Telephone Reviews

I bought this telephone specifically because it is listed by Amazon as having speakerphone functionality. On receiving the telephone I found that this is not the case. The misrepresentation by Amazon has caused me considereable inconvenience.

I got a great discount and picked one of these including three additional handsets up for [a good price].
Quality is great for the prices. This is not a Mercedes under the sky (Siemens 4210 comes to mind) but does the job.
Good functionality (except that locking the keyboard requires 8 keystrokes - thankfully unlocking requires only 3) - and the best sound quality a found in a sub $100 2.4Ghz phone (I tried and returned a lot).
Nice loude ringer - caller ID on call waiting etc...
It is also small enough to fit in my pants pocket (I don't trust the belt clip when I am working in the yard.... I dropped to many phones in the dirt already...)

This phone system is fantastic, particularly when you compare the price to some of the others (Seimens, Sony, etc). I purchased one of the base units and one of the extension phones and couldn't be happier. Sound quality is as good as a corded phone, and it has all of the features that you could want. Buy this one instead of the more expensive brands.

I lauded this phone in an earlier review but felt compelled to amend that praise after using for eighteen months.

I still like the phone's features but find that clarity has become a big issue for me when using this phone. I often have trouble understanding what others are saying, especially if they are also speaking on a portable phone. Clarity when others are on cell phones or land-line phones is a little better, but still not great.

This is not a problem I had when I first started using the phone and there are no problems with the phone lines into my house (I've checked). I've given this phone as a gift to my parents, and they have had some of the same clarity issues as well so I do not think the difficulties are unique to me or my hearing (which is fine). Problems understanding are especially pronounced if the other person is speaking in a low tone of voice or whispering.

After my earlier, glowing review, I had to revise what I said. This phone is just OK. I still use it, and the clarity problems are not bad enough for me to purchase another phone at this time, but they can be annoying. Just wanted any readers to be aware that my opinion has changed after using the phone for a while.

Just got this phone about a month ago and the honeymoon is on. This is the best cordless phone I have ever had. I love the dual keypad and speaker. Very convenient since I check my office voicemail frequently and was so tired of picking up the receiver every time to do so. More importantly, this phone has excellent voice quality/reception with superb range. I've walked all over the house with it and into the front and back yards without even a hint of static or a fading signal. In fact, I have not yet walked far enough away from the base to find out what the full range is. I only use one phone line so I can not comment on the second line, but I expect it is as high quality as the rest of the phone. It charges very quickly and holds a charge very well. I can not think of one complaint I have about this phone. Well worth the price in my opinion.

I just bought this phone but am back for another one to save for the future. I've had a lot of two line phones but this one is the best by far. Easy to use. Convenient controls. Just a pleasure. Prior to this one I used a much more expensive Pansonic and it was never as good as this AT&T.

i wont know il you ship two headset for motorola talkabaut

...There are quite afew out there that are more bulky looking. This particular one is more compact. Its features include: an earbud with a mic and PTT (push-to-talk). THe cord is a bit short; however, with my height (5,6), it stands to be just right. I was told that an extension can be pick up at a local Radio Shack.

I ski (or board) all day with this earbud and a 280SLK on a NiMH battery. I have used TalkAbouts while skiing for a few years - but just got the 280 and the earbud, and it makes a WORLD of difference! The 280's lock feature lets me pack it down under layers. The earbud and wires stay well under layers (hat, shirt, etc) as well. Only the mic sticks out from the side, which I can click to talk at any time. It has been over a foot under the snow with my head when I blow a 360 - and still works perfectly. This earbud is a *must* for skiiers (or boarders! I do both.)

This phone simply stinks. I have had nothing but problems with it. Although the sound quality is fairly good (not great), I frequently encounter lock-ups, in which case I have to unplug the phone and reset it. Also, something has happended to the phone so that it now constnatly displays both phone lines as being in use, regardless of whether any line is acutally being used. I replaced it with a GE phone with better displays and which cost about $75.00 less. Avoid at all costs.

Here is my impression of this phone (you will find resemblance to what some folks have already said, as I too have discovered the same strengths/weaknesses). I would actually give the phone a 3.5, as it has good quality, but some of the shortcomings are just too large to justify a 4 or 5:

Good Sound Quality
- incoming speakerphone quality is not the best I've heard, but acceptable
- outgoing quality is terrific
- internal amplifier for headset allows good quality headsets to be used without needing an additional amplifier (which would require running the headset through the handset, requiring handset to be off hook when headset is in use)

Poor design shortcomings that even cheap phones provide:
- no notification of calls missed on caller id - must navigate menus, which to me is unacceptable for a phone of this level, and really impacts the ease of use of this phone
- no data port to piggy back a single line to other phones, etc
- no backlit display, and poor phone angle (IMHO, there should be the ability to adjust the phone tilt angle) make for poor visual reading of phone

Overall, a nice phone that provides good speakerphone quality, a trait that is truly more difficult to find than one would think (I've tried several phones, only to be disappointed time and again). But it also has some obvious shortcomings that need to be addressed to make it more user friendly. If you can deal with the lack of missed call notification (which may be a sticking point for me, only time will tell), this phone will suit you well.

I just recently purchased this phone for my home office and so far it has met all of my expectations. The phone supports 2 lines, which allows me to use my seldom used fax line for outgoing calls - keeping my main number free for incoming calls. The speaker phone is far better than any other speaker phone I've tried. Conveniently this phone also allows me to talk via headset (not included, but my recently purchased plantronics headset works great with this phone).

Here's my one minor complaint. The digital readout has no backlight. The corner of my desk where this phone sits is not well lit and as a result I have extreme difficulty reading the caller ID. Furthermore, the display does not have enough of an angle to be easily readable from across the desk. I find myself having to lean over the desk or pull the phone towards me to read the display.

I bought this phone less then a year ago and when I first began to use this phone it worked perfect, I could even use the phone untill the end of my street. I could go to the neighbors house and use my own phone, I could go get the mail, and there was no static at all, I could hear perfectly. Then not even a month with my new phone and I started noticing static when I would go to far from the base (like 2 houses over) which was never a problem previously. It just kept on getting worse. And know less than a year from when I purchased the phone, it is totally worthless! The buttons barely work and to dial some of the numbers I have to push extremely hard. Everytime I step outside to get the mail or even just walking to my driveway, the static gets so bad that I can't even here the person on the other line. Then I have to hurry up to get closer to the base of the phone. It was a great phone when I first got it, so if you tend to buy a new phone every three months or so, then this is a good phone but it just doesn't last. So if you want a phone that will work great for long period than I don't recommend this phone, because this is not that kind of phone.

I hope that my review helped anyone that may be considering this phone

I am glad I came back to this page again! I am the person who wrote the first view and I did not mean to mislead anyone at all. Due to the very similiar apareance and product numbers of the two different models I thought this phone was the phone that I own. I realized the model I have is 27730GE2 which is a higher up model then this one that comes with Caller-ID and LCD panel. So my comments are valid for the model number I provided up here, not the one listed here. The appearance of the phones are exactly same except my model has the LCD screen and Caller ID built in which was also hard to notice from the pic provided here. I am sorry if this caused and inconvenience to anyone. I still think the model I have is a good buy, but I can't say anything for the one listed here since I have not used that one. This is also a very good lesson to all who writes reviews, make sure you are reviewing the right model because many times different models look very similiar and have model numbers that are very close and the pics on the websites are not always very clear to notice these differences. Note: I had to choose a rating to be able to post this correction on my previous review because the review is not processed unless a rating is provided for the product so disregard the rating on this one!

...have had this phone about 6 mnths. now and it has performed flawlessly; heck, it's even been dropped a few times and still works fine. Pretty beefy phone,(looks & feel), compared to others in that class and a worthy buy for the price.

Beware - This phone was not abused and it only lasted 13 months. For the price paid, it should last longer than this. When it was working, the batteries did not last as long as in my other cordless phones. I noticed that another reviewer had the same problem with their Toshiba phone. I will not buy another Toshiba cordless phone.

Regardless as to what anyone else says, this phone is great. My roommates would always leave it off the charger, and to this day I have never had battery problems. My only complaint is that it takes a little bit longer for the caller id to come up in comparision to other phones. Otherwise, this is a great phone that has consistently provided a clear connection for over a year now...

This is a really good phone for the price. The interface on how to actually use the features is a bit convoluted, but once you get the hang of it, it's fine.

There is some minor popping noises as you get farther from the base station, but I have found this to be the case with all 2.4 GHz phones.

Finally, the caller ID is slightly delayed in showing up, compared to a desk based phone, but not horrible.

Definitely worth the money.

I bought this product because my old caller ID does not support call waiting caller id! According to the product description, it says it supports call waiting, little did I know, that's all it supports. But don't all units/phones support call waiting? What I'm saying is that this unit doesn't even support call waiting caller id---only regular caller id! I don't even know why they had to throw the term "call waiting" on the item description because it totally misleads consumers! So basically, my money was put to waste. I gave it two stars though because I liked the large display, easy to see the caller's name.

I'm still looking out for a good caller id unit/box that supports call waiting caller id. It seems very rare and I don't want to buy a new phone just so I can use the feature. Don't buy this if you want a box that supports the new call waiting caller id feature, because this product obviously does not support it!

I thought this would be a great thing for the TV room, so you could decide whether to interrupt a show by answering the phone, but you can't read the display in the dark.

I love this CallerID Box. The display is LARGE! It DOES have Call Waiting ID, you just have to wire it up in a certain order (ie: phone to caller ID box to answering machine...or whatever works for yours)

I've been extremely disappointed with this answering machine, for two main reasons. First, there is no way to retrieve an erased message. This is especially a problem because the system doesn't really pause after messages as you're playing them back. So after listening to a message you can't hit erase, or you will end up erasing the next (unheard) message. This has happened to me on more than one occasion. Second, the unit often clicks loudly when you pick up the phone, presumably because it's trying to get the caller ID. It's extremely annoying and also has interfered with dial-up connections I was trying to make on more than one occasion. Bottom line, I'd suggest you shop around for something built with real consumers in mind.

This caller-ID enabled answering machine is well worth paying extra for as compared to other caller-ID enabled answering machines due to its Message Plus+ features (not mentioned in features).

This one specifically allows you to have up to 50 phone numbers in a VIP list where you can assign up to 6 different recorded greetings. The person has to call first before you can add them. This is great to handle the calls from the carpet cleaning, water filter, ... companies (not UNKNOWN). After they call you the first time, you can record a greeting telling them to take you off their list and it won't even allow them to leave a message. It also has a greeting for blocked (private) calls.

For the numbers you don't want to hear, it can send them straight to an assigned greeting and allow them to leave a message (if you allow them). For calls from family and friends, you can set it to ring the phone longer (with 1 of 3 different tones) so you know it is a call you want to answer. You can also define the length of the message a person can leave.

The only number it can't handle directly is the UNKNOWN. You can't assign a greating/don't leave a message to it directly. So this is its only weakness. The unknown callers can be directed to voice mail indirectly by adding numbers to the VIP list. Any call not on the VIP list can be sent to voicemail sooner (after 2 rings) as well as known callers you want to send sooner.

The only caller ID based answering machine that I have seen that comes even close (some,not very) to these features is the Lucent/ATT 7720 cordless (*not 900 Mhz) callerID, speaker phone, answering machine. Which is nice, but not 900 MHz, so the sound quality it not that good. The ATT stand alone CID answering machines don't even have these features (or they don't show them in their features).

I am quite satisfied with my purchase of the 29992 answering system, though at $70 I should think I would be.

In purchasing this product, I was replacing an earlier Panasonic digital messaging system. My complaint about that unit was voice quality, and this Thomson/GE product seems to remedy that quite well, though the message time is limited (11 minutes). If you are using a microcassette based answering machine, you really might want to try a digital model. Digital messages are much more convenient and the voice quality appears to be ready for prime time.

Integration with caller ID is great and there are some nifty features you can utilize here, provided, of course, that you subscribe to the service from you local phone company. You can, for example, have a special outgoing greeting for a given incoming number ("Hi Mom, I'm really not here. I'm not screening your call.") You can also send callers who block their numbers immediately into the answering system. You can specify an answer for this situation that lets the caller know that they might want to unblock their number from being transmitted (though I guess that's a bit preachy). Even if you don't utilize these types of features, it's nice to be able to scan through your messages on the caller ID display. In this mode, you can see which calls have messages associated with them and play them at that time.

All in all, I'm very pleased with this product. You pay a bit for the features, but you get quite a few perks in return.

I thought the sound quality was decent. However, the phone stopped functioning after less than a year. I changed the battery but to no avail.

I bought this phone to go along with my 2.4ghz GE phone which had great features but absolutely poor signal strength. I decided to get a 5.8ghz phone for a hopefully better signal strength.
Pros
1)This phone looks great. One of the best designs I've seen for a cordless phone, period.
2)Great features, all of the basics plus some extras.
3)There is no antenna. Nothing obtrusive and easy to carry around.
4)Nice LCD screen.
5)Nice buttons.
6)Excellent clarity.
Cons
1)The main problem with the phone, and it is a big problem, considering it is a 5.8ghz phone, is its signal strength. Though further than my 2.4ghz GE, it isn't much further(which still is not far at all). Both my previous 900mhz phones, both with DSS, have a much better range. This is a serious disappointment, as you would think a 5.8ghz phone would have exceptional range. It is not just me, others I know with the phone have the same problem who even live in other countries.
2)Some of the buttons are inconveniently placed a part. Not a major problem however.
3)Does not work well with headsets probably except for the recommended one.
4)Sometimes I would hear a mute on the other end's background or a major decrease in volume when I speak, kind of like a speakerphone. Though not as bad as a speaker phone, it can still be annoying. I do not know the reason for this, as I have never experienced this problem with any other phone not on speaker before.

This phone SEEMS perfect at first glance. 5.8ghz, callerid, great design plus many other nice features. However, the range is definitely below acceptable and a few other problems may also be annoying. I can't really recommend this phone unless you really need a 5.8ghz phone at a reasonable price. You may be better of with a very good 2.4ghz phone instead.

Not only is this phone beautiful, it has exceptional sound clarity. Of all of the electronics I have purchased, I have rarely been more satisfied than I am with this Uniden. Some thoughts:

-Inset keypad is sturdy and won't go bad
-Easy to change volume on earpiece
-Speakerphone is not bad at all, I've used it many times in a crunch when others need to listen-in. Don't expect the other party to hear crystal clear sound but YOU will hear them perfectly.
-No distracting echo or buzz even though the base is next to my fridge and microwave.
-Speed Dial is needlessly confusing, so if you really value speed dial be sure to test the phone in a store. I'm an electronics whiz and I am befuddled by why speed dial is complicated here.
-Cool amber glow of both the keys and the screen.

A decent phone for the price - however it does not have backlighting for the caller ID which I had taken for granted. Actually - too the numbers are hard to read, especially if you look at it from any other angle other than dead on (even then it's not so clear).

If you plan on using this phone in a bedroom or room with any limited lighting and caller ID is important to you (I can't imagine why else you'd buy this phone if it wasn't) you will want to take the lack of backlighting into definite consideration.

Had this phone for only 8 months before it started to fail. Doesn't hold charge very long either

I love this phone...

I have the purple version.

The caller id is great! This phone is much easier to use than older versions.

The manual is easy to follow.

Sometimes there is a bit of static but its not too inconvenient.

GREAT PHONE!

I reccomend the colored ones.(Very retro!!!)