With the ability to link devices, send photos and take messages, phone system goes ...

12:00 AM CST on Saturday, November 12, 2005

By TERRY MAXON / The Dallas Morning News

Have you ever wished you could have a home phone setup with up to eight phones or other devices? Or that one of the devices was a camera that could broadcast an image to a display on your handset?

Or that the handsets could work as walkie-talkies so that two people in the house could talk to each other? Or that you could slip a cellphone into a base unit and have it become part of the setup?

Well, neither have I.

But I recently tried out the SD4500 system that Motorola introduced this summer, and the SD4500 promises all those things. After putting it through its paces, I give the SD4500 system good grades, and its ability to use a cellphone as the main communications link adds an option that makes it an intriguing alternative to ordinary telephone/answering machine combinations.

As a basic phone and answering machine, the SD4581 (list price $89.95) works well. The base unit, which comes with one cordless handset that recharges in the base, has a built-in digital recorder and a clear display with caller ID – in short, what a well-appointed cordless phone and answering machine should have.

What most other such devices do not have, however, is the ability to add on peripherals, and that's Motorola's true selling point on the SD4500 system.

One of the neater add-ons is the SD4504 camera and microphone (list price $79.99), used in conjunction with the SD4502 phone handset (also with a list price of $79.99). The SD4504 can beam a TV picture and audio to the SD4502, giving you a way to monitor the baby, the nanny, the maid or the dog.

"I find this very disturbing," my 14-year-old daughter said to me as she watched her younger brother on the handset screen.

It's not high definition. It's not standard definition. It's barely definition at all. It may be hard to identify the burglars in a lineup. But the value of the SD4504 camera is not in the quality of the picture, but in the ability to have that image at a fairly low cost.

The SD4502 handset can be used as a walkie-talkie to communicate with other handsets. It's not push-to-talk; you have to hit the "connect to" button and so forth to summon the other unit.

The final piece to the puzzle is the SD4505 cellphone dock, which is compatible with about two dozen Motorola models. I plugged a V330 cellphone into the dock and then told the base station to link up to it.

Once I had set it up, I was able to use the cordless phones and the SD4581 base unit to make calls that went through the cellphone, both local and long distance.

I was able to use the cellphone as a second line for the landline. But for those who want to give up their landline, the SD4500 can eliminate the traditional line entirely and rely solely on the user's cellphone and cellular plan.

My test of the SD4500 system reminds me of the good and bad that all manufacturers face in giving consumers technology that goes beyond the basics.

The price of using the SD4500 is a lot of reading (and rereading) the manuals and practice. Very little in its setup and use is intuitive.

A person willing to go through the self-training will have a system that can amaze (and spy on) friends, but it may be more complicated than family members will tolerate.

And if you get them too mad at technology, they may not let you buy that high-definition TV this year.

Pros: A competent phone and answering machine that morphs into cameras, monitors and more.

Cons: Setup and use may overwhelm the timid.

Bottom line: If this is what you're looking for, here it is.

E-mail tmaxon@dallasnews.com