Telephone Reviews

Fun and cute phone that has been working well for a year now. The hold music is cute! I would purchase this again but the only drawback is that the earpiece can lift of the receiver if the telephone is pushed up or moved against something (my cat does it). While this doesn't happen often, I thought I would mention it. I would still purchase it for the quality, price, functions, and nice appearance.

This phone is way neat!It looks exspensive,but it's not!I'm moving to a bigger house,and my room has flowered wallpaper and this phone goes great with it!I recommend you to get order this today!

I personally,would love this phone in my room!It's fancy looking and looks more exspensive than what the price is now.But,I'm not complaining.Anyone reading this review should get it!

UPDATE: Thanks to "alabamaargiope from Madison, AL USA" for pointing out that it is indeed the charger that's the problem here. The batteries do infact recharge fine if I leave them in my "dumb" recharger for two "sessions", ie for a total of 30hrs. It would have been useful if Lenmar had addressed this problem on their packaging rather than letting us find out afterwards that we should really upgrade our charger to a more "intelligent" unit before buying these batteries.

ORIGINAL REVIEW: These Lenmar NiMH rechargeable AA batteries are rated at 2000mAh, which means a higher current than from most other rechargeables available, which is why I bought them. However, using an Energizer ACCU recharger that automatically times out after 15hrs, these batteries last only half as long as other NiMH batteries I use, even though these other batteries don't look nearly as good on paper as the Lenmar brand (namely Energizer rated 1600mAh, Energizer rated 1850mAh and Kodak rated 1850mAh). So I am not sure if these Lenmar batteries are just no good, or if I should be using a more sophisticated recharger (perhaps one sold by Lenmar), but I'm going to avoid this brand in the future. Why buy batteries that cannot be fully recharged by any NiMH recharger?

This battery is pretty good. It lasts longer than I expected for 10 bucks. To me, I see nothing different between this $10 Lenmar and $25 Kodak.

These are fine batteries that deliver great bang for the buck, which is true of all high-quality NiMH batteries I've tried. The problem a previous reviewer reports with low capacity is indeed with his charger, not the batteries themselves. The charger he mentions delivers a fixed amount of current per hour for fifteen hours and shuts off. It has no "intelligence" about the capacity of the battery in it, about its current charge state, or anything else. Using these batteries in a good, intelligent charger, such as a Maha MH-C401FS or the smart Lenmar charger he mentions, yields great results, as the charger recognizes the capacity of the battery and doesn't stop charging until it reaches it.

Use these batteries with a good charger and they'll please you over and over again.

This model is very good but be carefull it does not have answearing machine as advertised in preview page.

EXCELLENT PHONES! Only wish was for a speakerphone on the cordless handset. Beautiful phones, works wonderfully together. Good Job Panasonic. Thanks for not disappointing me!

After extensive research on the Internet, in a leading consumer magazine, and in several stores, we decided to replace an ailing Sony cordless phone with this model by Panasonic. They make a wide spectrum of cordless phones with every possible combination of features, so you should choose a model with the closest combination of features that match your wants/needs. We did not need an answering machine, so we chose the 2564, which is, by the way, now getting hard to find.

The instrument is silver and grey plastic and rubber, but feels durable and well-made. The features all work as advertised. One criticism others have leveled at Panasonic phones is difficulty in initial set-up and operation. It is slightly complicated, but if you can operate a computer, run a DVD player, or make toast, it is not all that hard. Read and follow the directions...

Some have also found the sound quality lacking-- I have NOT found this to be the case, it is excellent, as is this phone's range. You may have some interference if you operate the phone near an in-use microwave oven, or if you have a wireless home computer network operating at 2.4GHz. If you do, try to find a Digital Spread Spectrum(DSS) phone operating at 900MHz and buy that instead.

The key to the sound quality is not the frequency, but the DSS technology. Panasonic products generally have above-average reliability. Once you narrow down your choice of models, try to find them in a store to see how they feel. Our previous phone (the Sony) did not feel all that comfortable against the ear, but we got used to it. Spend some time with the phone to see how it would feel during a lengthy conversation. ....

I have read many reviews of this phone before buying. Then i bought the phone and found out right away that this phone works as a speaker phone all the time!only! 100%. There is the "hands free" mode. you know the speaker phone. But in the so called non speaker phone mode, it's still in a speaker phone mode. When i talk i cant here the person i talk to, and when the other person is talking they cant here me. Just like a non-full duplex speaker phone. I dont know if i can live with this phone now! Its like useing a walkie talkie. not a real phone. Its like ok my turn to talk , now your turn to talk. DID'NT ANYBODY REALIZE THIS! im the only one who notice's. Are all handset speaker phones like this? I dont think i will ever be able to tell untill i buy. That sucks. I gave it 4 stars because every thing about the phone is good, ignoring the strange walkie talkie mode only.

This phone is so close to being entirely right, but they missed the boat with their software in my opinion.

The hardware is great -- it looks nice, seems quite solid, and the sound quality is excellent. For all its features and complexity, the software is easy to use. So what's the problem?

Simply put, the design of the menu system, while logical, totally ignores convenience. It takes too many keystrokes for common operations. But what really takes the cake -- and prompted me to write -- is that the answering machine in the 5280 does not associate caller-id information with each call. When you play back phone messages, you have to manually access the caller-id history and scroll through calls, trying to match messages against caller-id information. How do you find a match? THe only way is to match caller-id timestamps with message timestamps (which is not possible until AFTER message playback because the aural time stamp comes after the message). It would have been much better if the caller-id info were simply displayed automatically during playback.

Yes, these are small nits, but its getting things like this right that distinguishes very good from great.

This system is excellent. I am buying 2 additional sets to add to my actual system. Each set has many nice features, like retriving voice messages and speaker. You do not have to be at the base to check messages or using the speaker feature...and also nice is the fact that you do not need phone jacks for each set. Amazon.com has the best price for this product.

I just purchased this phone this weekend, charged it up, programmed it and it is much better than my old cordless phone. The sound is great, there's the range is good, and the phone itself has a pretty good weight to it once it's all assembled. The phone charged fast, is easy to operate, comfortable to hold and manage. My only complaint is the box describes the phone as having 5 ring tones. It's actual 2. There's Ring A and Ring B. They get the other tones based on the volume of Ring A (high, low) and Ring B (high, low) and Off. Quite a bit of creative interpretation on that to get so-called 5 tones. Plus the two rings they do give you? Eh. Not really impressed. Ring A makes my cat jump and is very, very shrill. Ring B is a soft interpretation of Ring A, so if you don't like either, you're kinda stuck. I give them 1 star on the ring tones, but 5 for the product overall.

I bought this phone for my daughter, but the whole family used it for 3 months before she moved out & took it with her. I liked it so much I went out & bought another. It has great reception in our home, worked well on all 3 levels - even in the basement garage with both its bases on the third floor! NO static. Phone has a nice feel, weight, & easy to use. Excellent voice quality - crisp & clear.

My first 5.8 GHz went right back because of poor sound quality but this phone is a keeper. Other than more ring types I think these phones are perfect. Great product for a great price.

Great picture, but rather small LCD of approx 4 inches only. Pretty decent frame rate of 15pfs.

I've used this easy to operate videophone (paired with an Aiptek 2000S) with highly satisfactory results in several applications. It allowed an elderly relative to stay in her home after she became forgetful about taking her medication. A slow speed, high quality setting allowed remote verification that she actually was taking her pills. After she moved into a nursing home, I used the system briefly in a business surveillance application. Now it's used by our elderly relative and a favorite niece to keep in touch via long distance. The system delivers surprisingly good image quality, given its POTS modem speed, which averages 28.8kbps (some wonder why it's not faster...33.6kbps is the fastest you can get in a dialup connection without an ISP). The unit's camera works in low light conditions, but in dim light the pictures tend to be noisy and lack color saturation. A little attention to room lighting produces surprisingly good, colorful pictures. Aiptek also includes a "PC" videophone mode, which allows the device to work modem-to-modem with some PC videophones (depends on the PC modem, which can't be a "winmodem", and the PC camera software). The system is indeed easy to operate: we purposely selected the 2000C unit with integrated screen, which requires no adjustment of operating controls at all, for our elderly relative. With new concerns about airline travel, now may be a good time to consider this product.

I purchased this product so that distant grandparents in NY can see their new granddaughter. After researching and testing all of the vendors (Starview, Motion Media, Metaeye, Infoview and Aiptek) I purchased this product. It is extremely easy to use and my computer illiterate parents had no trouble getting this hooked up. Here is the scoop on picture quality: All of the competing products are going to display the video at about the same speed. Since a standard telephone line is used for 2-way communication with video, a 33.6Kbps modem is all that is needed. Don't get fooled by the marketing gimmicks of 56K modems since they can only transmit at this speed in one direction and this is too much bandwidth for a standard telephone line. Picture quality of a TV broadcast is around 30 frames per second (fps). All of the products I tested broadcast at 15fps maximum and this quality looks good and is very clear (I was surprised!!). I could easily see my parents and the delay was only very slight. The key with this is, if you use the smallest picture size the video will transfer very fast and you wont notice any delay. I use the middle size and it works fine. Although the screen is 4" in diameter, you really can see a lot. Of all of the products I tried, the AIPTEK was the easiest to use and again picture quality was great for all of these products. Cost for AIPTEK was lower than some of the other units.
Bottom line: This product and concept is amazing and it makes my parents feel so much better when they can see their kids and grandkids 3000miles away on the videophone versus just a phone call. I was a skeptic at first but now I am sold and will be buying more

I liked this phone for the clarity. It has great reception, however the phone will disconnect you while your talking. I'm not sure why, but while I was on a conversation, it hung up on the person I was speaking with. The phone did this three times in a row until I gave up & used my cell phone.

This phone works great! I really wanted a phone in my room, but my parents didn't want to pay to get a phone jack in my room. So this was a great idea, one phone could be in my mom's room (where she has the phone jack to plug it in to) and the other one which doesn't need a phone jack would be in my room. I have had no problems AT ALL with this phone. It is deffinetly worth your money!

This set was the best value I could find, and the quality is excellent. Thanks!

This is really one of the very best cordless phones i have tried (among them AT&T and Panasonic), with very sold sound. Great features like allowing you to redial by just pressing one button, whilst you're getting the busy signal. Very 'ergonomic' handset, good LCD display (though not lighted), lets you know how long you've been on the phone etc. Plus the great feature they are sadly phasing out, 3 mailboxes, which is just what you need when you have roommates, or private/business calls.

The only drawback I find is that it forces you to listen to ALL the messages before you get to the new one. If you need to save messages, this can drive you nuts.

But if you do not save them, go buy this phone.

I've had this phone for about a week. It works well and is easy to use.

My experience with American-branded phones is that they weren't as refined as Japanese-branded phones, even though both were made in China. This one is different and you can imagine it with a prestigious brand name on it. The appearance and feel of the controls are top-notch.

The only other concern I have with all phone equipment is reliability. It's too early to tell with this phone, but there are no obvious problem spots.

Very good sound quality and nice looking design. The only thing I do not like are too small characters on caller ID LCD. Overall 4.5 star rating.

Note, that I have not used the product yet. These are just -out-of-the-box impressions. The description states that it is "Compatible with Oregon Scientific's wireless weather station". However, be warned that you MUST own that unit.
The WGR968 is ONLY a transmitter and completely worthless unless you have the weather station.
Also, (sarcasm warning) could they have printed the manual using a SMALLER type style? It is printed in english, french, spanish,german, but only for people with VERY good eye sight.

Have had this unit for about 10 months and it has performed great. Easy to set up, and provides accurate readings. The wireless feature is great, given the need to get the unit at least 20 feet above any surrounding obsticals. The unit is solid and has had no problems. A good unit for the price. If you are considering an anemometer, keep in mind that it must be located well above any buildings so the wind is not affected by the wind deflection of roofs, trees etc. Thus, the biggist problem can be getting the unit high enough on a solid mounting. Mine is on a 35'high 2" pipe, secured to the side of the house, and well grounded.

Snow and cold. Combine the cold with wind and you have yourself a low wind chill factor. This unit measures windspeed and then sends the info to the main unit (which you must purchase separately). The unit combines the outdoor temperature with the windspeed and automatically calculates wind chill. It works wonderfully and really comes in handy before heading off to work. It is solar powered with a battery backup, so make sure you have chosen the proper area in which to place the unit. I'm a weather buff, so of course I love it!