Home > Consumer Reviews > VTech i5881 5.8 GHz DSS Expandable Cordless Speakerphone with Answering System

After trying more than half a dozen new cordless phones which I returned for various reasons, I believe that I have found the right one.

This new VTech has just about any feature you would want, and the sound quality is, so far, second to none. Truly great, and I think better than I get on a corded phone, as you don't have the feedback of your own voice. Very natural sounding, which was impossible to find in a non 5.8 cordless phone.

My only suggestion to Vtech would be to add music on hold, expand the phone directory from 50 to 100 entries, and allow the user to shorten the length of time a caller can leave a message from 4 minutes to a lower number. Don't know why other makers have not been able to follow the Siemens lead - Siemens has had music on hold for years on all their phones.

Have had this new phone about a week, and really like it so far. Have not discovered any big surprises. Those who want to purchase an additional battery for power failure protection for the base which seem to be always unavailable from Vtech, can perhaps do as I did and buy a Sanyo battery ...for about 14 dollars - the one for the VTech 2420 works so far.

I think it would be very difficult to find a better buy on such a fully featured phone, and would certainly be hard to find a phone, cordless or corded, which had better sound quality.

The i5881 is full of features. It has everything that you need on a cordless phone. The quality of the phone is very good. The ringers and phone settings are easy to configure and let you personalize the phone. Call quality is great on both regular and speaker phone. A few minor things that are inconvenient include: the caller ID on the handset and the base do not link up (ex. base says 4 new calls, handset says 0 new calls); the answering machine quality is pretty good, but can use a bit of refinement. It seems like the treble is a little too high. However, everything is understandable. Overall this is a very good phone for the price, and is one of the best phones out currently. The minor imperfections are not enough to lower the rating to a four, maybe a 4.5 but thats not an option.

Pros:
Base is a fully functional speakerphone with keypad.
Handset not physically tied to the base.
Excellent voice quality.
Loud and clear speakerphone on handsets.
Expandable and has point to point intercom among handsets and the base.
Call transferrable to a specific handset if needed.
Clear display.
5.8 GHz does not interfere with 802.11b/g

Cons:
Caller id not displayed while playing back messages recorded on the answering machine.
Rather tiny keypad buttons.
Wish it had talking caller id.
Recalling numbers from memory while in the middle of a call is not easy.

Several days ago I bought a VTech phone identical to the i5881 but without the answering machine component. Loved the cool design (especially the bright blue indicator lights). The phone had all the features I wanted including base keypad and speakerphone and expandable handset capacity. The problem is that it has the worst range of any cell phone I have ever owned. We keep the base set in the kitchen at the back of the first floor of our house and I can't get any remote handset reception in our bedroom in the front of the second floor. Our house is big but not huge. Its a wood framed house not solid masonry or steel which can block reception. Tonight I am returning the phone to the store where I bought it. One other minor problem that I could have lived with, had the reception quality been better: the dial buttons on both base and the handset are very tiny...hard to see for aging baby boomers like me.

I once had the expensive Siemens cordless system, but ditched those on Ebay b/c of the horrible ergonomics. If you picked up a phone call for another person, you couldn't just yell, 'pick up the phone' b/c the other units couldn't barge into an existing call. You'd have to remember the cumbersome process of call-forwarding.

Anyhow, the VTech system doesn't have such problems, so right off the bat I was encouraged. Out of all the great features this system offers, you cannot custom name each station. You are stuck w/ the default numbering. Thus if you want to transfer to, or page, another handset, you have to recall which phone is which number. What is more surpising is that older VTech system allowed custom-naming, according to tech support.

Contrary to a previous review, I didn't find the answering machine quality horribly poor, but it isn't stellar either. I can certainly live with it.

What I think isn't so hot is the general sound quality when on the phone. I would have thought that 5.8GHz would be the best I've ever had. On the other hand, phone lines only transmit a very poor quality sound; something like the equivalent to 11kHz mono (vs 44kHz stereo for compact disc music).

My only other complaint is the general crappy belt clips that snap onto cordless phones, including these. If you bend over & the phone is too far towards the front of your belt, the clip snaps off & the phone tumbles. Better design would be appreciated.