Home > Consumer Reviews > Crosley 302 Desk Phone 5.5"hx9"w Red

First off, this is a quality, solid metal phone. It sounds as good as one can expect an analog phone to sound, and it's sturdy enough to take a serious beating. The finish on the brushed steel model is nice, and seems to resist fingerprints pretty reasonably. As an added bonus, the ringer in this phone is an honest-to-goodness old-school bell ringer. Seriously. No cheesy electronic imitation ring here. Really, the only downside to this phone is that the handset cord does not seem to be detatchable, which means that undoing tangles is a lot more difficult than it should be, and that if that cable ever gets damaged, well... so much for the phone. Maybe that was done to keep this reproduction true to the original Crosley 302, but that seems like a minor enough detail (and a big enough inconvenience) that it could bear modernizing.

Speaking of which... there's another review that complains about the lack of caller ID, and that it's uncomfortable to hold on one's shoulder. Well see, the thing is, this is a reproduction of phone model that's nearly 70 years old. That's how the handset was shaped then, so that's how it's shaped now. If they changed the shape in order to make it more comfortable, it wouldn't be a reproduction any more, it would be a whole new phone. That would really defeat the purpose (and eliminate the novelty) here. And as for Caller ID, well, it's enough that they replaced the rotary dial with touch-tone buttons in a circle... I think caller ID might have been pushing it with this design.

Long story short, this is a great phone if you're going for a seriously contemporary/retro look and won't need to use the phone that often... but certainly don't choose this as your primary phone. It's more form than function.

For anyone who wants a wonderful retro phone (i.e., not sure the era of it but it seems very 30s-40s to me), this is it. My grandmother had one of these and it certainly looks and feels authentic. It is substantially heavy -- the handset has weight to it, just like her old handset. We have an old house with a phone nook so this looks just perfect. I thought the price was pretty reasonable too. We also have the wall phone counterpart to it in our kitchen and that looks and feels great too.

The only potential downside to the phone is that everything is hard wired into it (i.e., you cannot change out the handset cord or the wall cord if it becomes damaged or you want something shorter -- it's that authentic!) Hence, if you are going to do a lot of stretching of the cord, sitting far away from the phone, etc. it could potentially pose a problem down the road if the wiring becomes loose due to wear and tear. That being said, any electrician's repair shop could probably fix it and whose to say that will even happen. Crosley has been making phones for years and their products are solid and well made. In my opinion, the benefits certainly outweigh any concern associated with this aspect of the phone. I would highly recommend it and the wall unit to anyone interested in this classic look.

if you're looking for an old fashioned phone without the dialing action, this one fills the bill. great sound quality, nice weight, good button response, and so far, no glitches. it even has flash & redial buttons cleverly disguised in the center of the keypad. no caller id lcd or phone number memory, but that would really spoil the retro charm. we use an antiquated ameritech caller id machine with it, and the two get along fine.

I remember my parents having a black phone just like this when I was a little girl. This phone has the same weight and feel like I remember! Every one who has seen it loves it as much as we do.

Phone arrived quickly. Looks great. It's of sufficient weight that it doesn't slide around when using it. Nice nostalgic ring to it though I wish the volume had more adjustments. All in all very happy.