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Solid, Easy-to-Use Cordless Phone

My dad’s old cordless phone was a mixed blessing. The ‘cordless’ part was great because it was easy to use anywhere in the room, but, like most of the cordless units available, the phone and its charger base were lightweight — the charger cord weighed so much more than the base that the phone was often pulled onto the floor.

The old phone had the standard slot-in-pocket seating for the charger; Dad often had problems getting it into the base. The base tended to slide around while he was trying to place the phone, and it wasn’t all that easy to get the handset to sit on the pins correctly.

Cordless Traditional PhoneI’d been musing about these difficulties for awhile when I saw this phone at Target. I thought at first that it must be a traditional phone — i.e., one with a cord — since most of the self-styled ‘deco’ phones aren’t cordless, and they’re often displayed without the handset cords. A check of the handset (no slot for a cord) and the box proved that this one really was cordless. I snapped it up, and trotted it over to Dad’s so he could try it out.

It turned out to be a Good Thing. There are a frightening array of buttons, but, unlike most, this phone is designed so that only one button is essential: the ‘talk’ button that turns it on and off. It’s clearly marked, larger than the other buttons, and front-and-center, so it’s hard to miss. The number pad is small, as it pretty much has to be when it’s on a handset, but the buttons are raised a little more than most and well-defined; Dad has no trouble using them to ‘dial.’

The base is fairly heavy — a lot heavier than typical single-handset cordless phones. It’s too heavy to be knocked easily off anything. The handset is just about perfect — heavy enough to feel solid, not so heavy that it’s tiring to hold. Charging it is much easier, too — it just requires setting the handset on top of the cradle, where it glides almost automatically onto the charger pins.

Dad likes this phone much better than his old one and the adjustment time from introduction-to-use was zero. I suspect he likes the shape of the phone, too — this is what a phone should look like.

I added egrips to the handset, because they make it easier to hold just about anything.

Here’s the bad news: I can’t find this phone anywhere on the Internet. Target doesn’t have it online, and neither does anyone else, apparently. Your mileage may vary, especially if you have, say, fifteen hours or so more than I do to sort through listings for phones. I’m posting this article anyway because I think this phone is brand new, and because there may be others out there offering similar advantages.

Here’s the information for this one: It’s a GE Designer Series Contemporary Handset Model 27901FE1 or 27901FE1-A (depending on which part of the box you believe). The URL printed on the box leads here (after you skip all the Flash garbage), but, as of this morning, there’s no listing for this phone on the site. The model numbers listed on the website suggest that this phone got to the store before someone updated the posted product information, so it’s possible the phone may appear there eventually.

It probably won’t help, but the Target SKU is 44319 60644 7.

Around $50 (USD), because plastic this good just costs more

8 replies on “Solid, Easy-to-Use Cordless Phone”

I bought this phone 5 days ago from Target in Hagerstown, MD. I lost the instructions and now find it is not anywhere online except this article. I love this phone! It is good for a disabled person who needs things to stay put on thier dresser. I especially like the fact that if it does fall it did not break and it is easy to hang it up. want to uy another but this target is out of them and i cannot find another one online anywhere!!! If seen please contact me at sweetcindersister@gmail.com. Oh did I say i loved this phone??? 🙂

Cindersis

Cindersis, do you need a copy of the instructions? I’m pretty sure I have my dad’s booklet in his file. I’d be happy to photocopy it and send it to you. Email your postal address to me: Marty at GearAbility dot com and I’ll send it along. (You’ll need to tke the spaces out of the email address and replace the word “dot” with a period — . )

The phone’s no longer at my local Target, but I know people are still looking for it, because it turns up frequently in searches on GearAbility. I hope GE plans to keep it available.

I just bought it and am waiting for it’s initial charge. I read a few terrible reviews about it on the Target site but still thought I would try it out. I bought it for $39.99 on a price cut and hope it’s as good as you say 😀

I think they are still readily available and my local store had at least 3 more white ones and probably 5 black ones.

Feel free to email me at

eclipse115 at yahoo dot com

I’ll send you an email anyway Cindersis

Lindsey — I can’t vouch for all of this phone’s features, but in the nearly 6 months he’s had it, this phone has worked out very well for my dad. The handset is much easier for him to use than any other phone he’s had. It still gets a huge thumbs-up from us.

A couple of times he’s accidentally pushed the “ringer” button and turned the ringer off, but that’s more of a “random pushing of buttons” problem than anything to do with the phone itself. Whether the ringer is on or not, there’s a small red LED that flashes on the front of the phone to let you know it’s ringing — a helpful feature.

Could someone please email me the instruction booklet? My phone keeps going to military time and I can’t seem to figure out how to change it!!

Thank you,
Suzanne

Hi Marty,

I appreciated your posting about the GE 27901FE1-A cordless telephone.

Before I hunt one down, could you answer a few questions?

First, is the cordless frequency band 900MHz or 2.4GHz or 5.8GHz? This is important for some people, since the 2.4GHz cordless phones sometimes interfere with WiFi (wireless internet). Also, there is some medical equipment that is sensitive to specific frequencies. This frequency information should be printed on the box, in the instructions & maybe even on the phone itself.

Secondly, when using the touch tone for dialing, do you hear short blips or does the tone sustain if you keep pressing the button? This is important for some intercom & automatic door-opening systems.

I know this seems a bit techie, but it’s surprising how helpful this kind of information can be.

Video Clip

Update: the GE 27901FE1-A appears to be 2.4GHz phone. If you are using WiFi with your internet connection you may have to select specific channels on your wireless router or on the phone to avoid interference.

Hello, Video Clip, thanks for your comments. We haven’t seen this problem ourselves with any current generation wireless phone, though I see there’s a fair amount of documentation in Google. Thanks for the heads’ up for those who may experience the problem.

I haven’t been able to check the tone yet, but I’ll try to remember to do so today and post feedback.

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