EnGenius SN-900 Ultra-2 900 MHz Twin 1-Line 1-Line Phone

This was the first super long range cordless phone from Engenius. This was designed as a super long range industrial phone. Since it was designed to work in harsh environments, it is constructed very well and feels solid in the hand. The handsets are bigger than most home phones, but that is a welcome feeling when you are actually using the phone.

If you ever try taking your home phone outdoors, you'll soon discover the range ends at the edge of your yard, or maybe to the house right next door before the reception gets fuzzy. Not so with the SN-900. You can keep walking past several houses, and use this inside your friend's house down the block. In a typical neighborhood, you'll be able to use this about a half a mile away from home if you put the base in front of a second floor window. The base antenna unscrews, leaving behind an SMA connector to which you can plug in an external antenna. If you mount the antenna on your roof, you can go over a mile before you lose the signal. If you are lucky enough to live lake side, you will get 4 miles over the water.

The SN-900 works on digital spread spectrum in the 900 megahertz band. In short, this means no one can listen in to your calls. The 900 megahertz band is much more efficient at punching through walls and buildings than 2.4 ghz or 5.8 ghz frequencies. If you are familiar with the other models from Engenius, you'll be happy to know this system works with the SN-920 system as well. You can mix and match handsets and bases from SN-900's and SN-920's in any combination to create up to four base stations that will work with 36 phones and four phone lines. You can also communicate from handset to handset without needing to be within range of a base station. That means you can use the handsets car to car, and unlike typical walkie talkies, the handsets allow private communication that can not be intercepted. Unlike Nextel, there are no buttons to push. You can talk handset to handset just like you are on a regular phone call.

The audio quality is very good, but could have been a little louder in my opinion. Transmit audio is superb, meaning the person on the other end will hear your voice in a clear and rich tone from your phone, better than most other phones I have tried.

The SN-900 is a remarkable system in it's range and versatility. The only system with more range that Engenius is illegal to use in the USA. The Engenius system complies with all US FCC and Canadian DOT requirements and operates at the maximum power level permitted by those agencies.

The only disadvantage I see with this system is getting used to the larger handsets, but that's only because we have become accustomed to the mini sizes of handsets that are made today. While I like the smaller handset to carry around, I prefer the larger handset when I am actually using the phone.