BT Wireless Fixed Phone 4600, Big Buttons, Advanced Spam Blocker, Call Block Shortcut key, Answering Machine, Four Handsets

Excellent

Has all the features I need and more! Quick to set up the basics and connection. The booklet of features I am still working through. It was good to have a hard copy to refer to and not have to go on line for the instruction book.

NB. Unplug existing fixed telephone you want to keep and only re-attach its line cord once you have hooked up the new phones. I was stuck with « Connect line cord » message on the new phones till I did that. The following thoughts apply to my elderly and quite deaf mum’s situation: Pros: : big buttons, loud ring tone, ease of set up, call block feature, multiple functions not all needed personally but nice to have those options. Very bright uncomplicated display. Clear instruction manual even if you are not with BT it all worked fine. Cons: ( not really cons but…) very quiet noise when handset is replaced in charger. No way my mum will hear that. Charging bases for the additional units are quite small and therefore potentially unsteady. Design is very efficient and looks fine, however this is not a sleek and trendy looking phone. It does what it says on the box and that is perfect for what I wanted.

The BT 4600 phone works OK but the interface has become much worse. These phones replaced an older set of BT 8500 cordless phones which, after a few years, had become unreliable and randomly blocked the call via Call Guardian even though it had recognised the caller from its contact list! The issues we have when comparing this to the previous set are... 1) there is no way to electronically transfer the contact list from the old phones to the new, we have had to key in everyone again 2) it only stores one tel number per name, the older phones allowed 2 or 3 numbers (mobiles, landline etc) so now the same people have to be re-entered 2 or 3 times. This is time-consuming, reduces the possible total max number of entries held, and makes it more difficult to select which contact number to dial (considering point 3 below) 3) fewer characters allowed per name 4) the display font is larger but this means it splits names and numbers resulting in an odd "split/scrolling" name/number which is difficult to quickly, or at times almost impossible, to ascertain who is calling. We will have to keep and live with their new design as the BT Call Guardian call-blocking is so much better at stopping cold-callers than the competitor's call-blocking versions. Although I haven't yet turned on and tested the call-blocking in the new 4600 phones as I haven't yet finished entering the long list of numbers from the 8500 system. This process is mind-numbing as one has to first locate the set of numbers on the old phone (lots of scrolling and keeping a pencil copy of names entered so far), then start keying it into the new phone, meanwhile the old one times-out, so now you have to get that entry back and continue keying in the name/number before the new phone times-out! Does anyone from the manufacturer ever use their design? It results in a lot of bad language and losing the will to live. Maybe one day, when our mobile signal coverage improves, we can give up the landline completely.

This is the fourth set of these phones that I have purchased in recent months. I have purchased one for my elderly mother, one set each for two pensioners that I have been assisting during Covid and this set I purchased for myself. Prior to the purchase of these phones everyone had been receiving multiple nuisance calls on a daily basis (one gentleman had three within ten minutes and was getting afraid to answer the phone), since the purchase of these phones they haven't had any nuisance calls. Setting up the phone was quite easy but took a bit of time (it depends how many telephone numbers you have in your index). Its worth setting up correctly as all numbers you save to your phone and save as VIP can call straight through to your phone. All unrecognised numbers are challenged and require them to give a name before going through to your phone. If they don't leave a name & press the hash key, you never know they even rung. Call Blocking. You can do this when you answer the phone by choosing option 3 or if you have answered the phone and then suddenly realise its a nuisance call, you have a dedicated button you can press. A couple of features that I really like about this phone is: 1. When you set-up your contact list within the phone, it shares it between all the other phones you have linked to the base unit. My previous phones I had to set-up my contact list in each individual phone. 2. The SLOW PLAY button; There is nothing worse than someone leaving you a contact number to ring them back on but you have to play the message 3 or more times to ensure you get the correct number written down. This phone has the normal PLAY button, which you can use to hear the message at normal speed but it also has a SLOW PLAY button, which slows down the message and makes it easier to write down a number or for some people it makes it easier to understand the message. 3. You only require one telephone socket to plug the main base unit into, all others only require a plug socket. PLEASE NOTE: For this phone to work correctly with the Call Blocking system, you must have Caller ID set-up on your phone line. If you haven't got Caller ID on your phone line you can easily have it added by your phone line provider (there might be a slight cost for this). I would highly recommend this phone to others