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Author Topic: BT 8600  (Read 3593 times)

Chrysalis

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BT 8600
« on: December 12, 2016, 10:10:10 PM »

Got given one free to review, have replaced my old BT hudson with it.

Initial impressions are the OSD functions seem more backwards than the hudson although it has more features, the OSD itself is inferior in ease of use and performance.

Casing to remove for battery swap is very hard to remove, I was worried about breaking the phone.

Base feels too light and cheap, the hudson base has weight to it, so e.g. the weight of the cables is enough to drag the 8600's base from where I wanted it.  The base also has no LCD whilst the hudson base does.

The phone has features to protect against unwanted calls, it can either be turned off (functions like normal phone), set to only allow contacts, rest put through filter system, set to filter international numbers and allow rest and also can be customised more then that (which I not looked at yet), from what I can see there is no specific option for witheld numbers.

The filtering works by asking the caller for their ID, then the ID is played out the speaker of the phone, at that point if the owner is around they can put the call through, block it or let it go to answer machine, the phone is able to remember the setting for the phone number.

Right now I have the filtering disabled as I do occasionally get calls from the NHS, that could cause them to hang up as the NHS dont like leaving messages and what not as they say it can breach confidentiality, so in my case I will likely grant NHS permission to leave me a message in the automated answer message.

Given most rogue callers now days seem to spoof their number I dont think this device will be that useful other then perhaps the blocking of international numbers.

I dont have any comment on battery life yet, the batteries are about 33% more capacity than the hudson tho.
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SteveR

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Re: BT 8600
« Reply #1 on: December 13, 2016, 12:33:55 AM »

I have had the earlier model BT8500 which uses the same call guardian system for more than 12 months. Since then I have had no unwanted calls, down from an average of around 2 per day.  NHS etc have no problems with the call guardian, I am sure they must come across many patients using this system.

It does need you to enter numbers for expected callers in its contact list but it is easy to add more the first time you get a call from them.
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dambuilder

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Re: BT 8600
« Reply #2 on: December 13, 2016, 08:07:14 AM »

Yes another thumbs up for the 8500 here. We've had them for a couple of years and wouldn't be without them now. Again as previous comment NHS are fine with it. Unfortunately so is the mother in law 😳
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Samad

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Re: BT 8600
« Reply #3 on: December 13, 2016, 01:43:11 PM »

Have had mine for about 18 months now and no longer get any unsolicited calls - absolute godsend.
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Chrysalis

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Re: BT 8600
« Reply #4 on: December 16, 2016, 04:23:42 PM »

The standby time is way better than my previous cordless phone.  I have had it off the charger now for over 3 days, and still has all the bars on the battery.
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