenia/
This is the latest (March 2000) top-of-the-line phone from Phillips - and please, no Warrior Princess gags ;-)   The website sends my copy of Netscape bananas, but what this sounds like is an attempt to bring a lot of mobile technology to DECT phones - not before time. It seems to feature things like a vibrating call alert and customisable ring tones - reports, please!

Samsung

Siemens