Telephone Reviews

I was very impressed with the sound quality and lack of interference, but the constant trouble with just turning the phone on caused me not only to have it replaced once but canned in the long run. The performance was fine through 2-3 weeks but after that both phones I recieved would not turn on when you hit the "TALK" button the first time. It usually took about three times before it would actually work. Needless to say this was very annoying. This is my second bad experience with a Uniden phone. Take my advice, pass this one up!

Great phone, good reception, good range. Durable, easy to use, reliable.

Would be nicer still if it also had a mute button and a lighted key pad for use at night.

Still, this is the best cordless phone I've owned.

I have yet to find a another digital cordless (new or old) that is as clear and range receptive as this one. It's the only phone I can take with me across the street knowing I'll be able to take a call and make intelligible conversation. It's been dropped many times over the last 4 years and still it keeps "ticking" perfect. God how I wish Uniden could make a new phone with same sound quality and range as this one. They don't and it makes me sad. Long live the EXS9600.

This is a very good phone and I'm glad I bought it. I'm a consistent AT&T phone buyer for the reliability and features. I like the new stationary antenna - no more pulling the antenna out or forgetting to push it back in before returning the handset to the base unit. Very clear reception - I don't notice any of the echo others have mentioned. Nice compact handset with well laid out buttons - easy to use - like the mute button. Only two negatives: 1. beeping when dialing is too loud - can't cover beeper/ringer hole on side with tape or the handset ringer is muffled - so I just cover with finger. 2. messages left by callers a little muffled though not to the point where you can't understand them - AT&T/Lucent needs to work on this.

We've had this phone about a year, and really like it. The phone and answering machine controls are straightforward, and the clarity has been fine. It takes a beating (dropped many times) and has held out very well. My only complaint is that, when wall-mounted, the phone is held on by a piece of plastic about the size of 1/4 a toothpick. This piece broke off after about two months of being on the wall, and the phone will only now stay on the unit if we use a fix patch made from tape and a paperclip.

This phone has been very reliable. The only complaint I would have is that messages get cut off after 20 or so seconds, which is annoying. Otherwise, I think it's a great cordless phone.

I had tried many headsets that were purchased separately to plug into my cordless phone and they all sucked in one way or the other (weak clarity, fuzziness, broken connections, etc). Finally I decided that the answer was to find a phone where the headset and phone were just one piece and that would solve the problem. It did with the GE headset phone. Very clear, no problems. While others have complained that the headset part breaks I haven't had that problem after a year. But I simply assume that all phones these days are just cheaply made in foreign countries, period. So, I've purchased a second GE phone as a back up when the first one breaks, which I just assume that it will. There's little real quality in the phones today so we should all just get used to it and then won't be so upset when they break. I can't live without the GE headset phone.

Crystal sound, carry arround as wireless phone. Talk on the phone while typying on computer with 2 hand busy. I like 2 bateries. So can talk 6 hours straigh

I have been using this phone almost daily for over two years now. If I had a dollar for every time I dropped it or knocked it off my desk I would own a retirement home in Palm Springs. This phone has never failed me despite the abuse it has been subject to. only now are the batteries beginning to die. I am looking to now replace and took some time to review other models currently available, however did not see any that came with an additional battery. The phone is extremely comfortable to wear, and I have never had any problems with the headset being fixed to the phone. This has actually been a benefit as I have caught the phone many times by the cord, saving a collision with the floor. Why Pay More for Less? Buy It, You'll like It.

The handset sometimes stops responding and I have to put in cradle and then remove in order to answer the phone. Other than that, the features in this phone are great. You can have all of the cool features in the world but if the basic phone operation fails, they are all for nothing.

I've only had the phone for a week and so far it's great. The phone uses real recharcheable AAA batteries, so no worrying about finding proprietary battery backs when they inevitably stop charging. The speakerphone function works pretty good when the volume's turned up all the way. I'm not sure if the phone is full duplex - it seems to be one person speaking at a time, which ideally is how a conversation should go anyhow, so not a big deal. The 50 number memory is EXCELLENT, the ring is pleasant to your ears, I haven't had to read any directions because everything is pretty intuitive. I programmed every number I regularly called w/o cracking the manual once. If it gives me any problems, I'll update this review, bur for now it's the best phone I've bought in awhile.

I agree with most of the previous reviewers so I'll try not to repeat what they have said.
I am pleased that these phones use NiMH batteries (three in each phone) which are much superior to NiCad batteries. NiMH batteries hold more charge, don't have memory effect, and are easily replaceable.
The recepting range of the phones is very far so it can be used outside.
One major annoying of this phone is that you can hear yourself talking occassionally -- and turning the volume down doesn't help sometimes. Also, transferring a call to the other handset is a little complicated. Besides that these phones are great.

I bought this model with an extra handset because I got a good price on it and didn't need an answering machine. While the reception was fine (only reason for 2 stars and not 1), I could never get it to work properly...first, the second line indicator light wouldn't go off even when the phone wasn't in use. I wasted hours and hours on the phone with Panasonic customer service and trying different hook ups. I got conflicting advice as well as incorrect information about connections.
I was connecting an answering machine and through that a fax. I had it working fine except for the annoying second light problem, tried a suggested fix and then the second (fax) line would only ring through the fax machine, and no signals were sent to the other handset. After a fyet for a lower price), plugged it in and have had no problems since.
Panasonic's customer service was lousy. I emailed a question the first day, and it took 4-5 days to get a form response that didn't answer the equestion.
While one rep was very helpful, trying to get answers from other reps when she couldn't answer my questions, she referred the problem to someone who was supposed to call me back. That didn't happen for 3-4 days, by which time I had returned the phone. Plus the reply left on my answering machine would have been of no help at all!

I think when you pay a lot for a state-of-the-art home phone system, you expect a lot. I did when I bought this phone. Is it perfrect? No. Is it serviceable and useful? An emphatic yes!

It gives a very flexible capability to manage two or less telephone lines over a wide physical distance. Three mailboxes with external access are great for large or small families. Sound quality is excellent. I love the speakerphone on the base and each handset. The distinctive ringers for each line let me ignore inbound calls on my outbound line (they're all telemarketers) completely. In short, my life improved for buying this system.

Shortcomings? Here goes:

Battery life on handset batteries is poor with the factory batteries. It may have gotten better in the year since I bought it. My solution has been to simply bite the bullet, go to Circuit City, and buy non-Panasonic replacement batteries for each handset. Problem solved.

When you are on a line and a call comes in on that line, the caller gets a busy signal. Can''t modern science find a way to ship that call directly to the digital answering machine?

Only 15 minutes of available time on the digital answerer. This is simultaneously a blessing and a curse. You can legitimately instruct callers to "leave a brief message" and cut them off at the one minute mark.

Only 50 slots for your directory. Given that this phone is intended to manage up to 8 phones on two lines, Panasonic should have given at least 200 slots. By being clever, you can have 50 slots per phone (i.e., up to 400 numbers) but that defeats one of the sweetest features of this system, which is to swap listings ("copy") from phone to phone. Hey Panasonic -- why not allow the user to create multiple listings for each name, like most cell phone directories now do? This would be a perfectly applicable way to increase the storage in this unit.

The unit is complex to learn initially, but not as bad as some.

In summary, this is an improvement over my previous phone "system," and has allowed me to forego the monthly $7.95 voice mail charge from my local carrier.

Best phone I've ever had. Love the caller id - return call feature and the ability to one button edit whether or not the number needs a "1", area code only or 7 digit local. You can also add the caller id number to your speed dial directory! We also like the battery indicator (like a cell phone has) on the handsets. Without old units we had, you were never quite sure when the battery was about to die until it started beeping in your ear.

We also run a Microsoft wireless computer network and have no issues with the signals conflicting even thought they are both 2.4 gHz devices.

The speaker phone and handset quality are excellent.

I would recommend this phone strongly.

5.8GHz is a *requirement* if you use WiFi (802.11a/b/g) in your house or if you have other wireless technologies that typically get garbled when the 900MHz or 2.4GHz phones are used. I have had absolutely NO reception troubles in my 3300 sqft house and the clarity is superb.

The phone's looks are top-notch. Black and silver is a very slick look for a modern household. Might look a little funny if you're style is country or traditional.

Caller ID works well and the 2-line display is very helpful. Voicemail indicator is also nice.

The biggest surprise feature for me was the speakerphone in the handset! I've used this several times (it's great when you're on hold somewhere or when you need several people to talk at once) and love it!

I was happy with the menu navigation, although I thought they could have offered more features (like... perhaps the ability to control the volume of that LOUD, annoying beeping every time you press a button). The menu seemed sparse to me.

My biggest two gripes with this phone are not petty and not trivial at all. They are showstoppers, in my opinion.

(1) The phone will NOT work well in states that require 10-digit dialing and a +1 in order to dial in-state. In Michigan, for example, I have to dial 1-248-555-1212 to call my neighbor (ok, so that's information, I digress).

Putting My Neighbor in the phone book as 248-555-1212 results in:
- The inbound works fine (caller ID shows up, custom rings sound if set)
- BUT you cannot dial using the phone book or caller ID redial. This is because both will try to dial 248-555-1212, which will not work! Our phone system requires 1-248-555-1212 to be dialed. There is NO setting for this on the phone.

If you think you can be sneaky (like I did) and set the phone book entry to be 1-248-555-1212, then:
- You can call with the phone book, BUT
- Inbound services don't work (no custom rings) and you STILL can't redial them from the caller ID.

In effect, if you live in a state that has converted to full 10-digit dialing and a 1 is required to dial 10 digits, don't bother with this phone. It's slick, but it's unforgiveable that the engineers missed that one considering the first phone I bought myself in 1985 had this capability. Yay, progress!

The new 5.8 gigahertz band has only been available for phone use very recently. The higher band means less interference from many household appliances and even other phones using the same band.

I bought this as a replacement phone for another brand of phone that died. I am very pleased with the sound and distance quality. Supposedly, you can be up to a mile away and still connect, but I have not tested this. I have been able to be in my backyard (my phone base is in a room at the front of the house) at a distance of over 50 feet (I know how far my garden hose will reach) without degredation of quality.

Not only does the base allow near full-duplexing quality speaker phone, the handset is also capable as a stand-alone speaker phone.

The new band means a shorter antenna length is needed, so the antenna is almost invisible.

There is an audio phono jack on the side to accommodate a 1/8" handsfree head/ear set, but such a device is sold separately.

My biggest gripe with this phone is the ridiculously short belt clip. It is literally only 1" long, which means all you have to do is bend over and the phone drops. If they provided at least a 2" long clip or one w/ a spring that would grab a belt or fabric, that would have been preferable.

Another gripe is the so-called "custom ring" feature. I enable the custom ring, but the regular ring is still just as loud, but rings in tandem with a little tune - quite annoying.

Also annoying is the 4-clicks to delete a record from the caller ID. The phone is feature-packed with menu buttons, but not too intuitive - you really need to read the manual thoroughly to know what does what.

The mute button on the base is great, and there is one on the handset as well.

You can save number in a "rocket dial" directory for speedy dialing.

The talk button is also the flash button, so there is a separate button labeled "end" for terminating a connection.

The unit will support one additional handset in tandem w/ one in the base station which is a nice feature that not all phones have. I'm saving up to get the additional handset so I can have one in my kitchen.

There is a light in the handset that is supposed to illuminate when you have new voice mail, but my light has never come on, even when I have voicemail waiting for me... also a bummer that gives this phone a less than perfect rating. All in all, though, I must say this is one of the best portable phones I have ever used.

I have had this phone for over six months and I think it is just terrific. The handsets with built-in speakerphones work great, although I have not used them often as I tend to think speakerphones are rude. In fact, I have been so happy that I purchased additional handsets and placed them all over the house. I have also purchased several sets as gifts and everyone that has received them have appreciated their clarity and ease of use.

While I understand a few others have been disappointed, my experience has been quite the opposite. I simply think this phone is simply great!

This is a fine answering machine, the controls are a bit confusing at times (it took me three tries to get my message recorded correctly) but overall it does its job. But one feature sets it apart. You can set it so it answers those "unknown name unknown number" calls on the first ring. If you get a lot of telemarketer calls, this is a must-have feature. As someone else mentioned, it would be nice if the phone didn't ring at all for these calls, but it's far better than most other answering machines. Goodbye telemarketers, I don't even reach for the phone any more unless it rings twice.

This machine has performed wonderfully. It was very easy to set up and use. The display is easy to read and understand. I've been using it for 6 months and I'm not disappointed at all.

On normal ring this machine answers with one greeting and on special ring it answers with a different greeting. Having 2 phone numbers on one physical line this allows to give each number it's own greeting. The only thing not described in the manual was the greeting selection button. The machine answers normal ring with the greeting you selected with this button. If you accidentially press it you also suddenly answer the normal ring with special greeting and the special ring with normal greeting. I had several power outs due to the frequent lightnings here, but the machine always kept the messages. Sound quality is o.k., like an AM radio station. Timestamp and caller ID are assigned to each message, which makes it easy to quick-scan for important messages.

Had to send the base unit back TWICE due to it not charging the handset. Was able to send it back after many, many phone calls and explanations to the rep. Have had this phone for less than one year and already hate it for it's unreliability and lack of functions.

WORST customer service I've ever encountered. Well, except for Dell, but that's another review.

I recommend the Panasonic MultiTalk. It costs a little more but worth it.

The handsets for this worked great but the mic for the speakerphone was under the machine so to get it to pick up my voice at all I had to lift it up and talk into it. Since this kind of defeats the purpose of a speakerphone, I had to return it. I'm bummed - it worked great otherwise.

I have been using this product for about a year now (since April 2003) and it is literally the happiest I have ever been with a retail cordless phone system. I telecommute and I am on the phone constantly with work and clients, to say nothing of family and friends. Despite 5+ hours a day of talk time, these phones never seem to lose their charge or their clarity. The only problem I have with clarity is if someone is running the microwave oven, otherwise the connection is always crisp. The separate stored numbers allow me to have one phone with all my personal information on it, and my roommate to have a separate one. Other reviewers have cited this as a flaw, but anyone living with a teenager or roommate will see it as a blessing. Others have stated that it's a flaw that both phones cannot be on at the same time. As a telecommuter I am grateful for this feature; when I am on a business call there are no unprofessional interruptions made by someone in another part of the house accidentally picking up the phone to make a call while I am speaking on the other handset. The additional handset plugs into a regular outlet - so it provides a great way to have a phone in a room where there isn't a phone jack. The only reason I might have given this a 4 ½ star had it been an option would have been the following reasons:

1. I have a minor hearing problem and I'm sensitive to volume levels. The loudest setting of this phone is what is closer to the medium setting of most other phones. I would like to see a future model offer one or two more amplified levels of volume. The clarity of this phone, however, lets it get away with this much more than the average phone could.

2. I have not, as of yet, found a headset that works well with this phone. This makes it mildly inconvenient for telecommuters like myself. Playtronics headsets work okay, but it's not a stellar match-up. The saving grace is that the speakerphone is very clear, but many clients don't like being on speaker phones.

Overall I am very happy with this little system and have not encountered any concerns in performance or usability over the course of a year. Some of the buttons are small, but in a month or so of using the phone, your hands will instinctively find the right spots, and it's worth it to have an overall compact phone that maintains clarity.

I am pleased with every aspect of this phone except for the fact that it dies way too quickly after being left off the cradle. I've been in many conversations where i've had 10 seconds warning before the thing dies and I have to quick switch phones or lose the person I'm talking to. But still, for a 900MHz phone with this kind of display and features (I never use the Long Distance Manager), the price couldn't be beat. No regrets, really!

I don't happen to have this particular model of the Uniden Long Distance Manager but I've had the Model #EXL8901 for over 2 years. I call the West coast every weekend to talk to family and have saved big bucks. I still have the original battery in the phone also. The Uniden Long Distance Manager phone is the greatest thing since sliced bread. We had AT&T as a long distance carrier and got tired of all the different charges and the rates kept going up. We no longer have a long distance carrier, JUST THE UNIDEN LONG DISTANCE MANAGER and we love it!!!! We have a regular Uniden cordless phone in the bedroom and another in the kitchen. Uniden has always been a great product. We wouldn't think of using any other brand and we tried several others before we decided on Uniden.

I've had this phone for a month now, and am pretty satisfied. I bought this phone for three features: 1. caller id in the handset 2. the buttons light up so i can use it in the dark 3. it has a jack for my head set and a belt clip for hands free use

I like this phone a lot. It works well and is excellent for what I bought it for. And the sound quality is fantastic.

I also like the volume control buttons. nice feature.

I can't tell you anything about the long distance manager because i don't use it and don't plan to.

I totally recommend this phone. And it is a great value for my money.

I got this phone thinking it would be great - the extra handset is a nice feature and I like that part. I have noticed that the battery life is pretty short and once when I was talking the battery died and then my phone never "hung up" - so for 15 minutes I was without a phone and could not pick up any phone in the house to use it. This has happened two times and is soooo frustrating, especially since the other phones in the house that are corded could not be used.

You can't use the 2 phones at once so that is a bit of an inconvenience as well. The reception is ok but it has it's moments. I have had the phone for about 6 months so it's broken in and the honeymoon's over. I am going to replace it, it was a nice try to get a cheaper phone but it's been more trouble than it's worth.

I've gone through a lot of portable phones, and especially for the price, this is by far the best. The Caller ID doesn't seem to function, but neither did the previous phone on our system. Great sound, nice having two handhelds.

So far ive had no problems, Set up was easy, hearing is very clear, no static at all, i love the 2nd handset,Everything was easy to setup on it,and the price was great,alot of other reviews ive read they say nothing but problems, mine is great.
Thank You!