I criteria as reliability, quality of the keyboard and the screen, and autonomy for not having to recharge it often.
For the screen, I was a little worried about the limited readability models of "entry" (Gigaset A400, I had offered, and other marks that I have seen in demonstration) because of a screen too small, low intensity backlight (particularly in daylight) and very homogeneous. The screen of the A420 is in remarkable contrast, easy to read, high contrast, with large thick letters and a cold plain white background that would make it almost hurts the eyes, even in daylight.
For the keyboard, I kept a bad memory keys of my Philips, too high, too hard, that wriggle like tops by dint of being perched on their long axis and pressed out of their center, and seem to clog quickly. This test made me give up the existing Alcatel and Philps, yet pretty enough. The keypad is flat keys Gigaset, exceeding 1 mm in addition to the shell of the phone. They are well separated, avoiding mistakes, respond well to pressure, ie they react even if you press outside the center. And the pressure to perform is snug, to dial without fatigue and without having to hold the handset firmly.
Generally, the material is good quality, solid plastic, a little slippery but not too easy to maintain. The sound of the handset is good, clear, but the speakers, handset and answering machine, seemed to me strong, too strong, even when the level is set to minimum.
The ergonomics of the setting menus or access to various functions (including access to the answering machine from the handset) I also seemed quite tortuous, that is my biggest complaint. The manual is not a great help off the obvious settings, to the point that I had to contact customer service, extremely professional and efficient. Some choices are as annoying: questioning the answer machine from the handset, the speaker of the answering machine is automatically switched on you can disable that during the reading. And I remember that sound, even at a minimum, is strong enough, so it's pretty clenching in small rooms!
The answering machine has a good ability, the message configure "not too difficult". For autonomy, 10 days standby are respected, making it a very superior model to the competition at this price (more expensive but better I have not seen that Philips). In communication I think it is fast discharge. And the battery indicator is deteriorating irregularly from 100 to 50% directly (after 3d) and 10% before dying the next day. That is to anticipate the right time to recharge.
In the end, good material, but because menus, easy to use everyday annoying when you are tired. The 2 year warranty, the quality of the screen and keyboard, the value for money and excellent customer service make me regret anything, but the advantage over other brands is not necessarily so huge. However, I highly recommend to people who need such a clear display screen as possible, low or strong hands who want to compose "doing something else" (eg in the kitchen :-). The article sometimes has a rebate offer that can make even tip the balance, the refund will be made in my case in the announced deadlines.
