The Doro Form 45R was a rather unexpected edition to my household, but turned out to be a welcome one. Due to my abundance of mobile phones I tend not to expect a lot from my landline, however you never know what you could’ve had until you’ve got it, and the 45R has made my life much more convenient. Plus you can put a photo of yourself in the base unit, which is always a good thing.

The Form 45R comes as two fairly intact pieces. Once I’d attached the wires, the hardest thing was finding a photo which fit the size of the base unit. I did end up finding a really good one of me, but forgot one vital thing. It is a phone cradle, not a photo frame – so when the phone is not in use I can’t see myself in the photo. Luckily the phone itself is lovely. Light, easy in the hand, very good sound quality and easy to use controls.

I had a few surprises with my 45R. First was the discovery that I had voicemail, which I'd never had on my old phone. This came to light when a friend rang my mobile one day to inform me that she'd just left a message on my landline (cleverly deducing that since I'd never had voicemail before, I was unlikely to listen to her message without a nudge). I also discovered that the 45R connected the call as soon as I removed the phone from the cradle. This wouldn’t be great if I were trying to avoid someone, however I like that it also disconnects the call when placed back into the cradle.

Another surprise with the 45R happened on our second day together. I’d left the phone out of the cradle for a few hours and was stunned to discover that the phone was flat! Upon consulting the manual I discovered that the 45R doesn’t reach full battery capacity until after it’s been charged 4/ 5 times. Now the phone is fine and I can leave it out of the cradle all day! If you do worry about things like this, there is a light on the base of the cradle which flashes when the battery is low and stays steady when it’s fully charged.

Other interesting facts about the 45R are that the Phone book can save up to 100 numbers and if you subscribe to a caller ID service, you can choose different ringers for different callers (I don’t). It is also possible to set an alarm using the phone clock, an action that is as easy as setting the time. The volume can be changed during a call by using the up and down arrows and there is also a mute button.

I am genuinely pleased with my Form 45R and may we spend many more fruitful days communicating with the outside world together.

Available from Amazon for £22.50

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