Not quite 48 hours to deliver, arrived 72 hours after I placed the order. Had to chase up with Neotel but the operators I spoke to where really efficient and always gave accurate information. A far cry from Telkom’s service, when of course you do eventually get to speak to human..
Back to the device. Neatly packed and consisting of three parts that needed some assembly. The hand piece, the battery (which I will talk about later) and the antenna. All fitted together fairly easily.
Neotel Phone
Back of Phone
From there, simply plugged in the transformer and pressed the phones ‘on’ button. Less than 20 sec later it was up and running.
Checked the signal strength (far left of the phones screen) and I had four bars. Dunno what the maximum is but probably five bars would indicate full signal strength. Making a call was straight forward. Voice quality is excellent! Probably better than our Telkom phone.
The phones menu is the usual garden variety, phone book, phone settings and or course screen display settings. Had that ‘banner’ feature where I have added our Companies name. Overall the phone build quality is not bad. The keys are a little clunky, the screen is clear but not fantastic. My only moan is I can’t seem to see where I can change the ring tone nor how I can turn down the volume of the ringing. There is a ‘silent’, ‘Outdoor’ and ‘general’ mode but I would have preferred a volume dial. Turning down the headset volume also seems to be an issue. I personally find it a little loud. The conference / loudspeaker feature works well but again very loud.
What’s really great is the battery that comes with the phone. The sales gumff advises it can run the phone for three days. Haven’t tested that theory yet but possibly over optimistic. Or, it was based on ‘standby’ mode only. I will be using the phone at another office every few days using battery power only. Will report back then.
Battery Compartment
The Neotel coverage maps seem out of date. Used the phone about 3Kms down the road where the maps said there was no coverage but managed 3 bars. Calls made and received where all very clear.
Overall, very impressed with Neotels service, voice quality and of course the cost of calls. The battery an added bonus.
