List Price: $99.95
Sale Price: $81.54
Today's Bonus: 18% Off
I've been buying Panasonic phones for a good ten years now (mostly out of habit, I guess), but this new-for-2011 model is their first all-in-one combo that, by my standards, can satisfy all of a household's basic needs. Retailing for 100 bucks, it comes with a base unit, two handsets (each running on 2 AAA NiMH rechargeables and the 1.9 GHz band), a speakerphone on all three pieces, an answering machine, Talking Caller ID, Call Block, and finally, a NICE BIG-ASS BACKLIT LCD SCREEN. This is all a thankful relief, since up until now I had to make do with one of Panasonic ghetto corded phones (last redesigned in 2006) with its contrast-free screen and plain old Caller ID. Sure, there was Talking Caller ID on my separate Panasonic cordless unit, but that meant whenever I answered a call with the corded phone, the cordless one kept on shouting like a moron for five more seconds. So score one for elegant integration.
As far as the essentials go, voice quality is clear -leagues better than even the best cell phone could dream of. The menus are easy to figure out, and the ringtones are more pleasing to the ear than those found on other brands. Claimed talk time is an eternal 13 hours thanks to something called Eco Mode, and they managed to design each of the three units to eat less than 2 watts of electricity when idle (eco indeed).
My complaints:
-The handsets have grown bigger/heavier, as well as less comfortable due to the removal of ear indents. Their ringtones were also cooler three years ago, and the base unit's kind of ugly and shapeless.
-As before, Talking Caller ID takes two full rings before speaking up, then wastes another second saying "CALL FROM" before announcing the name. Gotta run to pick up before the machine snags it.
-I had to check the manual to figure out how to record an answering machine message, which cryptically requires using the handset, selecting code entry mode, and typing "#302"... what the hell?
-Back in 2007, Panasonic decided to remove the number display from their answering machines, which can cause problems in households with more than one person. Whoever first checks the messages has to remember to tell other people about any waiting for them, since the light on the machine only blinks when NEW messages arrive.
-On the sample I got, all three units have a prominent background noise at all times -it sounds almost like static. You can hear it as soon as you pick up the receiver, even if the phone cord's not plugged into the wall! Hopefully other reviewers can verify if I got a bad sample or if the problem is endemic to this model (which wouldn't surprise me, since not long ago Panasonic knowingly sold phones whose batteries died in 10 minutes).
This is basically a good phone, but the pathetic quality control implications of that last point make me dubious about keeping it.
Click Here to Read More Reviews >>
This phone is great! It has a big white back light display on the base station. The base and the handsets can play your phone messages back. You can call the base or other handsets. It also has talking caller ID and you can have the ringers on the handsets turn off automatically when you are sleeping. Your friends and family can have a separate ring tone. Plus the base station will still work when the power goes out. But the most important feature is it blocks phone numbers! Such as sales people that call every night. Once you block that number, it rings once and then hangs up on them. I love this phone! Thanks Panasonic for the best phone ever made.Sound quality while listening to incoming calls is quite horrid. It's very strange. The quieter portions of the caller's speech are blocked to complete silence while the louder portions come through fine. This makes understandability for quiet or distant callers very difficult. I'm constantly asking callers to speak up... and I have no hearing deficit! It's not that callers aren't loud enough, it's just that the quieter parts of their enunciations are totally missing. Very loud local calls sound just fine. The phone's volume control has no effect on this problem. Turning the volume up high makes everything louder, but the missing pieces are still missing.The phone has some other nice features, but what good is a telephone with such poor understandability?
Separately: After just a couple of months, the painted numbers on the handset keypad are already starting to wear off.I purchased the Panasonic KX-TG6672B phone along with additional handsets. I have owned older Panasonic phones and have been happy with their sound quality and construction. The new phones do not share the sound quality of the older Panasonic phones. While the phone is loaded with features like talking caller ID, call blocking, and use standard AAA rechargeable batteries, I give it only one star because of the poor sound quality from all of the handsets including the corded base. The voice from the handsets seems to cut in and out when someone starts and finishes a sentence, much like the sound from a speaker phone. The sound from the base corded handset was so poor it was nearly impossible to understand what the caller was saying. I was happy that Amazon.com agreed to accept a return on the phones. To us they were unusable.Yes, it is true that almost all the programming i.e. speed dial, phone book, etc. has to be done through the cordless phone. The set up was easy though. The extra cordless unit is so neat, all it needs is a power outlet, no need for phone line. It automatically works once the base unit is attached to the phone line. The base unit is not flimsy, although the phone cord is short, the base unit does not budge much when the phone handset is togged. I programmed the caller announcer and it does have a clear voice announcing who is calling. I think we will be enjoying using this phone for a long time. Highly recommended product.
0 comments:
Post a Comment