Siemens Gigaset SL785

Not worth the hefty price
I can't recommend this phone system; had I to consider buying it again, I wouldn't!!
Here are a few of my observations

Pros:
* It's stylish.
* It's slim, compact and easily carried in a pants pocket
* It looks and feels solidly built ( this can be deceiving ).
* Base transceiver unit separate from solid, heavy phone charging dock.
* Large LCD - information nicely presented.
* Flat keypad doesn't collect a lot of crud between the keys. Keypad is backlit. Keypad can be locked to prevent accidental dialing.
* Answering machine integrated into the handset.
* 45 minute recording time.
* Tracks calls; call list shows all, accepted, outgoing, missed.
* I think its sound quality is reasonable.

Cons:
* Way too expensive for what it is and does.
* Build quality is suspect - some of the keys on the keypad started to go "spongy" after 15months. Sometimes I get no response when I press either of the softkeys at the top of the keypad. I don't think "German engineering" is what it used to be.
* Dialing a number from the directory, the redial list or the answering machine mode doesn't place an access prefix (in North America a "1") in front of the number, hence the number won't connect. Funny though, a "1" gets placed in front of the number when dialing from the call list. This is a problem I alerted them to over a year ago and they haven't fixed it yet.
* The operating range of the phone is no where near what they quote in the product literature; I've gotten typically about 2/3rds of the range both inside and outside.
* Talk and standby time are not nearly what they quote in the literature.
* Very poor technical support - it seems that tech support's stock answer to any problem is to reset the handset and/or base.
* Infrequent firmware upgrades - support is unresponsive to suggestions regarding operating flaws. I got no response from them when I contacted them over a year ago.
* QuickSync software is quirky - does not work well when synchronizing handset to PC. It insists you add the access and area codes into the GUI and then upon directory synchronization it adds them to the existing prefixes heading the number. You wind up with a prefix of two sets of access and area codes.
* QuickSync software doesn't support any other email programs than Microsoft's offerings. Why hasn't it been modified to support Mozilla Thunderbird or other email programs?
* QuickSync software turned ugly; it doesn't play well with my Win XP OS; something went wrong the other day - I couldn't uninstall the old version of QuickSync and I couldn't install the new version either. The response from GigaSet essentially absolved themselves of responsibility; it couldn't be their software - it must be my machine. Try installing it on another computer. Well, great, suppose you don't have another computer. I laid out in detail what was happening; they didn't seem interested in helping me.
* Badly written user manual; some topics vague, incompletely explained, some not covered at all.
* Handset replacement battery is expensive and hard to find.
* Handset menu layout could be better.

I contacted Gigaset this past week to see where I could send the phone to be repaired while it's under the extended warranty of my credit card. I explained this very clearly. Their response was "Regarding your query about the repair procedure for your faulty Gigaset SL 78H handset, we are sorry to inform you that we can only repair/replace a product as long as it is under warranty (the warranty period is 12 months)." But of course the tech support person wanted to try a reset ( this seems to be their standard remedy for everything ). So what do you do with a very expensive phone system that dies much sooner that it should? Throw it away, I guess. This is the last time I will buy a Siemens product!!