Customer Reviews
Works well. Voice quality is excellent. Couple of quirks.
After struggling for years with Siemens Gigaset 2420 system....Got the Panasonic. I am pleased and the most important and demanding user in the home (spouse) is happy.
Voice quality: very very good, but a bit too low with headset. Speakerphone feature works well. Caller-ID, voicemail, remote operation all work very well. Intercom works great. Have had no problems with any interfernce, static, or range problems. I am using the system with Vonage VoIP service.
First of all, here are some tips: For the base unit, Panasonic sells a backup power supply for around $20 that plugs right into the 9V power jack on the base unit. Rated for 5 hours standby on six rechargeable AA batteries. (model KX-TCA200).
Here is another tip:
Undocumented feature.. There is an annoyance in that each handset 'remembers' missed calls for some odd reason. So you pick up the extension and it says '12 missed calls'. To clear this quickly, hit the down-button, then the right-menu button turns into 'ERASE'...hit it and you're clear. So just a quick two buttons and it's clear.
One minor annoyance for those with poor vision...when playing back remote voicemails, the erase command (*4 Erase message) can be hard to read. (until you memorize it)
Couple of interface and other product wishes:
1) Why not put date and time up on blank display?
2) Would be nice to be able to label intercom extensions like on my old siemens 2420. (Display would show "#1 Office" on office extension and also on base station.
3) Get rid of stupid 'xxx missed calls' feature.
4) Voice quality of ans machine outgoing message is OK, but not great, even in 'high quality mode'.
5) While display is lit, and so are numbers, the talk and off buttons are not. You learn them by feel after awhile, but it would be nice....
6) I wish up or down arrow took you to call directory, not caller id list. (to hit call directory you hit right menu twice, then scroll up/down with arrow button)
7) If you're using it with only one phone line, it would be nice to disable line 2 selection (like on Siemens). Also it would be nice to specify preferred L1/L2 inbound/outbound per extension.
Couple of things that are cool:
1) phone list replication between phones works great and is easy
2) lightup antenna for call or message is cool and handy (esp when ringer is off in bedroom)
3) Phone book entry as well as caller-id auto-edit features are cool and save time.
4) Musical ringtones sound very nice.
5) Ans machine is easy to use and fairly logical.
6) Phone picks up cleanly when ans machine gets it every time.
7) Backlight works well.
8) This is a silly thing, but the phone will stand up by itself on a table so speakerphone can work the best.
9) Belt clip seems sturdy so far,
10) Buttons have very positive action and so far never 'bounce' or 'miss'.
Just What We Needed And Didn't Even Know It
We have two separate phone lines, and for years we have been complaining about having to find one or the other handset if we needed the other line. This two line set comes with two handsets and is expandable up to four handsets.
Not only does it have numerous and I mean numerous useful features and GREAT sound, which is especially important to me as I have trouble hearing on most phones, but with the two lines, we can easily switch back and forth if we need the other line. In fact, we are going to buy a third handset for the kitchen.
Features - more than we will probably ever use, but we especially like the speaker phone and the intercom which can both be used from the individual handsets or the base unit. By choice we don't have Caller ID, so we don't use that feature now. We shut off the answering machine for the second line since it is only used for faxes, going online, and making outgoing phone calls. I only gave this 4 stars because of the poor sound quality of the answering machine, but the quality of phone itself, sorta, kinda, makes up for that.
The handsets have some weight and size to them, not too much, just enough to feel comfortable in our hands. We don't like small lightweight handsets. My husband's hands are big and mine are medium and the handsets are very comfortable for both of us.
We also bought the Panasonic KX-TCA 60 headset ($10.49) through Amazon. After I had ordered the headset and it was in the mail, I read another review on Amazon for a different Panasonic headset, which stated that this unit would not work with a 5.8 GHz phone. I called Panasonic and they said that this headset would work with this phone. It just arrived and fortunately, it does works well with this phone.
We should have combined our two phone lines years ago. We based our purchase on the excellent reviews on Amazon and the use and feel of the phone itself. We have only been using it for a week now, but we are very pleased with our purchase.
Best 2-Line Phone System Ever Made....
I purchased this phone system for my parents. My self-employed Dad works from home. My Mom does office work for him and also takes care of the home. One major reason that they both love this system is because the phones can easily be set so that they can recognize whether the phone is ringing for business or personal reasons. The intercom system, caller ID display and answering machine work great. They also are happy with how clear the phones sound and the easy to use volume control. The phones are a nice size and very comfortable to use.
