Xlink BT Bluetooth Gateway - Black

I got rid of my VOIP system a few months ago as my wife and I each have cell phones with unlimited minutes. We rarely used the VOIP so thought we could save some money just using cell phones. We have two homes, one in Florida and the other in Arizona and at times my wife and I are not at the same residence at the same time. In our home in Arizona, we have a Uniden 5.8 GHz phone system with seven wireless phones which I turned off. The Uniden system laid dormant a few months. Using just the cell phone for all your voice application requirements is good in theory but it requires you to keep the phone with you constantly. Can't leave it in the kitchen and go upstairs. You might miss a call. Especially from my wife. Not a good idea! I knew cell phones could connect to other devices using Bluetooth as we use such a connection in one of our vehicles. You can receive and make calls through the vehicle console and speakerphone. Works pretty well and thought I could find something similar for my home and possibly reuse the old wireless Uniden system. So, I searched for a Bluetooth gateway and found the Xtreme Technologies Xlink BT Bluetooth Gateway. Ordered the Xlink BT, received it, followed the simple instructions (pretty idiot proof), connected the legacy Uniden wireless phone system, then paired and connected my T-Mobile myTouch 4G cellphone. Made a call and it worked! My wife then called me, and it worked! The old Uniden works perfectly with this Gateway. Next, I set up my cellphone to use our WiFi internet connection as the primary mobile infrastructure for incoming and outgoing calls. It worked! Now I use my internet to make cell calls! Next, I checked to see if the system links seamlessly when I move out of and back into the Bluetooth connection range. It connects quickly and has not failed me yet. Bear in mind, it's still early and I haven't found any real quirks. I have not tested the range and have not tried to pair and connect two distinct cell phones yet. I will update this review once I have done so. Our legacy Uniden phone system seems to work seamlessly with the Xlink. All the remote phones throughout the house works and the caller ID (passed along from my cellphone phone book) show up on the phone screen. The audio is crisp and clear. No static, no voice lag. So far, so good. By pressing ## you can access the cell phone voice recognition system through your legacy phone and make calls hands free. It works as well. Most impressive. I will continue to update this review as I learn more. So far, it's a five star review. ---------------------------- Quick update on 3/22/2013. Still works well, but have found some minor issues I want to report. 1. If you have two of these devices (1 in each home), the Xlink doesn't seem to "pair" as a distinct device from the other Xlink. So, going from one house to the other with two different Xlink's confuses the device and it won't sync and pair. You have to remove the device setup on the phone, then re-sync, then pair. It's inconvenient and my guess is there is a way to solve this, but it's not apparent and not in the manual. 2. If the device is too far from the cell phone, there will be static. You really need to keep your cell phone close to the Xlink. 3. When the phone rings, use the home phone system (not the cell phone). If you walk too far away from the Xlink with your cell phone in hand, the cell phone pairing starts to fail and all kinds of problems start to occur. Thanks.

In order to convince my wife to let me get a smart phone I needed to do two things, keep our land line number and let our 4 phone land line system work as normal. Both were easy with the second solved with this device. I simple set my phone down when I come in and it connects to the gateway. I never have to worry. It is not perfect but that could be the tech restrictions than the device. There is sometimes a bit of static on the line. Not always but noticeable. There is a delay between the ringing on the incoming side and the ringing on our phone system. Most often this delay just keeps the telemarketers filtered out as they tend to hang up before we get to the phone. Some people don't wait for enough rings to get to the message system but if they know us they know to let it ring a few more times. The caller ID will say Xlink more often than not. Not sure why that is but believe it is external of the Xlink. I have not checked but sure the smart phone would also have no ID on the caller. However the phone number is displayed. I would surely get this again if I was repeating this process. There may be something out there that is better but this works well enough that I would not feel the need to invest in something better. I'm sure the flaws are more to do with Bluetooth and the Cell Phones than the Xlink but I wanted to rate the overall experience. Set up was easy. I paired the device and pluged my old phone system into it. Just unplug the cord from the wall and stick it into the Xlink. Never even had to crack the instruction book, let alone have to study something in the internet. I glanced at the pictures and that was that. Not sure what the is so I keep the cell phone in the same room as the xlink. The xlink and phone are about 10 feet away as that was were the phone jack was related to the door. I set the phone down on a table next to my chair and plug in the charger. Only problem I ever had was kind of funny. I was running Pandora on while riding my bike and it did not turn off when I set it down. When my wife called she had to talk over the music. She was not a happy camper. I just make sure I have fully exited Pandora now. Update After almost three years the XLink has worked flawlessly. If I had a complaint it would be the time it takes to connect after you pick up the phone. It is only a second but this means I will often go, "Hello....Hello" It is hard to get out of the habit of saying hello right after picking up the phone. After almost three years I still make that mistake. As I said, only a second and only when you first answering the phone. Outgoing calls have no trouble. This happened only once. Not sure what caused it, likely a local power outage. After coming home, which takes you out of bluetooth range, the house phones were giving us a busy signal. The solution was to just reset the XLink. Only happened once on the almost three years I have had it.