Home > Consumer Reviews > VTech ip5850 5.8 GHz DSS Cordless Phone with Dual Handsets and Digital Answering System

Every feature said to be available exists, but, over several months, the quality has dropped to worthlessness.

Cons
The secondary handset recharger stopped recharging.

Both handsets crackle and fade. Others hear me fine, but I am unable to hear them. New batteries did not help.

The phonebook is rudimentary. The Nokia cell phone I received free has a better phonebook. Each name only gets one number.

The handset is heavy. For the price, some of the weight should be engineered out.

Pros
When things were working, the volume was easy to change.

Standard rechargeable batteries.

Unsure: I never used the answering machine feature. I have voice mail, and did not find it necessary. My opinion of the phone does not include this unused feature.

Overall, I am disappointed. Hopefully, their customer service people will provide a solution.

I realize many people have found the VTech 5850 a fine phone, but I do not. Maybe I bought a lemon. VTech's reputation is strong, and better luck might be found with this popular phone. I am bound in this review to provide my experience, and that experience was that of a sub-par cordless telephone.

Anthony Trendl
editor, HungarianBookstore.com

We bought these phones a little less than a year ago looking to get a quality wireless phone system that wouldn't interfere with our wireless network and give us a clear signal. We were also looking for something with a good answering system. We got what we were looking for, but experienced other issues that keep me from recommending this phone system.

The number one issue, as others have run into, is the batteries - or more appropriately the handsets. Several months into use, one of the handsets would suddenly show "CHECK BATTERY" while still in the cradle. We assumed that it had something to do with the cradle, so we switched the phones to see if it was the phone or the cradle. The phone then did the same thing in the other cradle. We assumed that maybe there was an issue with the sensors at the bottom perhaps not touching, so we adjusted the phone several times and didn't see the message go away. Finally, after removing the batteries and replacing them, the message went away.

We now do this on a weekly basis with both handsets. It's very frustrating to have a two phone system to hear the one in your room silent and the one in the room on the other side of the house ringing, because yours says "CHECK BATTERY".

Another annoyance I ran into was the difficult to navigate caller ID system. The system runs with the phone's "phonebook", which saves phone numbers that are in the caller ID for quick use. With ease, you can scroll through the numbers and select numbers to be placed in your phonebook or delete them, but there is no function to delete multiple numbers all at once. I don't clear my caller ID after every call, so I end up with a queue of calls in there that I have to annoyingly delete one by one, followed by an annoyingly loud sound each time.

The answering system works well - no complaints there. The signal has been clean too, and with no problems with our wireless network.

Overall not a horrible phone, but one annoyance (the caller ID) and one major defect (the handsets) will have me looking elsewhere in the future.

This phone is easy to use and has the very nice feature of being able to change the ringtone. You usually only get that feature on mobile phones. The extra handset is great and what you do on one handset is automatically done on the other as well. Voices are clear and each handset has a speakerphone built in for hands free talking. This phone feels comfortable in your hand while you speak. There are many other features and I highly reccomend it to you. It's a great phone for the price.

The clarity of this phone set is outstanding. I live in a very old apartment building in Europe with extremely thick walls and all sorts of things that could potentially impede the phone's signal. However, I have a clear line throughout my apartment. This ip5850 cordless phone is the best that I have owned since the first 900Mhz VTech phone that I bought almost 10 years ago. In fact that phone still works great back at my parents' house. Other VTech phones that I've purchase for my company in Europe have proven extremely reliable and very durable. Thus, I feel very comfortable recommending VTech products for their quality and performance.

V-Tech will not honor any warranty unless purchased directly from them. The belt clips are next to useless as they break under light stress. V-tech promises to ship replacements, but after 3 months and numerous lengthy on-hold calls, still no replacement clips. I'll never buy V-Tech again based on terrible customer service. No visual display of messages waiting. Some channels have weak connections requiring redialing of the connection.

Disgusted with V-Tech