Binatone iHomePhone 2 Is An Android Landline Phone No One Should Own

A DECT based cordless phone with Android OS and speaker dock seems like all-in-one dream gadget for your home. With Android OS, much more can be done than just making plain phone calls, you can browse Internet, play games, music, video etc. And DECT? Yes you could connect many other DECT cordless devices to this network. With a speaker dock, you can throw your old mp3 player and use this flashy device instead.

Binatone iHome Phone 2

Yes, it all only ‘seems’. Binatone, a UK-based electronics manufacturer has released a similar phone which simply, is horrible. It crashed all my dreams.

Many of us could remember Binatone name from the Binatone TVs that were popular in the early years of 1980-90s. Yes, it’s the same company.

This  cordless phone with Android OS and full touch screen is named Binatone iHomePhone. The first version of the phone had Android 1.6 and the next version has 2.2. The apparent features that attract any geek is:

1. DECT based cordless phone – means advanced features, better clarity and range in cordless.
2. Full touch screen – FUN!
3. Android OS – Market and thousands of apps!

The image obviously looks futuristic and as good as any Android mobile. Any geek would want to own it.

I fell for my gadget cravings and bought it from Letsbuy.com even though there were clear warning, its obscurity – i.e., no news coverage or blog reviews. And the buying experience with Letsbuy.com is ‘worldly’ and requires another separate blog post to list its laurels!

In just couple of hours of use I was very disappointed with the phone. There were too many short comings to call this ‘Out of beta’ and ‘market-ready’ device. I’ll list some of them here:

1. The phones’ resistive touchscreen is worse than any resistive touch I have ever used. The touch screen doesn’t work most of the time we touch it. Either we have to touch it very hard or touch/swipe multiple times. Even a basic resistive touchscreen mobile phone has decent touch input. When there is a call, it ends before we could answer. Even a cheap (or China) touchscreen mobiles are better.
2. The UI is very slow and lagging. You open an app or press a key and it takes ages to respond. And when we touch and tap it multiple times thinking it isn’t working, it jumbles it up.
3. Now the big let down – No market access and No Skype – I actually had this wonderful idea of using Skype on a landline phone!
4. The touch screen calibration. Surprisingly this screen needed a calibration before its first use. The calibration is done using the screen itself. If the touch screen goes haywire how would you calibrate it?
5. The dock speakers are utterly bad. Sounds like an old worn out radio. The music playback is very poor for any use. Again even a basic mobile phone has better music player and speakers.

At this point the display calibration was completely off. Once the calibration is wrong there is no way it can be fixed since it is the only input point. The phone is now rendered useless.

With all this flaws in place you can never trust this phone for its basic function, i.e., to make a phone call. Without much ado, I strongly recommend against buying it. This product is obviously not ready for public market. May be Android is not suitable for a landline phone. May be no one wants to make devices like these because landline phones are depleting in developed worlds.

Of course, I returned it.