I am one of those rare people who has never used a cell phone, let alone own one. And believe it or not, I haven’t used a cordless telephone in over a decade! Well recently circumstances dictated that I needed to have a cordless telephone to have access to answering some important phone calls no matter where I was in the house, and what time of day. So, it was time to cave in and buy a telephone that did not limit me to being near a phone jack and speaking at a distance of some curly plastic cord! I did not want to spend a lot of money, and was looking for a cordless phone that had at least 2 handsets, so that one could be always at the main base, and the other could be moved from room to room. I was looking for a cordless telephone that did NOT have an answering machine because I already subscribe to voice mail through my telephone company, and I am satisfied with this message retrieval system.
Some basic features I was looking for, besides an inexpensive price, was good reception, a large “Talk” button, so I could answer the phone in the dark if needed, caller ID display, and most importantly comfort to my ear and ease of use. Additionally I wanted a wall mountable cordless phone, for the main handset.
I first went to Target and most of what I saw had answering machines. I proceeded to Walmart and they had a large amount of Uniden cordless telephones. I had heard of the brand but didn’t know anything about it. I was drawn to the shape and simplicity and it was priced right. I bought a Uniden 2.4 GHz Cordless Phone with an Extra Handset & Charging Cradle. The model number was DXI4560-2. Priced under $30 it seemed like it fit the bill of what I needed. I read the instruction manual and let the phones charge the full 15 hours instructed in the cordless phone booklet and then I proceeded to test the hand sets. I was disappointed for a number of reasons. The LCD light which was supposed to light up when a voice mail message came in, did not light up at all. The volume of the ring sound was completely different from one hand set to the other, even when the ring tone settings were set the same. Additionally one telephone seemed to have a more muffled sound than the reception of the other phone, even when used in the same location. Another flaw in the Uniden design was that both handsets could not be used at the same time, a call had to be “transferred” from one phone to the other. Why is this important? Suppose you are on the telephone and you tell your housemate or family member to pick up the telephone because they have a call, you can’t hear or acknowledge them picking up the call without transferring. Additionally, sometimes you like to have 2 people on the phone at the same time to hear the story someone wants to tell you, without repeating it. The reasons you want to have the ability to be able to use both telephones at once in the same conversation can go on, but you get the point. The Uniden was limiting in that regard. Another thing I didn’t like about the Uniden is when you raised the volume, you could hear feedback of your own voice. I did like a few things about the Uniden cordless telephone, this was the size and comfort of the telephone, the easy to use “TALK” button, and the ease of button use overall. The things I liked about the Uniden however far underweighed the things I did NOT like about it, including what appeared to be just defective and inconsistent. So, unhappy with my purchase I returned the Uniden set and proceeded to do a little research on the internet.
I proceeded to Best Buy where they had a large selection of cordless telephones. After reading numerous reviews on the internet, I concluded that there were more unhappy Uniden users than happy ones, so I immediately ruled out buying a higher priced Uniden on the chance that a pricier Uniden may be a better product than a cheap Uniden. I had to rule out half the cordless phones displayed in Best Buy because they came with answering machines. Then I had to rule out another 7 or so cordless telephones because they did not have multiple handsets. I narrowed my choices to GE, and Panasonic. The Panasonic 5.8GHz Expandable Cordless Phone System, Model: KX-TG6023M was priced higher than I intended to pay, however compared to the less expensive Panasonic multi handset, and the GE I had to choose from, this Panasonic Model was the most solid, and felt the most comfortable next to my ear. The Panasonic 5.8GHz Expandable Cordless Phone System came with a vast amount of capabilities, some of which had no interest to me, but as it turned out I could see the benefits later on.
This Panasonic came with 3 handsets, and the phone system spreads communication throughout your home. It has an intercom system which I originally was not interested in but turned out to be very handy among household members wanting to give a quick live message to say they were going to the store, etc, without having to shout it out across multiple rooms or floors. It has speed dialing, caller ID display, and the LCD lighting letting you know you have a voice mail message works perfectly. The charging time was only 7 hours to set up as opposed to the 15 hours required for Uniden. Additionally the LCD colored light change from gold to green, lets you know when the cordless phones are fully charged or in charge mode. The Uniden gave no indication as to whether it was fully charged, or charging. The Pansonic has storage for 50-namez/numbers phone book memory and makes it easy to manage your contacts. Additionally you can speed dial any number on your caller ID by simply pressing TALK. The Panasonic also features 3-way conference call ability, 5-name/number redial memory, and even has a clock and an alarm! Special functions on this Panasonic model include a paging handset locator, a hold button, a mute button, and both flash and volume control. It also has a speaker phone and has the ability to expand into a fourth handset if needed later on. What I like least about this Panasonic set was the TALK button was not the largest button and it was not in the center of the phone like most other models and sets of cordless telephones. That said, I paid about $100 for this set of 3 cordless telephones and I am extremely pleased with my purchase. The Panasonic 5.8GHz Expandable Cordless Phone System is a high quality system, has a solid feel, an attractive stainless steel look, a great range for space covered for talking all over the house, including in the garage, basement or outside. It is not only convenient and offers a multitude of cool features that are fairly easy to use, the reception and volume are great. I would highly recommend this system to anyone looking for a multi handset cordless phone system!
