Telephone Reviews

my first panasonic 2563 works great...this 2583 won't hold a charge for more than 10 minutes talk time...and it's only two weeks old!!!!!!!!!!customer service offered to replace it with a refurbished model when all i'm looking for is a new battery...i paid top dollar so that i could trade it in two weeks later for a refurbished unit...........i'm very dissapointed with them...never another panasonic.

It is a phone with many nice and unique features and a pretty good range. Before you buying any Panasonic phone, be aware that all Panasonic phone products may have some common issues. The following list for your consideration:

1. You can never turn off the ringer unless unplugging the phone line;
2. You can never turn off the sometimes-annoying keypad tone;
3. Don't operate it too fast or you get the famous Panasonic "out of range" problem even if your phone is 1 inch away from the base. To reset it, you need to unplug the power for a few minutes;
4. If you call in to check new messages, the first choice is "play all messages" rather than "play new messages". Be patient with the slow prompts and there's no shortcut.
5. it's not likely you will remember how to set the clock, so don't unplug the power.
6. Your recorded greeting will never sound too good over the phone. The caller should not speak too fast or too low when recording. This is not just Panasonic's issue though.
7. Nobody liked the way it looks when I mounted it onto the wall;
8. The phone is water-resistant, but not the marks for the buttons. They may fade out before the battery dies;
9. Average sound quality;

In my earlier review, I spoke of having the now infamous Panasonic battery problem. Since then I took the advice offered by one of the other reviewers of this product. They replaced their poor Panasonic battery with a non-Panasonic battery and have seemingly fixed their problems.

So I headed to the nearest Radio Shack to buy one of their Radio Shack brand phone batteries and thus far it's working great. The battery I purchased was catalog number 23-270 ($14 and change after tax) and it's a Radio Shack 3.6V/1200mAh NiMH Battery. The battery itself is a little smaller than the Panasonic battery, but still works like a charm.

So if you're having a problem with the battery, replace it with a non-Panasonic battery and you should be fine. I thank the previous poster who offered up the idea originally. For whatever reason, I never thought to try an off-brand battery. I hope this helps those who ran into this problem like myself.

my first panasonic 2563 works great...this 2583 won't hold a charge for more than 10 minutes talk time...and it's only two weeks old!!!!!!!!!!customer service offered to replace it with a refurbished model when all i'm looking for is a new battery...i paid top dollar so that i could trade it in two weeks later for a refurbished unit...........i'm very dissapointed with them...never another panasonic.

It is a phone with many nice and unique features and a pretty good range. Before you buying any Panasonic phone, be aware that all Panasonic phone products may have some common issues. The following list for your consideration:

1. You can never turn off the ringer unless unplugging the phone line;
2. You can never turn off the sometimes-annoying keypad tone;
3. Don't operate it too fast or you get the famous Panasonic "out of range" problem even if your phone is 1 inch away from the base. To reset it, you need to unplug the power for a few minutes;
4. If you call in to check new messages, the first choice is "play all messages" rather than "play new messages". Be patient with the slow prompts and there's no shortcut.
5. it's not likely you will remember how to set the clock, so don't unplug the power.
6. Your recorded greeting will never sound too good over the phone. The caller should not speak too fast or too low when recording. This is not just Panasonic's issue though.
7. Nobody liked the way it looks when I mounted it onto the wall;
8. The phone is water-resistant, but not the marks for the buttons. They may fade out before the battery dies;
9. Average sound quality;

In my earlier review, I spoke of having the now infamous Panasonic battery problem. Since then I took the advice offered by one of the other reviewers of this product. They replaced their poor Panasonic battery with a non-Panasonic battery and have seemingly fixed their problems.

So I headed to the nearest Radio Shack to buy one of their Radio Shack brand phone batteries and thus far it's working great. The battery I purchased was catalog number 23-270 ($14 and change after tax) and it's a Radio Shack 3.6V/1200mAh NiMH Battery. The battery itself is a little smaller than the Panasonic battery, but still works like a charm.

So if you're having a problem with the battery, replace it with a non-Panasonic battery and you should be fine. I thank the previous poster who offered up the idea originally. For whatever reason, I never thought to try an off-brand battery. I hope this helps those who ran into this problem like myself.

my first panasonic 2563 works great...this 2583 won't hold a charge for more than 10 minutes talk time...and it's only two weeks old!!!!!!!!!!customer service offered to replace it with a refurbished model when all i'm looking for is a new battery...i paid top dollar so that i could trade it in two weeks later for a refurbished unit...........i'm very dissapointed with them...never another panasonic.

It is a phone with many nice and unique features and a pretty good range. Before you buying any Panasonic phone, be aware that all Panasonic phone products may have some common issues. The following list for your consideration:

1. You can never turn off the ringer unless unplugging the phone line;
2. You can never turn off the sometimes-annoying keypad tone;
3. Don't operate it too fast or you get the famous Panasonic "out of range" problem even if your phone is 1 inch away from the base. To reset it, you need to unplug the power for a few minutes;
4. If you call in to check new messages, the first choice is "play all messages" rather than "play new messages". Be patient with the slow prompts and there's no shortcut.
5. it's not likely you will remember how to set the clock, so don't unplug the power.
6. Your recorded greeting will never sound too good over the phone. The caller should not speak too fast or too low when recording. This is not just Panasonic's issue though.
7. Nobody liked the way it looks when I mounted it onto the wall;
8. The phone is water-resistant, but not the marks for the buttons. They may fade out before the battery dies;
9. Average sound quality;

In my earlier review, I spoke of having the now infamous Panasonic battery problem. Since then I took the advice offered by one of the other reviewers of this product. They replaced their poor Panasonic battery with a non-Panasonic battery and have seemingly fixed their problems.

So I headed to the nearest Radio Shack to buy one of their Radio Shack brand phone batteries and thus far it's working great. The battery I purchased was catalog number 23-270 ($14 and change after tax) and it's a Radio Shack 3.6V/1200mAh NiMH Battery. The battery itself is a little smaller than the Panasonic battery, but still works like a charm.

So if you're having a problem with the battery, replace it with a non-Panasonic battery and you should be fine. I thank the previous poster who offered up the idea originally. For whatever reason, I never thought to try an off-brand battery. I hope this helps those who ran into this problem like myself.

my first panasonic 2563 works great...this 2583 won't hold a charge for more than 10 minutes talk time...and it's only two weeks old!!!!!!!!!!customer service offered to replace it with a refurbished model when all i'm looking for is a new battery...i paid top dollar so that i could trade it in two weeks later for a refurbished unit...........i'm very dissapointed with them...never another panasonic.

It is a phone with many nice and unique features and a pretty good range. Before you buying any Panasonic phone, be aware that all Panasonic phone products may have some common issues. The following list for your consideration:

1. You can never turn off the ringer unless unplugging the phone line;
2. You can never turn off the sometimes-annoying keypad tone;
3. Don't operate it too fast or you get the famous Panasonic "out of range" problem even if your phone is 1 inch away from the base. To reset it, you need to unplug the power for a few minutes;
4. If you call in to check new messages, the first choice is "play all messages" rather than "play new messages". Be patient with the slow prompts and there's no shortcut.
5. it's not likely you will remember how to set the clock, so don't unplug the power.
6. Your recorded greeting will never sound too good over the phone. The caller should not speak too fast or too low when recording. This is not just Panasonic's issue though.
7. Nobody liked the way it looks when I mounted it onto the wall;
8. The phone is water-resistant, but not the marks for the buttons. They may fade out before the battery dies;
9. Average sound quality;

In my earlier review, I spoke of having the now infamous Panasonic battery problem. Since then I took the advice offered by one of the other reviewers of this product. They replaced their poor Panasonic battery with a non-Panasonic battery and have seemingly fixed their problems.

So I headed to the nearest Radio Shack to buy one of their Radio Shack brand phone batteries and thus far it's working great. The battery I purchased was catalog number 23-270 ($14 and change after tax) and it's a Radio Shack 3.6V/1200mAh NiMH Battery. The battery itself is a little smaller than the Panasonic battery, but still works like a charm.

So if you're having a problem with the battery, replace it with a non-Panasonic battery and you should be fine. I thank the previous poster who offered up the idea originally. For whatever reason, I never thought to try an off-brand battery. I hope this helps those who ran into this problem like myself.

Basically, this machine is funcional for its purpose and has a few good ideas I find usefull. But on the OGM, you have to tell your caller to press * (star) then the number of the mailbox. It would just make sense to press the number without a * or pound or whatever! (Did you get that SONY?) Some people will use their common sense and just press the number of the mailbox they want; the machine responds by recording the message in mailbox 1 and all you hear is the sound of the number being pressed over and over again as the caller can't find out what went wrong! This has happened a lot, even if you clearly state that * must be pressed first. "Press star one, Now!" Sound quality is poor for both OGM and ICM. Hint: call the machine from another phone to record your OGM! I only use this machine because I got it for free as a gift. The machine makes a lot of BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! noise every time you press a button and that gets anoying fast. The voice prompts make the machine easy to use for first time uses; but because you cannot skip them later on, they become time wasters. Nice try for SONY, but a lot of work needs to done with this machine. SONY: call me when you have debugged this machine and don't use * or pound or 0, and don't foreget to press Star then 1.

I've had this machine for over 3 years. The playback quality is fine contrary to some of the reviews I have seen here.

The main buttons are large and easy to press. The unit is small and sleek and looks nice.

For $29, it's a good answering machine.

This is the first answering machine I ever bought and I am VERY impressed with it. After reading these other reviews about the sound quality, I wonder if mine, which came from Kmart, has a revised sound chip as my messages sound GREAT and I can tell who is who when my friends leave messages. The ONLY thing I hate about this machine is that if there is a power outage, you have to reset the time which isn't too horrible as it will remember all the messages on it. You can selectively delete and keep any messages you want. The guided voice setup is a male voice and very easy to understand. I was going to go with a GE until I heard the fast talking chick that did all the voice stuff on it and immediately hated it. The TAM-100 also has a double-digit counter so you will know if you have more than 9 messages unlike most of the AT&T answering machines I looked at and it has really nice remote message listening capabilities. I HIGHLY recommend the Sony TAM-100 to anyone.

I bought the AT&T 2230 2.4 GHz Dual-Handset Cordless Phone set last summer for my small one bedroom apartment. It seemed like the perfect phone and it was for a while. I had absolutely no problems with it for the first 6 months. It had all the features I wanted plus a few more I did not use. The range was fine, I could take it all the way down to the laundry room and it still worked perfectly. I never had a problem with battery life, signal, or clarity. I thought I had purchased the last phone I would need for a very long time.
When it came to move into my house I bought a second set, the AT&T 2255 2.4 GHz Dual Handset Cordless Phone with Answering System, thinking the convenience of all four phones being the same and being able to stick each handset in any charger was worth it. The pager system between handsets also sounded handy for getting a hold of someone say in the garage and whatnot. About two months after settling into my new home the phones started acting up. First the signal strength would go in and out. Calls would get disconnected and the battery life stinks. Then the phones just stopped working. When I get a call now the base unit rings but when I go to grab a receiver it shows "OUT OF SERVICE" on the display and will not work. I end up running around the house looking for one that will respond. I tend to miss most of my calls now because of this. The receivers go in and out, sometimes working, sometimes not. Less then a year after purchasing them I am already shopping for a new phone. In the beginning I figured I would spend a little extra and get a phone that would last, but it did not end that way.

I would highly advise at looking elsewhere towards a different brand. Unless you like the idea of having to replace your phone every six months, this phone set is not for you.

After 1 month of ownership...

Pros:
1) Dual handsets: can set up phones in most commonly used locations, instead of always having to track down the single phone that comes with most other cordless phone purchases.
2) Ringer volume controls: wide range of volume, instead of the typical 2 levels associated with most phones.
3) Comfort: light-weight and fits well against the head and in the hand.
4) Style: champagne color is elegant.
5) Headset compatible: no loss in sound quality (also, just make sure you get a good headset)
6) The specs on amazon list no belt clip, but there is indeed a belt clip for each phone.
7) Sound quality and range: excellent. A lot of this might have to do with the particular layout of my residence, not sure, but I've used Panasonic 2.4 gig and Sony digital 900 mhz phones and had lots of problems with range, even getting "out of range" signals on a regular basis even if calling from right next to the base unit.
8) Antenna: extends less than 1/2" out of the phone and does not need to be extended / pulled out (actually, can't be). This is especially good for people who use a headset and clip the phone to their belt. Most other phones have a 1" - 2" antenna which can jab into one's side / stomach when sitting down and it becomes really annoying when that is the case.
9) Multiple mailboxes: the 3 mailboxes are ideal for those living with others or wanting one box for personal messages, another for business messages, etc.
10) Battery life: no issues so far at all even though talking on the phone for hours at a time.

Cons:
1) Outgoing message recording volume: it takes some practice to learn how to record the outgoing message without it being much too loud for those calling in.
2) At first, it is a bit tedious to program the phone and learn its nuances (volume, handset levels, remote call-in, etc., but that is common with phones nowadays and not unique to this AT&T phone). But take the 20 minutes to do it with the manual and you'll be glad you got this phone. It is worth the 20 minutes, no doubt.

After the earpiece in my Toshiba finally gave up on me and my Uniden's lack of range really was not cutting it anymore I opted to do away with all telephony in my home and start anew. Enter the AT&T model 2255. The other reviews confused me but I'm keeping my phone...it is (for lack of a better term)..the bomb! Here's more:

Pros:
1. The dual handsets are unbeatable. They feel great against the head and work well for the sholder/neck cradler like myself. If that's not your style they come headset adaptable and w/ a belt clip.

2. You only need one phone jack.

2. The combined answering machine system is great. The system is simple and intuitive to program and comes with 3 mailboxes.

3. The system is stylish in appearance & takes up minimal space.

4. The price I paid was great... .

5. Lot's of neat/useful features like Handset name where you can put a unique greeting on each handset; intercom; internal call transfer and announcing; call mute; distictive rings for internal and external calls; remote answering machine access; keypad lock; 2.4 Ghz ; great battery life; key-click; announce-only answering machine; toll-saver.

6. Caller ID function is great and deleting on one handset kills it on the other...big time-saver.

Cons:
1. Echo on answering machine message if not directly up on microphone and super-articulating.

2. Minor buzz on handset.

3. 10 rings to choose from...all are hideous.

4. Would be nice if handset volume was on the side of handset.

I have a Siemens 2420 system with 8 handsets. I have sent several in for repair with not much improvement. The handsets constantly drop out in the middle of conversations. The noise in the earpiece is terrible and the person on the other end of the line cannot hear you. I emailed Siemens about this and they admitted that they had a problem with the handsets' shielding which caused the dropouts. I then asked if I could get some kind of credit towards their new model since I had spent a small fortune buying the base and all the handsets for teh 2420, but they would not do that. Why would I trust them with this new system when they will not support the old one. At least they should have redesigned the handsets so that we could use the system. I am stuck trying to decide what to replace my 2420 with. The one thing that the Siemens has going for it is the features. Unfortunately, if you cant use the phone, they are useless.

The phone looks decent enough, but performs miserably. I love the base unit (not enough cordless systems have a corded base unit).

1. The absolute worst thing about the phone is the sound quality. There is a constant clicking in the earpiece of all of the handsets. It's like you are holding a bowl of Rice Crispies up to your ear while trying to talk on the phone.
2. The range seems at least average. It works fine in the back yard 150-200 feet from the base. (Fine being a relative term, considering you still get the same snap, crackle, and pop).
3. The only redeeming quality is the speakerphone on the handset. You can hear well, and nobody on the other end seems to be able to tell you have them on speaker.
4. One of the most annoying things about the phone is the beep it makes to indicate low battery (or when you put it on the cradle to charge, see below). The beep is one of those sounds that you can't immediately tell where it is coming from, and while not very loud, seems to permiate walls better than most sound. This would not be too much of a problem, if the phone beeped once or twice to indicate low battery, but no, it beeps every 10 seconds or so until you put on the charger or until it dies. I can't even estimate how many nights I've had to get up out of bed and find the phone that was low on battery.
5. This may be unique to me, but one of the handsets or cradles that I had was not made right. When you put the handset in the cradle, it would lose contact with the charger and stop charging. It would then find it again and begin to charge (beeping each time it reestablished contact). It would do it very regularly, and I finally resorted to taping a piece of paper to the inside of the cradle to help the phone sit straight and not lose contact.

Absoloutely terrible phone. Get the Uniden. I did, and It's infinitely better. Even if it doesn't have a base unit with a corded phone.

I agree with the Philadelphia PA review below. This is a great phone system. The majority of the features are ready to work right out of the box. However, this is NOT a system for anyone challenged beyond very basic plug and play.

The phone menu's are, in my opinion, very easy to use. Most frequently used features are available from dedicated buttons on the base unit and the handsets. If you use a modern Nokia cell phone, you will have no problem using this phone.

The biggest complaints about this and other cordless phone systems have been range from base unit to handset. I was worried about this myself before buying the 8825 phone system due to the complaints contained in other reviews. However, I was very pleased to find that the phone works exceptionally well throughout my home (bathrooms, closets, attic, I mean EVERYWHERE) and is very satisfactory within 150 feet outside of my home. I have purchased an additional handset for my shop and it works very well. My home is typical suburban residential 2-story construction in the Southwest with masonry exterior, 2X4 interior/exterior walls, gypsum wallboard, tile floors and carpet. Nothing special from a materials point of view. The base unit is right next to my computer, which doesn't seem to affect range one way or the other. The absolute worst problem is a popping sound when the microwave is running and a handset is within 10 to 15 feet of the microwave, so keep that in mind if you plan to place a handset in the kitchen.

Sound quality is slightly less than a wired phone. But the convenience of cordless operation makes this a non-issue.

LCD displays are good contrast and easy to read.

The speaker phone feature on both the base unit and handset work very well. As with any speaker phone, you have to be careful with background noise (TV, Stereo, Children, etc.) or you will not get satisfactory results.

I would definitely make this purchase again.

Now for the nitpicks, because nothing is perfect:

I bought the basic package and two additional handsets. Everything was packed in a highly professional way. The phones were beautiful. "This is commercial quality, top of the line equipment", I said to myself. And then I unpacked these cheapo rechargable batteries that shipped with the unit. I got over it pretty quickly, but it made me feel uneasy for a few minutes.

The user interface style, options, and terminology are slightly different between the base unit and the handset. Not enough to cause confusion but enough to make you wonder if two different software engineering teams worked on the 8825 system.

The menu buttons on the handset work differently from anything I have ever seen before. Two short but wide buttons that you operate by pressing down on the left or right edge in order to navigate through the menus. They look like one button that you just press down on, but they are actually two-buttons-in-one that you rock to the right or left. Very strange. They are a little difficult to use of you have big fingers (like me) but they seem to get the job done.

I am an engineer that likes things done a certain way and this next nitpick really bugs me. The base unit has two buttons for controlling the base unit volume. These buttons are labeled '+' and '-'. The '+' key is on the left, and the '-' key is on the right. When you press the '+' key, the base unit LCD display confirms that the volume is increasing by growing a bar graph on the display towards the right. When you press the '-' key, the base unit LCD confirms that the volume is decreasing by shrinking a bar graph on the display towards the left. This is backwards and very awkward when you look at the screen. If you are "user interface design" inclined, this will make you grind your teeth loud enough to garner concerned looks from your significant other.

The handset instructions don't mention anything about what looks to be a belt clip included in the package. At least I think it's a belt clip.

These are just nitpicks. They should not discourage you from purchasing what I believe is a well designed and very well built high-end home office or family phone system.

This phone has never been useful to us. You can talk 10 minutes and the battery starts beeping and the phone goes dead. We kept the phone on the charger when not in use BUT to no avail. We had to buy another cheaper phone and discard the Panasonic KX-TG2570B which cost $79.99.

Hi,

I've had this phone for about 3 years now... Its been quite unreliable.

The phone went "OUT OF RANGE" after about 6 months of buying it. It became unusable. Went to the Panasonic service center and got it repaired under warranty. The service person told me that the problem is VERY COMMON for this model. He said that there is a faulty chip or something and after repairs it will not have problems.

But after a few months after repairs, the "OUT OF RANGE" kept happening. But now, it has become much worse and the handset hardly ever picks up when there is an incoming ring. There is also so much static that its become unusable.

I've lost confidence in Panasonic after this product (Made in Japan) and I am considering other brands as replacement.

Cordless phones are quickly becoming the standard in active homes. The Panasonic 2.4 GHz line (2500, 2550, 2570) are among the current crop of high end cordless phones, boasting longer range and better sound quality. I personally have the 2550 (with CallerID but to Answering Machine), but the basic design is almost identical to the 2570. Here are some of the pro's and con's:

Pros:

- Range. In my experience, it is great. I've walked several hundred feet away from my apartment, and still had good sound.

- Headset. The ability to use a headset is liberating.

- Sound Quality. It is very good - since it is digital and of a high frequency, there is little room for static.

- Phone Pager. The pager stays on until you find the phone.

Cons:

- The menus are not intuitive. I am usually a very quick study when it comes to programming electronics. However, the UI of this phone is not really user friendly.

- The redial function. There is no button for redial; you need to press the function button in order to find redial. Furthermore, it only stores one previously called number. With all of the memory it has, it should have a buffer of three or four numbers.

- Caller ID. Having the functionality of Caller ID right on the headset is great. For local numbers, all you have to do is bring up the entry for a number, press the "on" button, and the phone will dial the number. You should be able to do this for long distance numbers as well. Unfortunately, the phone doesn't know to add a "1" before the number. This is a needless problem.

- Volume. There is a volume control for the phone. However, it does not have enough settings for handset AND headset use.

- Headset Size. The trend in phones is smaller. This makes having the phone on your shoulder difficult. I guess that's why there is a headset input.

All in all, it is a good phone. However, for my money I would spend it on something more user friendly. I liked the UI for the Uniden phones, but I've had problems with RF (Radio Frequency) interference. If you are looking for a 2.4 GHz phone with Caller ID, this may be the phone for you. Just wait for a sale.

If you are looking for a reliable multi-handset system...THIS IS NOT IT! It amazes me that Target continues to carry this particular phone.<br /> The display disappeared within the first year and the reception was horrible. After reviewing this phone online I found out I was not the only victim of this poor excuse for a phone.

DON'T BUY IT, DON'T BUY IT, DON'T BUY IT! The display goes out; the sound goes out; the phone goes out. What a mistake. I thought Target only sold quality goods. This phone should be shot and put out of its misery. I usually donate my old phones to goodwill or something like that but this phone isn't worthy of a charity donation. All the things people say about this phone are TRUE. Forewarned is fairwarned.

I was extremely happy with this as first because we have an upstairs and a downstairs and we really enjoyed using the intercom feature. Also, we really like the caller id on both handsets. Not being able to make a call from the base is a big nuisance though. My biggest problem with this phone however which makes it unusable is that I keep hearing silences on my end - similar to what you hear when the other person gets a call waiting signal. The result is that I miss a lot of the conversation because when it happens it happens rather often. While I hear the silences the person on the other side hears a loud beep. Very annoying! I see that another caller spoke of this in their review and said that when they contacted Customer Service they were told that other Customers have complained about this, so there is obviously a fault in the design. I would not recommend it and I am getting a new phone myself. What a waste!

I loved the concept of 2 extensions while only using one jack. It gives you the freedom of placing the phone exactly where you want it. Unfortunately, I had problems from the get-go! The sound quality was not as good as other phones that I have used and the batteries just didn't seem to hold their charge. It was so bad that if I forgot to put the phone on the charger before going to bed, the phone would be dead the next day.

This cordless phone had all of the features I was looking for.
Good points include: Spread Sprectrum Technology, Belt Clip, Caller ID, Call Waiting ID, Intercom between handsets, True Speed Dialing, Mute (hold) feature, Volume control for both Ringer and Handpiece.
Bad Points: Unit off base or charger, battery holds charge for ONLY 3 Days, Recharge takes 8 hours, talking distance from base is limited to 6 homes away, about 1 city block. I have owned an AT&T 900 MHz. Spread Spectrum that would stay charged for 7 or 8 days off of charge before requiring charge, had as clear or slightly clearer voice transmission AND had a 1/3 mile range.
Considering that that phone is no longer in production, this is in my judgement the next best phone. I give it ****.

Few cordless phones I've owned have been as well designed and manufactured as the AT&T 2230 dual handset. I'm a little obsessive when it comes to the "touch" of consumer products, and if something doesn't feel quite right, or cheap, I don't buy it. In the world of cordless phones, you truly get what you pay for. There may be cheaper 2.4ghz phones available, but none that I found were as well made as these two beauties.

The 2230s are a pleasant surprise. Lightweight, solid craftmanship, with a nice arc in the back that fits comfortably in your hand. The face is just slightly concave, with sturdy, tight numerical buttons. The buttons are actually my favorite part. They're solid, don't slide around in their holes, and your fingers don't rub up against the other buttons while pressing them. In other words, the user interface gets an A+. The phone feels like it was designed for the natural curves of your hand and fingers.

The outside casing feels very sturdy and tight around the edges, which leads me to believe they'd easily survive a fall. The description reads as being "champagne" in color, and I never really noticed the color before. They're more metallic than cream, and very nice looking.

The ear piece is also slightly concave and smooth, and fits your ear quite nicely.

To top it all off, the display is a wonderful backlit green light that's bright with easy to read LCD. The menu interface is very easy to figure out; allowing you to program in numbers, check your caller ID, and even change the name of the phones (mine are named Harold and Maude).

In case the "dual" part isn't clear, one of the sets plugs in to a power outlet and a phone jack. The other just plugs into an electrical jack anywhere in your house -- no phone line required. This was the deal maker for me, for I needed a phone in an office that didn't have an easy to reach phone jack.

All in all I'm very pleased with the set. The previous review talking about volume / sound quality could be because they didn't turn up the receiver volume on the phone, which is quite easy to do and gets as loud as you could possibly need. I guess "quality" is a personal thing, but for me they blew my old 900mhz phones out of the water.

If I needed another set for an office or second home, I wouldn't hesitate buying another pair.