Cobra PhoneLynx Bluetooth Cell to Home Phone Connection System (BT 215)

I bought a BT-215 while in the US in May and brought it to Ireland. I read the installation information, installed it, set up the mobile phone and it works flawlessly. It took about ten minutes to set up correctly. I disconnected the landline connection to the telephone company but retained the lines inside the house. The BT-215 feeds back to all the phones, so now I can call out or answer from any of the other phones. I'm very satisfied. UPDATE: October 2011 Through use I found that the Lynx will not work properly if it is too close to the telephone. It must be 12 to 15 feet distant. You will need to experiment. With mine, it is perfect at 15 feet distance. And there will be a short lag between the first ring and first hearing the caller speak. Bluetooth isn't very fast. But it does work an all my phones. Lynx to the phone upstairs, which is connected to the house phone system, and the house line disconnected from the outside. I have a very old mobile phone and really like being able to make calls and answer calls on my wall phone from the 80s.

This works pretty well. It connected flawlessly to my iPhone and also to my wife's. I hooked it into the back of my existing home phone base station and was able to make a call through my iPhone immediately. The call quality is noticeably different than on my cell phone but isn't much worse than what I get on my home phone on a land line in the past. There is a short delay when answering the home phone while using the PhoneLynx, which can be a bit odd to get used to, but it hasn't dropped calls or anything. This would get 5 stars if it didn't have two problems - it beeps all the time and it doesn't always auto-connect the bluetooth to my phone. The beeps can be really annoying. It beeps when the phones connect, when you get too far away, and sometimes for no reason at all. The bluetooth auto-connect is a bigger problem but I've gotten in the habit of making sure it's connected when I put my phone down at home. Strange combinations of connection issues have happened such as my cell phone not being connected, I get a call (which rings on my cell phone), I answer it on my cell phone only for it to connect to the PhoneLynx right then and I suddenly can't talk on my cell phone without switching the audio source.

We gave up our landline when we moved into our house, since we found ourselves using our mobile phones all the time anyway. Anyone who has tried to do that knows the cellphones are not meant to be cradled between the head and neck (too small) and that when the phone rings, you are never in the same room as it is! Don't care much for the Bluetooth headsets and don't want a holster for the phones. This device looked like the answer we needed, sadly, it was not. Set-up was very simple and the device does what it should. However, the phones must be very close to the unit for it to work and sound decent. I have an HTC Evo Design and my wife has an HTC Evo Shift, both are up to date and fairly current phones. The Phonelynx would lose Bluetooth signal, sometimes if the phone was only in the next room of our modest house. Also, for some reason, the designers thought it would be a good idea to make this device "beep" when it loses signal. That became obnoxious as the phones would drop signal as they were being moved. Bluetooth is great, but the signal isn't that strong,so signal drop happens often. Lots of beeping is what I'm saying. Call clarity was good, but only if the phones were right next to the unit. More than a few feet and clarity dropped significantly. This item just didn't work well for us. We are returning it and have bought the next item price-wise, the Xlink BTT. So far, the Xlink works better, but not for double the price. The Xlink is updateable and after doing so, seems to function better. But that's a review for that product.

I have to wonder what all the moaning and complaining was about. I bought this thing in 2014, about 3.5 years ago. My plan was to ditch the landline for business and use a cheap cell phone to just sit there, plugged in, in my office and just connect it with my existing phone system. I didn't need 2 lines any more, I just wanted to grab the occasional incoming call when I was there (less and less, I'm very pleased to say). Well, I get this thing, coordinate the shut off of the landline, and provision over the office line to the new cheapo cell phone to sit behind a picture on the credenza. Well, not sure what all the dysfunction other reviewers were talking about, but the "install" was easily possible while only semi-conscious, and I have been able to completely forget about it. It simply works. I go to my office, I use the speakerphone in the base unit of my phone system or I use the wireless handset - it doesn't matter. It just works. Did I already cover that? I wait a heartbeat to dial after hitting the line button. I'm really okay with that. There is a quiet beep to confirm the connection, not 3 or a dozen as one sorehead wrote about. The connection is clear and 100% indiscernible as anything but a clear, uninterrupted call connection. Hang up your call and dial someone else - no "procedures" to remember, no waits or hassles, just call. Every time. Buy it. Connect it as they describe. Keep your phone and power on. It works. Nothing special. Just make a call, just like before, and enjoy.

I have had not one but two of these over the last 4 months, so I feel qualified to rate it. I purchased the Cobra Phonelynx for two reasons - I wanted to ditch the landline, and the price of this item combined with favorable reviews made it seem worth the buy. The phonelynx worked great at first. As advertized it linked to my two Motorola Razor phones easily and made and received calls with no problems. After a few days of smooth operation I canceled the landline phone and settled into being a "cellular only" household. After a month or two of bluetooth bliss things started coming off the rails. At some point, either the phonelynx or my phone got confused over connecting with one another. There are two connections available on the phonelynx (shown as Phonelynx BT215-1 and Phonelynx BT215-2). For some reason my wife's Razor began pairing with Phonelynx BT215-1 rather than Phonelynx BT215-2 as it always had been. When it did this, it would boot the other Razor off the bluetooth. The odd thing was that it would only boot the phone when I would try to make a call, leading to a few very annoying attempts where the receiver of my call would not hear anything on my end. The Phonelynx trouble shooting guide (tiny as it is) had nothing for me so I did the only thing I could think to do. I unplugged the Phonelynx, waited a few seconds and plugged it back in. Things were back up and running again for a few days when the problem began again. I did my expert unplug move again and --- the Phonelynx stopped working! It would no longer "discover" my phones or anything at all but flash red as if it had never been used. So I called Cobra customer service. They were very nice and after asking me a few questions told me to just box up the phone lynx and send it to them in Chicago and they would send me a new one. Which they did within a week (I have no problems with their customer service!) The new Phonelynx worked as great as the first one did in the first few weeks of our relationship. Made and received calls with ease, no mess ups, clear calls, no dropped calls. I was in bluetooth bliss again. In the meantime, my wife and I bought Iphones and the Phonelynx worked great with these as well. Until about a week ago. The phonelynx has again decided to no longer connect to either of our phones. Bluetooth is on on our phones, the phonelynx is on, but will not connect to the phone. This is a different problem than with the previous phonelynx because I can start it up again, and have it discover the phones and connect, but it will not hold that connection. Within a few seconds, the phonelynx disconnects even if the phones are sitting right next to it and not out of range. So this is a mixed review. The phonelynx apparently works great for 2 months, but then you will need another one. Their customer service is friendly and responsive, and I may call and see if I can try again with a third new one. But ultimately, the product isn't in it for the long haul. For 30-40 dollars it would be an incredible buy if it would last.

We have been tired of Comcast nickel and dimeing us for the last couple of years. The cost of our Triple Play seems to keep going up, so I thought I'd add a ten dollar line with my ATT cell plan and close down our phone and tv with Comcast. I decided to try out the PhoneLynx because it was the cheaper solution, and I've been using Cobra radar detectors for years. Accessory Highway was the reseller via Amazon that shipped the PhoneLynx. It arrived quickly, and was really very easy to setup with my home system. The bluetooth pairing was easy and quick. Calls in and out were mostly clear and there was only a slight delay while the call connected on the cell phone side. The weak link at that time was ATT, which only provided for 2 bars at the location in the house that I have my phone base station. The only drawback in the beginning was the number of rings that my base station would allow before the cell phone would roll into the cell voice mail. Because of the slight delay between the cell ringing and then the home system ringing, it would roll to the cell's voice mail after 2 home system rings. I "fixed" this by having the cell auto answer after 5 seconds. Callers would hear 3 rings, then the phone would pick up in time to hear the home system ring once, and then it would go to the home system's voicemail. Of course, the drawback here is that anything going on in the house would be heard briefly before hitting the home voicemail. Whatever though... it worked. After a week, the PhoneLynx started beeping, and the pairing was lost. I manually reconnected it on the cell at 2AM, and then again at 2:30AM. The beeping was really annoying. I had thought that the refrigerator door was ajar. Later that day my wife said that she couldn't hear anyone speaking when she answered the phone. The PhoneLynx stopped sending or receiving audio. I called Cobra support in Chicago after trying everything I could think of. They were nice enough, but the only option was to send it to to be fixed, with a potential turnaround of 2-3 weeks. I asked for and received an RMA from Accessory Highway. They were very good about the return, and, while I only sent out the device today, I'm sure my refund will be prompt. If the PhoneLynx had no issues, I'd still be happily using it today. 3 stars, due to it hosing up after a week.

The one thing that has always kept me from discontinuing my landline and using my cell phone alone has been the fact that I didn't want to have to hunt all over the house for my ringing cell phone, which is usually in the charger, and then try to unplug it from the charger, swipe the screen to open the pad, and answer the phone - by then my caller would have long gone to voicemail. I guess I'm part of an older generation that likes to pick up when friends and family call, if I can. The new Cobra Phonelynx effortlessly connected to the Bluetooth on my cell phone, a first-generation Droid. I had just purchased a new Panasonic 6.0 phone system with four wireless handsets when I heard about the PhoneLynx. I have my cell phone charging right next to the Cobra unit, and have found call clarity to be excellent on all four handsets. When I am away from home, I turn off the Bluetooth on my cell phone to save the battery; later, coming in from the garage, I turn on the Bluetooth again and within 30 to 45 seconds, the PhoneLynx has automatically reconnected, and all my home phones are ready to both make and receive calls. Caller ID works too. When you make a call from one of your home phones, you press talk and get a dialtone, then after you dial there is a short delay and then a beep which signals your cell phone is dialing the number. The only thing I have not mastered is switching between calls when Call Waiting is activated. I press the flash button on my handset and it goes to the second caller, but I haven't figured out how to go back to the first - a minor wrinkle as far as I am concerned. I've also been careful to alert my daughter when she comes into the house that she needs to use her cell phone to make a call if I'm gone, since the house phones will be dead. I offered to pair her cell phone to my house phone using the Cobra unit, but she didn't want her personal calls from her friends coming through the house phone where I might pick them up - huh, go figure, I thought kids liked new technology ;) Most of the problems I have seen mentioned in the reviews here seem to be related to having an older phone system or having the cell phone too far away from the Cobra base unit. Having my cell phone charging right next to the the Cobra base unit, and having new phones, has allowed for excellent call quality. There are units that sell for more (> $100), but they seem to have poorer reviews and a much more complicated set up - it doesn't seem worth the trouble or expense. The Cobra Phonelynx can pair with two cell phones, which is plenty for my household. The other thing I have discovered when I was looking for a product that would do this is electronics stores such as Best Buy and RadioShack, and even my carrier Verizon, had never heard of the technology - odd, huh? I have contacted my provider, Verizon, and increased my minutes. This has cost me about $20; since my regular landline phone bill with AT&T is about $45 (A bare-bones connection; I use my cell phone for long-distance calls. If you make long-distance calls on your landline, your savings will be greater than mine), my savings will be about $25 a month. Given my usage, I probably could've gotten away without increasing my minutes, but I didn't want to have to think about my usage every time I picked up the phone. I have now had the Cobra Phonelynx for about two weeks; I plan to use it for another two weeks before disconnecting my landline permanently, just to be sure. One last thing I might add, is that rather than giving out my cell phone or home phone numbers, I have been using a Google Voice number (now available to everyone without invitation at [...]) that provided me a new local phone number which rings both my cell phone and my home number. Google Voice gives me a lot more privacy and control over who is calling me, since I can send certain callers straight to voicemail (my pharmacy reminder calls), screen other calls (well-meaning, but long-winded friends), and allow other calls through immediately (my kids!) I also like that when I'm in a meeting, I could read Google's written transcription of any voice mails I receive, just in case there is an emergency. I had to have this kind of gatekeeping in place before eliminating the landline, since I did not want to be available 24/7. Seldom have I written such a long review, but I purchased this thinking, "Oh well, if it doesn't work, I have only wasted $35," but have ended up so pleasantly surprised to have gotten such a great piece of technology I had been looking for, and at such a low price!

This item does just what it's advertized to do, but it has a few quirks of which you should be aware. Depending on which cell phones you pair it with, it may periodically lose and then regain the Bluetooth connections with them. This is not a problem so much as it is annoying to hear it beep periodically when this happens. This seems to have been solved by relocating the device a little farther away from the cordless phone base. It is also best to have your cell phones within 10ft of the device to maintain the connections. When you leave home with your phone, the PhoneLynx blinks rapidly as it searches for it and then sometimes takes a few minutes to reacquire the connection after you return. Be sure to put your connection settings on "automatic" on your cell phones. The call sound quality also suffers a bit and you may find yourself saying, "Hello?" two or three times when you answer a call as there is often a lag in connecting. Having said all of that, I do believe it is worth the price. Not only was I able to ditch our $35/month "home" phone line, but we are finally making use of the hundreds of rollover minutes each month that have been expiring otherwise. My main reason for purchasing this was to alert us when calls come in on our cell phones without having to carry them around all of the time. We have three cordless phone extensions throughout our home and now we can answer cell phone calls from any of them. The device gives a single or double ring to let you know which cell number is receiving the call. You can also choose which cell phone number to call out from when placing a call. I usually still go and pick up my cell phone to place calls, but that's because I can't remember phone numbers and need the address book stored in it. There are other devices that do the same thing for three or four times the price, but I'm satisfied with the PhoneLynx. Just don't get discouraged if you have a little trial and error with getting everything located properly. Do check out the FAQ for the device on Cobra's website for other operating tips.

We've been using this device for a month now and we love it. We have 2 Nokia Lumia 920 phones and they paired very easy. We use our Dect 6 home phones Great range.I wish we had of known about this device years ago. All the money we could have saved. If you have been thinking about dropping your home phone this is the device to get.

its nice and small connected to the iPhone super easy..to android was a bit more tedious. this unit has a fairly loud high pitched beep that it blares when a phone connects or disconnects (arriving and leaving its Bluetooth range.) it beeps twice when this happens. once two phones are paired, it is very difficult to "dial out" on the home phone using the second paired phone..online it simply told me to dial 2 then the number but that does not work. the included instructions say dial 2 on the home phone and dial from the mobile device..very inconvenient. overall this is decent and the sound quality of calls through this is actually pretty good. only thing really keeping this thing from getting 4 or potentially 5 stars is caller ID data from in bound calls does not show up at all!! have to check your mobile phone to see who is calling. overall works great if you have one phone but with two its a bit of a flop.

Works great!

Did not work. There was no problem returning it. All went well and I am pleased even thought the product did not work for me.

Great product, works as intended.