Some great features, some headache, lots of money

As a work at home mother, I was thrilled to find a phone that would work with my Bluetooth headset along with my Blackberry. I get personal calls on my home phone, and work calls on my Blackberry, and sometimes end up running up and down stairs trying to track down a ringing phone. With this phone, I can use any one of the home receivers to answer both.

This review has been updated after spending approximately six months working with this phone.

What I love about this phone:
The Bluetooth connection to my Blackberry works well and I can leave my Blackberry downstairs next to the base and use either the upstairs or downstairs receiver, or the base itself, to answer either phone line. I can even make outgoing calls on the receiver, but using my Blackberry line.

There is a very nifty answering machine/voicemail that is very easy to set up and use. I've fallen out of love with carrier-provided voicemail b/c of the complexity of checking messages, so I love this feature. Yes, you can check your voicemails remotely and assign your own access code. But what I really love is that while scrolling through your caller id on the base, or on any receiver, there is an indication there if that caller left you a message and you can play the message from the caller id list without going through all your messages. No number to dial, no menu to wade through. LOVE IT! I can ignore all the messages from the political campaigns and play only the message from Mom.

The phone also looks sweet, for those of us who are into technology partly for its look and feel (admit it!). There are color displays on the base and all the receivers. You can assign one of several offered pictures and ring tones to individual caller ids, making call screening even easier.

The buttons are tactile. This might seem strange for me to point out, but I've had plenty of newer phones that had tiny buttons or ones that stuck. These are nice buttons.

The size of the receiver is also generous. I didn't enjoy speaking into the small Uniden receivers, and this receiver size is enough to feel like you're holding a phone but not uncomfortable or awkward in any way. Note that this is not an ideal phone for people who like to cradle the receiver against their neck while using their hands. It slips out.

There's a directory on the base and the receivers so you don't have to hunt down the base to look up a number. Although, like some other phones out there, you have to program the phonebooks individually.

What I don't love about this phone:
The high price. I paid $200 for the base and one receiver, and $80 for another receiver for upstairs. I supplement with my old Uniden system for other rooms like the bedroom. They don't connect to the AT&T phone, I just have them plugged into other wall jacks.

Updated: The following issue with the volume was apparently carrier-related. I've switched to AT&T and no longer have this issue. I'll leave this info included because I did NOT have the issue while on the old carrier using my older phone, so it's an odd combination of carrier and product. I also don't love the low volume on the phone. I have spoken to many different callers from different businesses and from their own phones, and there is a range of volume, but I can never really turn my phone volume down to mid range. So though I can turn the volume up all the way and hear fairly well someone who speaks at a moderate range of voice, any phone sounds are way too loud. For example, if a second call comes through, I get a VERY loud call waiting tone. I've actually yelped before.

What I HATE about this phone:
I also use the Bluetooth feature on this phone to use a wireless headset. It is easy enough to set up the Bluetooth feature on the phone, but there is a delay every time the audio is sent to the headset which leads to every caller saying "Hello, hello.." by the time I can hear them on my headset. Not to mention there is static even when I'm using the headset when seated at the couch right beside the end table where the base is installed.

The user guide says to make sure the base is installed on its own power circuit and far away from any device that might interfere with the frequency. The devices listed are computers, microwaves, other cordless phones, cell phones, baby monitors, .. You get the idea. It wasn't easy to install it very far away, but it is currently tucked into a frequency-free corner of my living room and I still can't go upstairs to be on the headset. I ended up using my headset only with my Blackberry (for which it works perfectly) so any time I'm going to be on a conference call I use my Blackberry instead of my home phone.

AT&T's customer service was very friendly, but in the end couldn't help me solve the problem with the headset. I think the technology is good, but isn't great.

All in all
I wish I'd paid a little less money for this phone, but I am happy with the phone in general. My only real regret other than the price is that I can't use my Bluetooth headset with it effectively. I do love it for the answering machine, and the fact that I can answer my Blackberry with a home receiver.