Accessories

Phone just for looks
I bought the Crosley phone and the Crosley wall phone. They look good, and I like the ring, but they are cumbersome to use for phone calls, and the sound quality is terrible. These phones are good for nostalgia and looks, not for use.

grandson delighted
This was just what my grandson wanted for his birthday and he loved it!

Retro does not mean comfortable.
First off, this is a quality, solid metal phone. It sounds as good as one can expect an analog phone to sound, and it's sturdy enough to take a serious beating. The finish on the brushed steel model is nice, and seems to resist fingerprints pretty reasonably. As an added bonus, the ringer in this phone is an honest-to-goodness old-school bell ringer. Seriously. No cheesy electronic imitation ring here. Really, the only downside to this phone is that the handset cord does not seem to be detatchable, which means that undoing tangles is a lot more difficult than it should be, and that if that cable ever gets damaged, well... so much for the phone. Maybe that was done to keep this reproduction true to the original Crosley 302, but that seems like a minor enough detail (and a big enough inconvenience) that it could bear modernizing.

Speaking of which... there's another review that complains about the lack of caller ID, and that it's uncomfortable to hold on one's shoulder. Well see, the thing is, this is a reproduction of phone model that's nearly 70 years old. That's how the handset was shaped then, so that's how it's shaped now. If they changed the shape in order to make it more comfortable, it wouldn't be a reproduction any more, it would be a whole new phone. That would really defeat the purpose (and eliminate the novelty) here. And as for Caller ID, well, it's enough that they replaced the rotary dial with touch-tone buttons in a circle... I think caller ID might have been pushing it with this design.

Long story short, this is a great phone if you're going for a seriously contemporary/retro look and won't need to use the phone that often... but certainly don't choose this as your primary phone. It's more form than function.

shoulder pain
I bought this phone because I was tired of having a long phone convo and the battery on my cordless needing to be recharged. The biggest issue with this phone is that is not comfortable on your shoulder and keeps slipping. Also it would be better if it had caller id on it.