Now you can sit by the pool or search the warehouse for a missing floppy disk, and still get your calls.

by Michael N. Marcus

 

This made it easy to have inexpensive mobility, since a $99 cordless would work just fine; and it gave Panasonic a competitive advantage over AT&T’s Merlin systems, which required a dedicated cordless phone, priced as high as $799.

However, AT&T’s costly cordlesses were more convenient, with buttons for line selection, hold and feature-access. People using cordlesses with a Panasonic system, had to use the Flash button and multi-digit codes, and had no lights to show what was going on.

Panasonic customers wanted lights and buttons, too, and with the April ‘96 arrival of the new KX-T7880, they can have them, just in time for the patio-and-pool season. It’s also great in a business environment, so you can be away from your desk but not out-of-touch.

The 7880 is based on Panasonic’s terrific palm-size KX-T9500 900MHz cordless. That phone has won lots of friends because of its superb voice quality, and tiny size -- it will easily fit in a pocket.

Three-Piece Set

The 9500 has the familiar handset-and-base format used by most cordlesses, but the 7880 is a three-piece set. You get a handset, a compact charger "cradle" unit for desktop or tabletop, plus a separate, bigger, base unit.

The separate base gives you two important advantages: You can place the base at a high point in your building to maximize range; and you can connect the base to an existing phone jack, even if the handset and charger cradle will be kept in a place where there is no available jack, such as a corporate guard shack or warehouse, or a residential pool house or guest room. Once you connect it, you may never need to touch the base again -- you can even hang it on a wall in an attic or in the phone equipment closet. (The base unit has a switch that allows you to use the phone as a single line telephone. In this mode the handset has five flexible keys that can be used for one-touch dialing, a timed 700ms Flash, and an option to change from tone to pulse dialing.)

It’s much more exciting to use the KX-T7880 as a multi-line telephone on one of Panasonic’s KX-T series analog or digital hybrid phone systems. It works like a corded key telephone with most of the features available on the KX-T7000 series phones, and has three CO line appearances. The illuminated line buttons on the phone can be programmed to access any three of your available lines, and if you have four or more lines, you can access the upper lines by dialing a standard Panasonic code, 84 for line #4, 85 for line #5, and so on. The charger that cradles the handset is quite compact. It’s footprint is not much bigger than the handset, and it holds a second charging battery in reserve. The handset can lie in the cradle with buttons up or down. Keep ‘em up, and the lights will let you know what’s going on.

Use Four Wires

When installing the 7880 as a multi-line key phone in a KX-T system, be aware that it requires a voice pair and a data pair, through a 4-conductor modular cord. You can’t just plug it into an XDP jack on the back of a digital phone -- it needs a 4-wire jack.

The lightweight handset has keys pre-assigned for Auto Dial, Transfer, Redial, Flash, Conference and Hold, in addition to intercom and the three lines. The handset also comes with a convenient belt clip. If you don’t use the clip and you misplace the handset, tap the Locator button on the main base, or dial the handset from another phone. There are In-Use and Power indicator lights on the base for a visual indication of the handset’s status. The charging cradle has LEDs to indicate charging status of two batteries. The phone comes with two batteries, so one can be charged inside the cradle while the other is in use.

The Panasonic KX-T7880 operates in the 900MHz range to help avoid most sources of interference. “Sound Charger” technology and 30-channel auto-scanning further help assure good audio quality.

In one test, we set up the base in the office of a furniture factory, and were able to wander all over the 400’-foot-long production floor without any interference from the dozens of power tools that were in use. The base was sitting on top of a modem on top of a PC, and there was no audible interference. In an office building, we were able to wander up and down four floors with no loss of signal quality. In a typical suburban environment, with the base on a first-floor tabletop, I walked nearly two blocks without loss of signal. Maximum range varies with the environment, and should be great enough for most usage. If you need a super-long-range phone, however, pick something else.

Smart Safety Lock

The 7880 is small enough to slide into your pocket, where it could bump into a Swiss Army knife and accidentally dial Zurich, so Panasonic smartly designed-in an electronic lock. Pressing the star key locks the phone, and flipping the power switch to Off and back to On will bring it back to life. The phone will still ring when it’s locked, but if you try to make a call without unlocking, you’ll hear an alarm tone. Cute.

Panasonic gives you the choice of automatic or manual answering. Automatic is the default condition. When the handset rings, just pick it up from the base -- or press the talk button if the handset wasn’t in the base -- and you’ll automatically be connected to the ringing line. In the manual mode, you have to press a button to select the ringing line. If you are talking on one line and a call comes in on another, programmable system call-waiting will generate a chirp and a flashing light to indicate that someone else wants you. If you have call-waiting from the phone company, the Flash button will let you alternate between calls.

The 7880 has two kinds of memory dialing. Pressing Auto plus a few digits will automatically dial any number in your phone system’s speed-dial memory. If a number is particularly important, it can be put “under” a feature button for instant access.

This phone is analog. Technology snobs may regard it to be less desirable than digital or digital spread-spectrum cordless phones, but I consider analog to be an advantage. I’ve tried dozens of digital cordlesses, and every single one suffered in one way or another, from background noise, low volume, too-high sidetone, distortion, heavy weight or short battery life. Quality control is TERRIBLE. The companies that can make two or three acceptable digital phones, don’t seem to be able to make two or three acceptable digital phones on the same day! I don’t think digital or spread-spectrum are ready for prime-time, and Panasonic is wise to be cautious about embracing a technology that causes so many complaints and product returns. Sony is being similarly smart with its recent introduction of analog 900meggers. Keep in mind, however, that an analog cordless is not immune to eavesdropping. If you are discussing corporate secrets, use another phone.

Use Up to Six Phones

Up to six of the 7880 phones can work in one building, on one phone system, but Panasonic cautions against installing more than four base units near each other.

Since the KX-T7880 is loaded with features that make it a productive business tool when used as either a single-line cordless or as a key phone, it will likely be available through several distribution channels, and its price will depend on the services that the seller includes with it. Panasonic is giving extra attention to QC on this new phone, so the distribution pipeline is filling slowly, and initial inventory is limited. If you want one before summer fades away, place your order soon.