VTech DS6321-3 Reviews

Ratings

Category: Office Product
Brand: VTech
Model: DS6321-3
Availability: Online/In-Store
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VTech DS6321-3 Review

VTech DS6321-3 Review by Scooby

We had bought this phone from Amazon, along with many others on the way. To compare, we tried: AT&T's TL9237 ~ $120, Uniden's ELBT595 ~ $70, and Motorola B802 ~$95.

This phone far exceeds those with more bang for your buck. It can connect up to 3 different bluetooth devices, but only 2 at a time can be active. It does a great job of downloading your phonebook from your cell, and can have your directory available on all handsets. When accessing the phonebook, you can choose which cell's directory to use, and can rename the cell phones that connect (i.e. Bob's Phone). I've had the phone for about 2 weeks, and have yet to have a dropped call, and bluetooth connection is outstanding. Very clear.

I have a Blackberry Pearl, and my wife has the Iphone. Both initially connected seamlessly and automatically connects to the phones upon entering the house. Two of the three other bluetooth cordless phones we tried had the issue: if you are on the cell phone when walking into the house it'll drop the call to connect to the base. Upon testing it with this product, there was a short moment of silence, but the call maintained connection with no problem. Excellent!

Each active device on the phones can have their own ringtone. This is very neat. One downfall of the phone is you have to set the ringer and ringer volume attributed to a connected device ON EACH HANDSET, and you can't change the ringer on the base (simple enough, turn the base ringer off). Although it was only 3 phones we had to do this to, it took less than 5 minutes and it was set and done, so not a huge deal.

Why it works for my uses... I simply wanted a bluetooth cordless phone that works. I don't need memo's (who uses those anyway?), fancy ringtones, headset jacks (this doesn't have them), or anything else. If you are simply looking to extend the talking capabilities of your cell phone to the rest of the house, then this phone is it. I can't comment on the answering machine because I don't use it. The max talking distance between handset and base is decent (when I tested it, it went through 3 walls, exterior wall, and traversed the length of my yard before a hint of static). The phone is very simple to use, and buttons are large (probably because there isn't any fancy shmancy crap on it). The handsets are lightweight, and pretty good quality (they look like they could survive a few drops). Batteries initially take about 16 hrs to charge, but man they can hold that charge. Great battery life. The speakerphone is pretty good too.

All in all, if you are simply looking for a phone to do a phones job for a lot less money, this is an excellent choice. Sorry for the essay... and major use of ().

VTech DS6321-3 Review by Lenagainster

Update 6/3/10 I have downgraded this review from five stars to one. I'd give it less than one if possible. The reason being that we upgraded our phones and the Bluetooth no longer works reliably. Disconnects sometimes after the second ring. Disconnects sometimes in the middle of a conversation, drops call, then reconnects by itself. I have tried everything imaginable over the past two weeks to get the Bluetooth to remain connected, swapping phones, deleting any missed calls on the cell, deleting Backup Assistant, swapping phones, deleting everything and starting from scratch, power cycling the phone system and the phones. Nothing helps. IMHO, the Bluetooth in the cells has been upgraded and is now incompatible with the Bluetooth in the Vtech. The Vtech cannot be upgraded. The Vtech website offers no help or insight, only a comment that the system has been tested with the cellphones I am using. Not having a reliable connection is unacceptable. The Vtech is going back.

Original review.
For those who don't like to carry their cellphone with them while at home, especially in a multi-level house, this phone system is a wonderful way to be able to answer those cell calls from anywhere in the house. A great system to have whether or not you have a landline. The sound quality is noticeably better than the 2.4 Ghz Unidens we had been using, although the Unidens were acceptable. Easy to link the Bluetooth enabled cell the first time, and the cell is automatically re-linked when the cellphone is brought back into the house as long as the cell has Bluetooth enabled. The system can handle up to 12 extensions, each extension can call another extension by selecting Intercom, and one can call out on a cell from one extension while another is using the landline on a different extension. The entire contact list from the cellphone can be uploaded and the whole list appears on each extension. A nice big screen that shows date and time, which of the two cellphones are linked, and if a line is busy. The only downsides so far are the pathetic list of ten ringtones to choose from, and the fact that the handsets cannot be named (such as living room, computer, kitchen, basement), but only handset 1, handset 2, etc. I don't find these flaws to be serious enough to downgrade my rating. I have my six handsets placed in such a way that I can easily remember what room they are in. Everything is very intuitive in using these phones. It has a built in answerer, which we have turned off, since it is more convenient for us to use voicemail.
2/8/10 Update: phones still work great, for both the landline, cell, and as an intercom. Just two things to note. Disappointed that there doesn't seem to be a way to ring all the other handsets when using the intercom. Only one at a time. So the other person is somewhere in the house, but I'm not sure where. Have to ring each handset one at a time. The other slight annoyance is that when the entire contact directory on the cellphone is uploaded to the Vtech, it replaces the existing directory. There is a slight difference in the way names and types of phones are displayed. When imported, for example, a mobile phone will show up as Jane Doe/M, (next line blank), 123-456-7890. One has to step through each entry and make corrections to display the entry as Jane Doe, <cell>, 123-456-7890. With hundreds of contacts, this can be tedious. However, it's not an operational issue and I wouldn't downgrade my rating because of it.

VTech DS6321-3 Review by Roger (San Jose, CA)

Bought the phone from Amazon. There are 3 handsets and setup of time/date etc can be done in either one, and show up in all others quickly. Voice is much better than my 5-yr old 2.5GHz v-tech phone. The keypad is relative soft and responsive.
Bluetooth devices can be paired with base. It paired easily with our two cell phones, One ATT tilt, one Sony W520, and one bluetooth headset. But only two devices can be paired in the same time and user can pick which two. Cell phones can be pretty far away from the base, in my case from one corner of the house to the base ~40 ft, but I have to keep the headsets closer ~15 ft. Directory from my cellphone is uploaded easily, and it keeps the directories from different phone separate and I can pick which one to use, which is nice.
It does not have a headset jack in handset! which can be useful for long meeting/talk, that's the reason of one missing star. I have to use bluetooth headset instead, and stay closer to base, since only base can pair with bluetooth device. It does not have handset clip as in my old vtech phone, but I rarely use it.

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