I’ve always had corded phones in the house. Since my old Panasonic was very old and the numbers were beginning to stick, dialing the same number twice, I decided it was time for a replacement. I thought I would stick with Panasonic since I was very happy with the one I was replacing which lasted over 10 years.
Cordless are fine until you forget to place it back in the charger and find yourself with a worthless phone. Many times I have to use the pager to locate the phone. I do have 1 corded in the house to carry outside when I'm outdoors.
Although there are more cordless than corded phones to choose from, I went to several stores and could not decide on which one I wanted. I went to the Panasonic website to view the corded phones, there too they were limited, but I decided to buy this particular model. The color is white. The price was $39.95.I then called Panasonic direct since I do not care for ordering online, and was told this would be shipped within 4 days. I did receive it earlier and decided to hook it up. Ah, no more sticking numbers.
I placed it in the kitchen wall near a shelf where I keep my phone books, since that is the room I mainly stay in. I purchased an extra long cord giving room to walk around and do things while I talk. When I’m away from the kitchen, then I use the cordless to answer but I’d rather go and talk in the kitchen.
This phone has these features:
Pause
Re-dial
Mute
Hold Flash
Speakerphone
Call timer (on the LCD line)
Volume control
Call Restriction
1 Line LCD with Clock
Data Port
20 One-Touch programmed Auto Dial numbers (10 upper & 10 lower)
10 (0-9) Speed Memory numbers
The phone came with 4 accessory pieces; handset, handset cord, telephone line cord and a wall mounting adapter.
Most people do not like to be put on speakerphone, so I hardly use it. It has 20 programmable one-touch memory. Ringer has OFF, LOW and HIGH. A special feature that you enter a PIN code and it will LOCK your dial from others making phone calls and call restriction which I have not read because I will not need to use it. There’s also a jack for using a headset, which is not useful to me. You need 3 AA batteries for the 1 line LCD display (time, phone number dialed and call timer).
This model did not have Call Waiting Caller ID features. At the time, I didn't need these features since I had a working older separate Caller ID but I didn't have the Call Waiting Features and was not concerned with that feature.
Easy to install, use and operating instructions are easy to follow.
There are more features on this phone which I didn't need or learned how to use. They may be helpful if you have children using the phone but then if this restricts the phone usage for out of area, I'm sure children can figure out to go use a different phone in the house. One feature being the programming of a pin number to eliminate unauthorized users from using your phone to call out of area toll calls. The other features, the Data Port, I have no use for.
This phone is still on the Panasonic website (October 2006) for the same price and can be purchased at Amazon.com.
UPDATE
Since my caller ID was not working right, I decided to switch to a different phone on August 2006 to eliminate all the batteries needed for both the phone and the caller ID.
In addition, the features with this phone were ok, but I decided to go with the
AT&T 1855 due to my needs requiring different features such as an answering machine since my mom is in a nursing home and they would call me with important information which I need to know now. I did not have an answering machine in the house and didn't have a need for it before.
The AT&T also was $10 less with more of the features I wanted. Therefore, I'm also changing my rating for the Panasonic. The prices of corded phone are very reasonable and makes it easy to change with different feature needs specifically for your individual needs. Of all the phones in my house, I seem to change my kitchen phone more frequently than other phones in other rooms.
I've changed my phone 2 months ago and have no regrets. The new phone is more flush to the wall than the Panasonic. I am glad I switched. Because of my change of opinion, I've also changed my rating for the Panasonic to 3 stars.
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For all the Panasonic phones, visit Panasonic's website:
http://www.panasonic.com/flash.asp
(Thank you for reading)
