Updated: Great concept; wonderful implementation - 9 out of 10

This was my first listing on epinions and what you are about to read my revised comments. Thanks to many who offered suggestions on my first offering.

I have to say, I was nervous about buying an RCA unit. I was originally looking for a lightweight and comfortable headset that had a reasonable boom mic as I did a lot of business calls from home and needed that comfort and quality for those long calls (while used my hands to type notes, etc.). But, of all the units I had looked at at Radio Shack, CompUSA, and OfficeMax, etc., this device seemed like the way to go. At least I liked the look of the headset unit with its boom mic in the store display. If its range, sound quality, RF interference, was half decent, it would be OK.

There are four main components: the wall 'base unit,' the charging stand, the headset, and the handset.

The wall 'base unit' is a box about five and a half inches talk, four inches wide and about an inch and a half deep. It has an AC power plug integrated into it so it hangs on the wall. There are two RJ11 (normal phone) plugs on the bottom side into which you connect to the phone wall outlet and optionally a wired telephone unit.

The spec's printed on the back of the base unit lists the ringer equivalence number (REN) as an amazing 0.0 and power consumption at 4 watts and it is not at all hot to the touch.

The unit uses frequencies in the 2.4 GHz range. Three of our four active computers use 802.11b or 802.11g (Apple Airport Extreme), that also operates in that range; we have experienced no interference on the computers while on calls. But, I do have concerns for privacy as there is no mention of encryption at all.

In a separate small (four and a quarter by three and a quarter inches) charging stand, the headset and handset sit nicely. This unit requires only power which is supplied by the ever present brick. Both headset and handset drop easily into their charging spots.

The handset is the size of a common cell phone; it is small in the hand but fully functional and usable. The most annoying aspect of this product is that pressing any and every key on the handset produces a beep that can be heard in the room. And, when listening on either the handset or the headset, the number buttons don't sound like TouchTone tones but rather just that annoying beeps. Among the many options in this phone is NOT one to turn these beeps off. In addition to the normal number key buttons, there are buttons to mute, scroll backwards and forward through the caller ID, and to go 'off hook.' There are two buttons to go off hook (to answer the phone or make a call): one for the headset and one for the handset.

The headset is the selling point here. It is cute and very lightweight. In fact, it was so lightweight that I questioned how well this thing would work. It seems a little fragile but with reasonable care, it is holding up just fine.

On the headset, there is 'talk' button for answering and hanging up plus a pair of buttons for volume up and down. Note that the talk button is not usable as a flash button for advanced features. The headband is a thin steal band with a plastic end piece with a rubber pad on the end. The buttons are on the side opposite of the small speaker that, itself has a thin foam cover. (In the box came an assembly that allows you hang this on your ear but I opted for the headset approach.) The boom mike is very very lightweight and is just a long tube with a bend near the mouth. I suspect some people might feel the need to bend this further toward them but I did not. The boom can be oriented so the headset can be left or right side mounted.

When wearing the lightweight headset around - and you can forget you are wearing it - there is a warbling tone indicating ringing that comes through the speaker - not loud so you can wear this headset around. Pressing the button will answer.

I've not tested the range but it is easily 50 feet out into the garage through the walls and refrig and other stuff in that path - our current condo is small.

Finally, the headset (and handset) produces reasonable quality sound in my ear and seems to produce reasonable quality sound to the other party. I've not done any quantitative measurements, but after some three months of usage on personal and business calls of short and long duration, I've received no complaints or questions ("what the hell are you talking on?") or even any comments on my call quality. So, my assumption is that audio quality on the other end of the conversation is ok. I did ask a few people when I first started using the thing if I sounded OK for my confidence.

There is a phone number memory which I have not used and the phone supports the caller ID with name which have used. Calling numbers from the caller ID memory is easy to use; it stores 99 CID messages. The handset also has an LED that indicates message waiting (set from normal phone company CLASS features).

My only reservations about the unit are the annoying beeps and privacy. The instruction manual has a single blurb I should probably fire up one of my very broadband receivers to see what there is to see. I don't expect Department of State level of security but I'd like it to be slightly more difficult to pick up than simply firing up a crystal radio. :)