The Gigaset A540A Landline Phone - Simple, Stylish and Functional

Gifted | Contains affiliate links During my teens (in the 1990s) the mobile phone was a luxury. Even though they were big, bulky and n...

Gifted | Contains affiliate links

During my teens (in the 1990s) the mobile phone was a luxury. Even though they were big, bulky and not as technologically advanced as today, they were still considered a luxury item that not everyone could afford. The landline back then was a necessity - an important part of every home. Things have changed a lot over the past 20 years and now smartphones have taken over and many people today do not have landlines at home. So, is the landline heading towards a slow but sure end? My answer is - No. While the mobiles do have some obvious advantages, landlines are still very much in use. If you work from home, then the landline is an important aspect of work because the landline reception is usually better than that of a mobile phone. Internet connection is another reason why most of us still have landlines at home. And one more reason why I personally love landlines is because I cannot misplace it like it tends to happen with my mobile :)

Our landline phone - a very old model of Binatone - had reached the end of its life. It went completely dead in the first week of December. Neither was it powering on and nor was the base unit letting us charge the phone. There was no point in trying to repair it; so Mr.H unplugged it and boxed it for disposal. While we were looking at Amazon and Argos for a decent landline phone, an email landed in my mailbox asking if I would like to review a Gigaset home phone on the blog. And as you guessed it, I said 'Yes'. A few days later the postman bought the Gigaset A540A home.

Gigaset is one of the world’s largest home technology specialists and their phones are built in Bocholt, Germany using the latest engineering developments. The phones use innovative German technology so that the phones are built right, strong and to last ensuring the user enjoys years of trouble-free calling. When we unboxed the A540A, the first thing that Mr.H said was - the build quality of the phone is excellent. It was unlike our old Binatone that is often talked about for its dubious quality :) The Gigaset A540A is a stylish and eye-catching home phone. Our previous landline phones have all been black instruments and this A540A in pristine white was a total contrast to its predecessors. But to its credit it immediately added a cool, fun personality to the room decor. Both the handset and the base station are well-built and the handset comes with a back-lit multi colour 1.8" LCD display. The touch-sensitive keypad is comfortable to use and allows for easy dialling.

Some of the key features of the A540A are:

• 18 hours talk time
• Anonymous call silencing
• List of 25 missed calls
• 20 minutes of voicemail
• Outdoor range of 300 meters
• In-built alarm clock

The phone has an in-built phonebook and can store up to 150 contacts which in my view is an excellent feature especially if you have a large household and everyone wants to store their contacts. You can even personalise the phone by using different ringtones and backlight colours for different phonebook contacts so that you can easily tell who the caller is just by looking at the phone or listening to the ringtone. Another useful feature is that you can assign different colours for different groups. As an example, I have used pink for my immediate family, Mr.H has used blue for his work colleagues and we use orange for our shared contacts.

The Gigaset A540A also has five different ring volume settings enabling you to personalise the phone to suit your preferences. Yet another excellent feature is the timer controlled silencing feature which allows you to cut down on interruptions. The phone also has an integrated answering machine for recording and retrieval of missed calls. It has up to 25 minutes of recording time which ensures that most of your missed callers can leave their messages.

The phone has a quite a few key features, but what about the sound quality, I hear you ask. Well, having used the phone for over 4 weeks now, I can safely say that the sound quality is excellent - much superior to the old phone we had. Though the cell phone reception in our home is usually fine, since the Gigaset arrived I have preferred using it for work related calls as the sound quality is more reliable.

Overall, the Gigaset A540A scores well in all aspects whether it is usability, features, sound quality, looks or overall performance. With around 18 hours talk time, the Gigaset A540A is available in single, duo and trio options from John Lewis stores and many other leading retailers.

You can check out Gigaset's store on Amazon for the latest deals.