Unimatrix Xero Posted September 7, 2006 Share Posted September 7, 2006 BT Home Hub phone Review by Unimatrix Xero Well after a grooling 7 week wait, this morning I finally received my BT Home Hub Hand set!! (YAY) Unfortunately I don?t have a camera at the moment so I will be descriptive as I can. Firstly I must point out this MAJOR problem with the dispatch process, It looks like BT are sending these out by 1st class mail, (no tracking details) so it wouldn?t surprise me if a few of these handsets ?go walkies? in the postal system, OR people who have ordered these handsets tell a little porky just to get another free phone. I was very lucky with my Hub & Hub Phone as since I?ve had major problems with my Broadband line I got the Hub & Hub Handset for FREE!!! (Yea baby) Anyway to the review? To tell you the truth I was expecting a bigger box, after I got the white plastic wrapping off the box itself was only the same site as the Media Centre remote control, it took me about 2 mins to get into the box itself as some wise-arse designer as made the box really complicated, so after about 2 mins trying to break into the dam box, I was greeted with the contents which are as follows X1 Quick Start leaflet X1 Manual X1 Docking Bay (to clip onto the Hub itself) X2 AAA Batteries X1 Hub Handset X1 Power supply The first thing that struck me was the power supply, as the hub itself it already powered, and from the pictures I?ve seen on the web, I?ve never seen any additional cables or power supplies, so I decided to ignore this and carry on ripping off the BT tissue paper that everything is wrapped in including the batteries) Ok, so everything is unwrapped and sitting on my computer table, the first thing I do is shove the manual and quick start ?thing? on the floor and begin on my own, as any red-blooded male will tell you, we NEVER need manuals or quick start things. I then proceed to rip the grey cover which is located at the bottom of the Hub itself off, and with a little tugging and pulling it pop?s off, this is then very rapidly discarded onto the floor and then I clip on the handset docking bay onto the router itself, (there is no click or pop when you do this so just give it a shove and you should be ok) Next I turn my attention to the handset itself, at first looks from the front it kinda stylish, but I just can?t help thinking BT hired a guy from Apple to design this as its very ?white & IPod ?ish? turning the handset over so I could insert the included 2 AAA batteries, I was greeted with what I can only describe as a bland, boring rear, it feels like whoever designed this just couldn?t be bothered with the rear of the handset, the least he/they could have done was to include a belt-clip, the only thing at the rear, is the BT logo and a vent to air the insides, it?s so boring what was they thinking. Ok so after getting passed the battery stage I was greeted with the handset beeping at me and the screen saying ?Not Registered?. Registration is very VERY easy, simply navigate on the handset and select BASE 1, at some point the handset will ask for the system pin, (by default this is 0000 four zero?s) after you have done this you need to press the wi-fi button at the rear of the Home Hub for 3 seconds, (I did 4 just to be safe), now don?t worry this WONT reset your hub, it just registers the handset. After you have released the wi-fi button, the phone icon on the Hub will flash, shortly followed by the handset beeping, and then displaying ?BTPhone 1? on the screen. If this is done correctly then the handset is fully registered and you can begin/receive calls NB, if you were sent a ?freebie phone? by BT you can now remove this from the adapter located at the rear of the hub, then it?s up to you what you do with the ?freebie? After registration is fully completed, you can then proceed to customise the handset, the handset itself has a number of different features, ranging from Polyphonic ring tones to an Alarm feature and a loudspeaker After pressing the ?Menu? button you are greeted with 8 different choices (kinda reminds of the early Nokia screens), these are as follows Time Settings Handset Settings Base Settings Melody Calls Lists Names BT Services Registration As the menus suggest these allow you to alter different things within the phone, let?s say you went into ?Handset Settings? you are then shown various other menus including, Handset Name, Picture, Auto Talk, & handset Software. If like me you want to get rid of the crappy BT Wallpaper you simply choose ?Picture? and then choose another, I was a little disappointed with the lack of wallpapers in the phone, from memory I only recall around 5 of them, and as for the ring tones, there are only around 10, and most of them are really crappy. While I was waiting for my handset I was in contact with a Manager who works in BT Wholesale in the UK, and he told me that the reason why the handset where so delayed is that the buttons kept on falling off!!, now even with just using the phone to place my phone numbers in it (and also lacking the feature of a Sim-Card Reader) the buttons feel heavy and ?poppy? they don?t glide with the handset, and they do kinda feel like they will snap/pop off at some point. The display itself looks like a 256pixel screen, the level of detail is enough to make out what you are doing and also the backlighting is very good, but let?s say you wanted a number from the handset, and the backlighting went off. You can?t see a dam thing; you would have to press a button, which would take you out of the current menu, what idiot thought that one up! Also while I was programming the names into the phone book, I stumbled across a major bug/glitch. I have 3 people in my mobile which go by the same Land Line Number, my Finance (Sarah), Her Mom & her Sister, now to make the phone more easy for Sarah to use I added the Land Line number which we will call 01902111222 into the first entry, which we will call ?Bob? now when I enter the same number into the handset BUT under a different NAME, it deletes the entry from BOB and from the entry I?ve just added, what I pile of crap I thought to myself, BT better sort this out in a software upgrade as this really ticked me off, so now I?ve had to pick which entry has the land line number in it. Bang goes my idea of keeping it simple. The only small saving grace is that you don?t have to have a separate entry for some ones land line and mobile number, they can go under the same entry, but this them raises another problem, it takes 5 button presses just to get to the part where you can select the number, there is no ?one button entry? to the phone book, and if you entry begins with S or N then you have to scroll through your name list until you find the required entry. Overall this handset is nothing to sing and dance over, as phones go it?s very very basic in its features, and to be honest I?m glad I didn?t pay the price BT where asking for it (?70 I think on the website) As a broadband phone it does the job its required to do BT used a little Marketing Ploy with this handset telling people it had ?Hi-Def Sound? what BT didn?t tell you (and I had to hunt for this) is that you only get ?Hi-Def? sound ONLY if either the other person has the same BT Handset OR if they are using the BT Softphone which can be downloaded from the BT.com website. Normally I can?t wait to get a new gadget and have a play with it, but sadly I was very disappointed with this and MY only saving grace is that I didn?t pay for it, as if I had I would consider sending it back Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NiTRO Posted September 7, 2006 Share Posted September 7, 2006 (edited) Nice review m8 thanks and now i look forward to receiving mine when they pull there finger out.. although i did receive two hubs so i cant complain to much! Edited September 7, 2006 by NiTRO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lnmnky Posted September 7, 2006 Share Posted September 7, 2006 Do you know anything like... Inputs / Outputs How does TV work through this? Scart socket? Internet options, multi device, xbox360 ok? Wifi strength / range / quality Storage slots or usb? Are the VOIP calls free? Do you keep your normal phone number? Why didn't you pay? Any loop holes? More pictures? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unimatrix Xero Posted September 7, 2006 Author Share Posted September 7, 2006 Do you know anything like... Inputs / Outputs How does TV work through this? Scart socket? Internet options, multi device, xbox360 ok? Wifi strength / range / quality Storage slots or usb? Are the VOIP calls free? Do you keep your normal phone number? Why didn't you pay? Any loop holes? More pictures? the review i did for the hub itself covers all of this but look here: http://digital-lifestyles.info/display_pag...ion&id=3404 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baldie87 Posted September 7, 2006 Share Posted September 7, 2006 cheerz fella i was thinking of getting one but...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackDust419 Posted September 8, 2006 Share Posted September 8, 2006 tbh, I didn't think their anything to write home about, I guess you can get a set of two wireless phones with a lot more features, but you'll pay more. Nice idea and nice looking phone plus nice review. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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