EnGenius FreeSyl 2

By Jacien Squires

According to EnGenius “EnGenius FREESTYL 2 is a scalable 900MHz Cordless Phone System with extreme wireless signal range that’s ideal for businesses with employees who roam beyond the their offices or cubicles; or for expansive properties (farms, ranches, resorts, luxury estates) so owners or staff can stay connected over extended distances.”

Unboxing impressions- Compact handset and base.  Base has line out port for daisy-chaining another phone.  Only 1 handset included in base kit.

Base-

The base has an adjustable antenna- but only rotates on 1 axis.  Mounting holes are included on the backside to mount vertically on a wall.  A blue power indicator LED is featured on the front along with a page button.

Handset-

The handset comes with a belt clip and includes a 2.5mm headphone jack on the right side.  Battery life is around 2 days.  The handset features a small, compact design that can easily fit in most pockets.  The plastic can be a little slippery though- especially in bigger hands.

Features are fairly bare bones.  You have your usual 12 phone number buttons, a call/hold button, an end call/power button, a speaker phone button, and a phone book button.  In addition, there’s a “Broadcast” button, which acts like a walkie-talkie and lets you talk to other handsets using push-to-talk.  There’s also an “INT” button for paging specific handsets. 

The screen has your basic left and right menu option buttons along with up/down selection buttons.  The up/down buttons also function as your volume buttons while on a call.  I would have preferred to have volume controls on the side of the phone so I could adjust volume without pulling the phone away from my ear.  Once familiar with the phone, one could most likely operate the volume buttons by touch without needing to move the phone.

Phone Menu-

The phone screen has your usual battery level icon, extension number, extension name and left and right menu options.  A signal strength icon appears when making a call.  You have options to set ringtones for calls and intercom calls individually.  There are 8 ringtones to choose from- most sound the same, just varied on pitch frequency. 

You can program your phone book- sadly the phone book is not shared across multiple handsets, but you can program one handset and then send a copy of the phonebook to your others, which is nice.

The phone also features a key-lock function- which locks your keys and requires a special key combination to unlock, preventing accidental dialing.

For call settings, you can set an automatic prefix to dial before each call.  There’s also a “Baby Monitor” feature, which allow the handset to automatically pick up when dialed via the intercom button. 

Usage-

The phone functions very well.  Calls were clear throughout the house (2-story, approx. 3500 square feet).  I was even able to continue talking while walking down my street.  I made it approximately 2 blocks (1600ft) before the signal finally gave out. 

The kids really enjoyed the broadcast feature- something you don’t see on a lot of cordless phones.  I could see this feature being very useful in a large warehouse or outside on a large property. This phone definitely seems to be aimed at business users where fancy features aren’t needed.  The build quality is very good and the phones look like they could stand up to the regular abuse found in most office environments.  Battery life could be a bit better though.  A good product overall