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!
Around £90
Visit
www.gigaset.com/en_UK