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The phones are 15x5.5x2cm and with their two ‘AAA’ rechargeable batteries inserted weigh just over 100grams. Mine had a black face and silver back; the rubberised buttons were silver with black numerals.

The display is black on grey however for eight seconds after a key is pressed it is backlit in blue. There are a total of nineteen buttons and a circular one that works top and bottom so I suppose it’s twenty one.

There is a dual English and French manual the first fourteen pages are in English. Just like the excellent recently reviewed Doro TH80 the range is stated to be between 50 and 300 metres dependant on what lies between the base station and where you are. Perhaps the main advantage of the dual handsets is that one could be in say a detached garage or greenhouse providing it has power and you can be working in either and still be able to receive or even make calls.

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This feature is also useful to allow paging or calls between handsets, great for when someone is in bed ill and they can contact the other handset with ease – no shouting or knocking – less stressful as well.

As stated each handset comes with two rechargeable ‘AAA’ batteries and once fully charged these should last for around ten hours of talktime or up to one hundred hours on standby. If you wish to stop the drain from the batteries you could of course remove them but far nearer and easier remove the mains power and press the ‘hang up’ key for around five seconds to turn that phone off. Of course once off it will not be able to make or receive calls but the battery will still be charged when you next turn on the power in the remote location and then it will automatically wake up.

While it does not have as nice a display as the TH80 it still has a phone book and this can save up to fifty name/numbers. Should you subscribe to caller display then the name will be shown instead of the number for anyone in your phonebook. It is possible to set various ring tones dependant on the caller, ideal if your hands are covered in oil or soil and it’s someone you don’t want to talk to.

As with the TH80 there is an alarm mode. It is also possible to rename the default handset names from the default Handset 1, Handset 2. One unusual feature is that the mains adapter for the base station and the one for the remote station are different even to size of the fittings. However it is possible to charge one in the other unit. The Answer Machine resides in Handset 1 and is setup and programmed from that handset.

The answer machine can be set to answer on various number of rings however even if it is switched off it will answer after ten rings. There is a default answer message but this is easy to overwrite with your own personalized message that if wanted can be up to three minutes long. The machine can store up to thirty minutes of messages. Should you wish to revert to the bland message this can be restored. You can delete a message during playback and skip back or forward through messages and you can even delete all messages in one go. Remote access of the machine is also possible by entering a code.

My unit was supplied with a single extension handset but reading the manual I see it can support up to six. The manual explains about the procedure for registering extra handsets with the base station.

It is possible to answer leaving the handset in the cradle and also to review messages while in the cradle, however I expect the caller to notice a difference in the sound quality if you use it for the former. As with the TH80 the default is not to answer a call just by the removal of the handset from its charging station. The only button on the charging/base station is the paging button and this is useful to help finding the phone when it slips down the side of the sofa/chair or gets buried under a pile of papers.

Doing my Internet searches failed to find the Doro Artic 25r+1 once I get a link and price I will will update this.

I found the Doro 25R+1 available for £54.75 including delivery from Amazon on the following link :

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0016IZ2E4?ie=UTF8&tag=gadge0a-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634

I found the Doro 25R+1 available for €58.27 including delivery from Amazon on the following link :

http://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B000WIUKF0?ie=UTF8&tag=gadge04-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1642