2010.05.21: Binatone iDECT X5 Phone

I was looking for a unique land line phone with sharper lines like those in my HTC Touch Diamond GSM and came across Binatone's iDECT X5 phone. I ordered the phone through a UK seller on eBay because I was unable to find a North American seller and because all of the European sellers wanted £40-70 ($60-$100) or about 50% more than the eBay seller and wouldn't ship out of Europe. Overall, the phone is beautifully designed with thoughtfully laid out keypadand call quality is excellent. Fit and finish is good though the AAA NiMH batteries (included) rattled inside the battery chamber a bit due to poor fitting band because they were stacked linearly and not in parallel. Fixing the rattle was easy; I wrapped a bit of tape around each battery and reinstalled them. The body of both the handset and the stand are made of plastic but the finish is no uglier than that of the blasphemously-painted top plate of the silver $9000 Leica M9 digital rangefinder cameras. But maybe some people prefer the damage-prone plastic-y painted finish over the chrome or black chrome finishes of the current pre-M9 Leicas considering Leica now offers to paint instead of chrome your M7 or MP for an extra $100.

Box shot. Yes, it's beat up but hey, I work with what I get. Plus it's probably the only box shot for this phone on the Internet at time of writing. The graphic design on the exterior of the box is attractive and the printing quality is satisfactory.

The phone in front of the base, adapter, and a plug adapter that I picked up from Black's for the system. I checked London Drugs for a plug adapter and they didn't have a physical plug adapter but had a universal adapter with interchangeable tips that would completely replace the packaged adapter for $15. A sales rep suggested that I check out The Source and 220 (I think it's spelled like that) at West Edmonton Mall. The Source had physical plug adapters but they wanted $15 just for those. Zellers didn't have universal adapters or plug adapters and suggested that I check out London Drugs or the Source. As I was about to exit Kingsway Garden Mall I decided I'd stop into Black's and check. They had a well-built plug adapter for $9. I'm guessing that Princess Auto would have them cheaper and had I been more patient, I could have asked my parents to bring me an adapter from home because they have lots of that sort of stuff.

Phone on its base. The base has a recorded message counter. My criticism of the base is that it may be a little too minimalistic in that there is no large "guide" to help a user who attempts to sloppily replace the phone to quickly get it back into place. It also lacks the audio and visual feedback of plugging in/charging that my Netgear SPH-200 Skype/Standard Dual Phone offers. Still, these are minor complaints.