Although the Link-to-Cell handset takes 7 hours to fully charge, we were able to use it after only a few minutes of charging. The cordless phone comes with two rechargeable Ni-MH AA batteries. That, means that you will have to deal with recharging and replacing batteries occasionally. The handset makes this fairly easy since it verbally announces, “Please charge phone” when the need arises. While you may balk at having to recharge and replace batteries, the proprietary batteries found in many other handsets will have to be replaced when they wear out and that may be fairly costly. So this is a six-of-one and a half-dozen of the other choice. You can look at it as either a plus or a minus.

You can pair the Link-to-Cell base unit with two Bluetooth-enabled cell phones. As shown in Figure 2, there are three buttons on the side of the base unit. The uppermost button is a handset locator button, which will ring the handset. This is ideal for the times when the handset slips between the sofa cushions or gets left in some unknown corner.

Under the locator button are two buttons labeled Cell 1 and Cell 2. Press and hold the button and the corresponding light on the front of the unit (shown in Figure 3) will blink red indicating that it is in discoverable mode. If the number “1” is red, it means that the cell phone is not available. If it is green, it means that it is connected and working properly. As mentioned, a blinking red light means the unit is ready for pairing with a cell phone. Once the light is flashing, you put your cell phone in Bluetooth discoverable mode, enter the code (0000) and the two are connected.

This process is the one thing that Panasonic keeps short and simple. It works quite well. The pairing instructions are clear and the buttons are big and easy to use.

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Figure 2: Buttons on side of base unit.


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Figure 3: Front of unit showing “1” and “2”.

When we tried to set up things like the date and ring tones, however, the simplicity disappeared and the installation instructions quickly deteriorated. We had 4 tech-savvy people try to get the Link-to-Cell set up by following the instructions for making the menu choices. Each one failed. It’s not that the device is so difficult to set up. It is just that the instructions are poorly written.

Once we set the instructions aside, we were able to fumble through the menus and set up the device fairly easily. We used the manual to see what features were available and then worked our way through the menus to set everything up.