DECT Phone Review:  PANASONIC KX-PRX120

 

Here I describe the phone's pros and cons that were not mentioned by anyone yet, and that were not described in operating instructions.

I'll try to follow the terminology used by Panasonic.

 

 

PROS

1) Low power consumption from the battery. While the screen and Wi–Fi were constantly on I was able to use the handset all day long (Wi–Fi was rarely used though), and there was some battery reserve left. Charging time is fast as well.

 

2) It's possible to import the contacts from the other phone (doesn't have to be Android) via Bluetooth.

 

3) It's possible to use GPS for date and time synchronization.

 

4) English UI is available.

 

 

CONS

1) The most disappointing inconvenience is that there is no missed call notification while the screen is off. The only way is to push the button to wake up the display and check the status bar. This may result in button wearing out quickly.

I solved "missed call" problem with the help of third party program Recurrent Notifications Manager downloaded from Google Play Store. As for button wearing out, I installed another program from Play Store named EveryCover. It uses proximity sensor to turn on the screen. There is a drawback however—the program is not stable enough.

 

2) Incomplete operating instructions. For example, Bluetooth support is not described at all. As a rule, lack of information is the main reason for me to purchase the goods of other vendor.

 

3) It's not possible to assign different rings for contacts and groups.

 

4) Autodial feature not supported.

 

5) No application to work with SMS out of the box, though lower–class phones provide such app. By the way, MGTS supports SMS for quite a long time already.

 

6) Some graphic files, such as home screen and settings screen wallpapers, are of low quality. Dithering is noticeable.

 

7) Cannot forward incoming call to answering machine.

 

8) Missed call notification is not cleared automatically after listening to corresponding message on answering machine. User has to perform additional steps to remove that notification.

 

9) Answering machine doesn't save short messages (about 3 seconds or less).

 

10) If you choose not to answer a call, the handset stops ringing and Phone app closes. But other handset(s) registered on the same base unit keep(s) ringing. Besides, when the call is complete, missed call notification appears on status bar.

 

11) If you remove missed call notification, that call is not marked as a confirmed missed call in the base unit call log. This makes the missed call notification reappear after handset reboot.

 

12) The length of contact name in Phone app is limited to 18 symbols. I don't know why text wrapping is not used, there are plenty of free space on the screen. Besides, it's not possible to change the name format from "FirstName LastName" to "LastName FirstName".

 

13) The date format used on the main screen of the base unit's call log is fixed. For example, "08 October" is displayed as "10–8". Changing the language of UI doesn't solve this issue.

 

14) "Answering system" and "Call log list" apps have a timeout. If they are not used for 1 minute, the handset returns to "Landline" screen. Don't know the reason why.

 

15) If screen lock is not used (set to None in Security settings) and display is off, pressing the Home button opens Google search, rather than just turning the display on.

 

16) Phonebook cannot be used to add phone numbers to the blocked caller list.

 

17) Cannot set the contacts the silent mode doesn't apply to.

 

18) Russian localization is not so good, though English one is perfect.

 

19) Many programs downloaded from Google Play do not work as expected. Those that work are not always stable.

 

20) When a call is being recorded, both parties hear a short beep tone repeating every 20 seconds. Probably, this is not a drawback, but conformance to the law.

 

21) The phone is unable to recognize "line busy" answer during outgoing calls.

 

22) When you look at the screen from 12 o'clock direction, its content is less observable. Color rendering is affected as well. For instance, yellow sun looks orange on weather widget.

 

23) Inconvenient charger. First, because of lightweight the charger moves back when you touch the screen. Second, the handset stands on the charger close to vertical position (recall the screen is less observable in this case). Third, as opposed to the base unit, charger has nonstandard power jack RJ11. Should AC adaptor fail, it will be not so easy to replace it.

 

24) There are some shortcomings related to handset case. Front cover is black and glossy. As a result, dust and fingerprints are clearly visible. Plastic back cover creaks a bit. I would prefer totally metal case. Perhaps, plastic back cover is used for the sake of ECO mode (low radio power).

 

25) The screen turns on when you put the handset on charger. Why? But when you take the handset from the charger, the screen remains off (assuming there is no incoming call). In my opinion, the behavior should be vice versa, because in most cases you take the phone to make a call, and put it back on charger when you don't need it anymore.

 

26) Finally, I've found a bug. If the blocked caller list contains at least one record (the exact phone number doesn’t matter), other non–Panasonic handsets (in my case Siemens Gigaset 4000 series) registered on the same base unit do not produce any sound on call, although their LEDs keep flashing and I see incoming call on their screens.

 

 

CONCLUSION

Good device, I mean 4 mark out of 5. No regret I have bought it. I would be glad to purchase the next model, where most issues reported by others and me will be fixed.