For thoseEXTREME calls.
Rugged, waterproof and armoured mobile
phones are the rage these days, as are cases
that offer similar protection. But it's all
well and good keeping your mobile safe when
you're out and about... but what about your
home phone? If you're anything like us, your
landline phone will be daily exposed to
spillages, knocks and – because we don't
have that many friends – dust from under
use.
Thankfully German phone maker Gigaset (whose
touch screen phone, the SL910A, we reviewed
here)
are here to help. Their latest handset for
the home, the E630A, is shock, dust and
splash resistant, while retaining some
useful features and good looks. We plugged
it in, dialled our mums, and got chatting.
The handset itself is solidly build in tough
plastic and feels in our hands a lot more
traditional than the aforementioned touch screen
SL910A. It reminded us of mobile phones from
ten, fifteen years prior, which isn't at all a
bad thing. The colour display is 1.8 inches
across and all buttons (with the exception of
the side volume rocker) are rubberised – further
evidence that this phone can take a dousing by a
child's juice cup.
Included in the box along with the phone
itself in the base station, handset charging
stand and all the wires you need. Setting up
was easy and once charged the handset found
the base station quickly and we were ready
to make calls. Speaking of that charge,
you'll get a solid 14 hours of talk time,
and also 310 hours of standby from it, so
there's no need to worry about it laying
around the house away from the stand.
Call quality was very good, even at a
removed distance from the base station. No
matter how many walls and doors we hid
behind, the reception was full and the call
was clear. The other person sounded nice and
crisp without distortion, and the same was
reported from the other end about us. Thanks
mum!
As with all Gigaset phones the E630A is
crammed with personalised details like
changeable wallpapers, ring tones and colour
themes. The phonebook will hold 200 contacts
and you'll get 55 minutes worth of answer
phone messages stored in there. There's a
even a torch light built in to the top of
the phone, useful for alerting you to a call
and also as a handy light.
But by far the most useful feature of the
Gigaset E630A is the fact that it seems to
be near indestructible. For people with
children who are constantly wanting to copy
mummy and daddy by playing with the phone,
this is a must have. Certainly stops you
worrying about jammy and sticky fingers
messing up your tech!