TechRadar Verdict
The Motorola D1100 has the makings of a great DECT phone - its looks smart, feels robust and is mostly easy to use. Only the absence of an answerphone really lets it down
Pros
- +
Easy to use
- +
Slim, stylish design
- +
large colour display and blue-backlit keypad
- +
good range of features
Cons
- -
No answer phone
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You'd like to think that modern home phones would be as smart and as functional as their mobile phone equivalents, but that's rarely the case. Coming closer than most though is the Motorola D1100 - a smart, stylish DECT phone finished in black with blue piping that also comes with a 4cm full colour display.
The colour display's important because the Motorola D1100 is one of the most mobile phone-like phones here to use. Access the menu button and you're presented with a series of big, colourful icons that represent phone's main functions including Text Messaging, Reminder, Clock and Alarm and, of course, Phone Settings.
The whole thing is pretty intuitive and DECT phones go, although you may find the large button that dominates the fascia a bit frustrating - it's really just an up/down rocker switch, which is fine if you want to scroll through the menus, but the phone keeps forcing you to use another button to actually make your chosen settings stick. It's mobile phone-like then, but only in a very 20th Century sense.
Blue-backlit keypad
The other slight problem you'll find is with the alphanumeric keypad, which has very rubbery buttons that can be hard to press: your fingers won't so much glide across the keypad as clunk down onto it, but the rubbery coating does make the phone feel robust.
You'll also like the fact that the alphanumeric keys are blue-backlit, making them easy to read in low light, while the cursor also has a blue 'glow ring' that lights up to to whenever it detects incoming calls, messages, etc. With its rounded corners and slim profile, the Motorola is also easy and comfortable to hold in your hand. Call quality is excellent.
Room Monitoring
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When it comes to features, the Motorola D1100 is fairly blessed: as well as the ability to send and receive text messages - as we hinted above - the phone also includes Room Monitoring, enabling you to listen into baby while you're in another room.
The 100 name-and-number address book is easy to use, and you can also do stuff like make three-way conference calls, screen incoming calls and access recently dialled numbers (up to 20). You can also extend your phone network to accommodate up to four different base stations and five handsets.
The Motorola D1100 may even salve your carbon conscience. It's made from 20 per cent recycled materials and in Eco mode cleverly adjusts the signal strength to help reduce to help reduce the amount of power consumed and extend battery life. The only thing that's obviously missing is any kind of answer phone - but you'll have to stump up £90 for the D1110 model to get that.