A bit more than just a gimick

I was skeptical when my wife brought this device home from London Drugs on a clear out price of about $40CDN. It looked too gimicky to be worth it - even at such a cheap price.

We had a hodge-podge of cordless phones and answering machines cluttering up a shelf in a less than ideal spot - only because that is were the phone jack was located.

This GE phone resolved this issue. You can mount it anywhere in your kitchen (where you spend most of your time these days) all you need is power - no phone jack required. It also acts as an answering machine with built in am/fm radio and digital clock and cordless phone charger.

The trick is the brick shaped module that is plugged into AC power and connects to the phone wire. This can pretty much be hidden away. The module then wirelessly links to the base station. An old idea, but pretty slick nonetheless.

The handheld cordless phone is a very basic low-cost model but seems to work adequately. The answering machine and call display do the job. The am/fm radio also works okay but the speaker is very small and is really for casual listening. Minimum radio volume is a tad too high.

When a phone call comes in the radio is automatically muted - kind of a neat trick. The ring tones are kind of junky - really can jangle the nerves even in low volume. Typical of a low budget phone.

The base is easy to install under-counter and comes with spacers for different types of kitchen cabinets. The phone clicks securely in the base for charging and is easy to remove.