Home > Consumer Reviews > EnGenius SN920ULTRA 900 MHz DSS Expandable Cordless Phone

My principal reasons for purchasing the EnGenius SN920 Ultra were:
1) supported multiple remote handsets
2) could be expanded to support multiple incoming lines
3) operated in the 900MHz band

The 900MHz band was a key issue, since I planned to install an IEEE 802.11b RF LAN, which operates in the 2.4GHz band. This ruled out any of the 2.4GHz phone systems, since they would interfere with the phone and vice-versa.

The EnGenius SN920 works fine from a technical standpoint, but there are numerous quirks about the phone, especially with regards to 'human factors' issues:

1) Voice quality is good, but not as good as a Motorola STARtac. This is surprising since the SN920 uses ADPCM digital encoding. Also, the speaker has very poor low frequency response, likely due to the small size of the phone, and is nowhere as good as a traditional corded phone.

2) A very annoying trait is that when you pick up the phone from its cradle, the caller ID info disappears! This forces you to crouch down to view the caller ID, which is inconvenient.

3) When the phone is not in its cradle, you answer it by pressing 'TALK', which is fine. Unfortunately there is no way to configure the phone to require 'TALK' to be pressed when it is picked up from its cradle, so picking up the phone that is already in a cradle versus not in a cradle is *different* and annoying. Half the time, we have to press 'TALK' twice, since you shouldn't press 'TALK' after you pick it up from a cradle. Although this sounds like a trivial nit, it really is a hassle.

4) I would not recommend this phone for older people, especially those who have arthritis. The phone is smaller and heavier than most, but it is too heavy for a moderately infirm person to hold for a long time. The buttons are also harder to push. The phone was designed this way for heavy-duty industrial environments, but it does make it difficult to use if you are 80 years old and have arthritis.

So, keep these issues in mind if you are considering this phone. From a system design standpoint, the ability to add multiple lines and handset is great, and the fact that it operates in the 900MHz is a major plus if you are planning to install a 802.11b RF LAN. (I'm surprised that cordless phone system vendors are not considering this issue more; I've talked to Apple and Siemens and they have confirmed that 2.4GHz phones and 802.11b RF LANs can and do interfere with each other.)

Buy only if long range is an absolute requirement and you can put up with less-than-ideal battery life.

I live in a difficult area for signal reception and tried many cordless phones. The EnGenius 920 sported a fair price for a long range phone. I initially bought 2 handsets and planned to standardize on this phone throughout my house, but eventually returned one due to the poor battery life.

There are many long range phones available, but only a few that are legally FCC certified in the United States. Most of the longest range phones use military frequencies and are sold for export only. So I tried the EnGenius because it was legally certified and the price was fair. It also has a great sized handset which is Nokia-style. It looks like a phone rather than a walkie talkie, which is nice.

The long range works for an impressive radius like down the block, across the ranch, or on different floors, but not quite long enough for boat or car use. The optional external antenna works well too. If you can reasonbly install it on a roof top or away from obstructions, it will increase the range especially in open air.

The biggest issue is the battery life. It comes with an older Ni-MH battery and claims 40 hours standby. But in actual use, if you make a few phone calls of any length and standby the rest of the time, the battery is dead by the end of the day.

Also the sound quality is not perfect, the volume cannot be raised high enough in my opinion (when outdoors in noise), and the phone echoes your own speech a little bit, which can be annoying.

Battery and sound quality reminds me of a 1990 era phone, before Lithium Ion batteries and small cell phones that seem to last forever. Even your basic home cordless phone has been designed for much better talk-ability, battery life, and comfort.

If you must have the long distance, this is a good phone. I will be keeping one of mine. But for good talk-ability and general home use, I would not buy this as your only phone. You would find it more convenient to have a couple phones, using a standard cordless phone that feels better and lasts a long time, and one EnGenius for only the times you must roam farther from the base station.

This phone is almost identical to a Nokia 6100 series phone, which I happen to like. It weighs more and has less battery life, but the size and feel is the same. It is an industrial phone and for its small size feels like a brick. I installed the phone without the external base antenna and received reception about 1/2 mile from my home. I live in a wooded area. The phone battery is a metal hydride and can be recharged without memory problems like nickel cad. I really like this phone. The build quality is outstanding and most of the other cordless phones I've owned just feel flimsy. You can't hold this phone against your head while typing because of it's small size, this along with the battery life are the only reasons I can't rate it 5 stars. The small size is also an advantage, you can fit this phone into the same case as the Nokia 5100/6100 series phones.

I started with two base/handset combos, to use at a small office. By far, this has the best range of any cordless I have ever seen, and the two way between handsets is more than convenient. However, having purchased a "multi line phone", it would be nice to have access to both lines - ie. if you are on line one, and line two starts ringing, you must run to another phone to answer the second line, as the handsets are only single line units - not much good halfway across the shop. Also if you have any other electronics on line with them, {fax, computer, another phone, etc.} engenius does not check for line usage {except for its own system} before trying to dial outgoing calls {bad fax or download, interupted data transfer/call} and again you run to a phone to make a call. Not to smart for such a high tech system. Great unit for a single line, would NOT recommend it for multi line use.

I bought this phone because I was tired of trying to get other cordless phones to work in my sprawling house and yard - they didn't have enough range. Specifically I recently tossed the Siemens Gigaset due to poor range.

Well, this phone works admirably - it has more than enough range for a large property with no fade out. The handsets are tough and feel solid (they are really meant for factory or warehouse use). Battery life hasn't been an issue for us at all - in a home you usually keep the handsets in a charging cradle when not in use anyways. Voice quality is as good as the Siemens was. And the fact that it works at 900 Mhz is a bonus since it won't interfere with my wireless Ethernet (802.11) network.

This is an update since I've had these phones for about 6 months now: They aren't perfect. When you put the phone into the cradle to recharge, you have to put it in carefully otherwise it'll look OK, but won't be recharging. Also the recharging contacts are fragile compared to other phones and in fact I have to toss out one of my SN-920's 'cause the contacts got damaged. And the microphone on another SN-920 died. Also, the phones aren't comfortable against your ear.

My ideal phone would have the SN-920's distance with better ergonomics and better recharge contacts. Unfortunately, I don't know of such a phone.