Home > Consumer Reviews > Panasonic KX-TCD 505ES DECT Cordless Phone - Metallic Silver

Previous reviewer caught the essence of this machine. I had a BT phone (and others) and the sound quality has always been dismal. This machine has crystal clear sound around the house (and we have thick walls). It's solid, and functional. And it has a speaker-phone which I find useful for long work-conference calls. I recommend it - in fact I'm just about to order a second one.

I'll keep this short as I've already spent far too long buying the wrong products and getting thoroughly depressed about DECT. So let me just say that this is without doubt the best phone of its type that I've ever used. If you're after a cordless for the home that looks and feels like your mobile, this is it.

PROS
+ Clear signal reception
+ Ultra-large backlit display
+ Very light and easy to carry
+ Interface quick and intuitive
+ Address book just like your mobile
+ Joystick controller
+ Top quality build and an amazing battery
+ Polyphonic ringtones

CONS
- Price

I might also mention that the review below suggesting that this phone won't display Caller ID when connected to a broadband line is plainly false. Problems such as this are almost always the fault of the installation (most usually, a DSL filter on the fritz) and are certainly NOT an inherent fault of this phone. By way of demonstration, I can report that the little Panasonic works just fine with my BT Broadband line...

Received the phone very quickly and on first impressions I was impressed. The handset is light and the screen is very clear.

The controls will be familiar to anyone who currently owns a mobile phone but still easy enough for anyone to pickup within a few minutes.

The sound quality is very high, especially as I have just upgraded from an analogue cordless phone and the handset has a good range on it (one of my pre-requisites for buying this model)

The only downside to this equipment is that some of the features that are a little mis-leading.

1. CallerID is subject to your phone network and in my case(BT) incurs a charge. You don't have to use this but it may cost you if you do.

2. The same applies to the SMS service. CallerID subscription is required. Something that should be pointed out I feel.

3. Now for the main issue I had with it. The "32 Polyphonics Ring Tones" claim is extremely misleading and frankly I feel very unfair on the consumer by using it as a selling point. The phone has two ringers (internal and external) on which you can assign ring tones or polyphonic melodies. There are only 16 tones/melodies (both the same collection) available on each - So you DON'T actually get 32 different ones.

I would advise suppliers of this equipment to reflect this as there is no technical small print that reflects this fact that I could find.

All in all though, I would recommend this phone if you want a good quality, smart looking cordless phone for a decent price.

This phone is excellent with many great features, but it suffers from one major flaw: Caller ID will not work if you also have a BT provided broadband (ADSL) connection logged on!! I know this sounds weird, but it is apparently a known problem (at BT) with this and a number of other phones - if your broadband connection is off, all works flawlessly, but if it is on, Caller ID does not work. And, if Caller ID does not work, neither does receiving SMS messages. Sending them is not a problem, though.

This is a major issue with more and more UK households getting ADSL-based broadband connections and leaving this "always on."

I am talking to BT at the moment to see if they expect to fix this problem, but they have not been able to tell me what their policy on this will be going forward. This is obviously a problem with how they send the broadband and phone signals down the analogue line, and I guess that the extra functionalities provided, such as caller ID, must overlap on the broadband frequencies or something. Let's wait and see what they do!

In the meantime, my old Binatone DECT phones work fine with the broadband on, so...

Well worth the extra expense over cheaper rivals. Reception is great in and out of the house. Ear speaker is plenty loud enough and the handsfree option (just press a button to go handsfree) works really well: powerful loudspeaker and great microphone. Takes a long while to charge though, so as with all cordless phones, ensure you have a backup landline (also needed during powercuts obviously).
Couldn't recommend this phone enough.