Just went and bought this phone today after considerable research. And so far it is meeting expectations.
My needs in order of priority:
1. No electrical hookup - should run off phone line, like all old analog phones
2. Need speaker phone for occasional conference calls
3. Need Caller ID to screen calls.
4. Nice to have - programmable phone number bank
5. Ringer control - should be able to turn off ringer or make it go to visual
6. Should be able to put caller on hold or mute.
7. No answering machine needed
Needless to say - this was the only phone I found which could meet all of the above. The need to have one phone in the house which can be used if the electricity is off just made all the other phones miss out in some other aspects in the list above. Mostly they wouldnt have caller ID. All these features in this phone work on 4 -AA batteries and we will see how the consumption rate on that is.
It was easy to setup, though the wall mount , did have an issue with the hook for the handset. It just wouldnt slide out.... had to bring the screw driver and pry it loose.
Next, I will programme the frequently dialed numbers and see how that goes. It seems fairly easy from the instruction book.
So far I have tested the speakerphone and the handset - the sound quality is great! Our previous phone was introducing a lot of static in the calls, so this is a good replacement and I am happy with the price. ANd we have freed up one of the electrical sockets as this needs no electric connection!! AT&T White Corded Speakerphone (CL2909)
This is a great phone for those of us who still like to have a corded phone in the house. Everything was as advertised, except that it has a 25 number programmable directory in addition to the 14 "one touch" numbers. The online description and the package information fail to mention this great feature. I was almost ready to spring for the next model which for twice the price promised a 50 number directory.
I also like AT&T's caller ID software that can be set up to know whether incoming calls need 7, 10, or 11 digits for a call back. Some other phones make you toggle through the 7, 10, and 11 digit options woth the # key before you can call back.
I was hoping to use this phone for business purposes. I work from home and often dial in to the office for on a conference bridge. When I'm not speaking I like to put the phone on mute in case my dog begins barking or there is some other background noise. Unfortunately this phone produces a loud clicking sound that is audible to the other party when the mute button is pressed (not to mention a loud beep in my ear). I simply cannot dial in to a meeting if my phone is going to produce noises that will annoy the other people on the line or constantly make them wonder if someone has hung up.
I have little to knock about this phone. It's nice not being tied to a power block, it's easy to use and understand too. My big complaint is that the mfg's picture clearly shows the display as green back-lit. It is not back-lit! I don't hold Amazon responsible because they get their images from the mfg. With all the comparisons I've done, I'm not returning this phone because it was the best match for what I wanted.
I love this phone! The shape of it wasn't my favorite, but we picked it for the features, reliable brand, and inexpensive price.
It's been working great for us. I've been pleasantly surprised that the ringer (when set on low) is very unobtrusive.
The only thing that isn't perfect is when programming the phone, it isn't completely intuitive how to program it (it could be easier).
For the price, features (speaker, caller ID, etc.), and general function, I'd say I'm very satisfied.
I started out with brand new Duracell AA 2600 MaH rechargeable batteries in this phone, and so far I have had to recharge the batteries every 10-14 days. Funny thing is, I hardly ever even touch the phone. The battery drain seems to happen simply because the "Call Info" indicator lights up whenever someone picks up another extension in the house. I'm sure all the features work fine and are excellent for the price, but eventually I'm going to give up on charging the batteries and treat it as a dumb phone without any of the battery-operated features (including the speaker phone, which was the main reason I bought it).
After my local phone company crosswired the DC on my phone line and fried the phones in my home, I had to replace the stalwart GEs that I had had for years, speakerphones that just plain worked. I checked reviews and decided the AT&T CL2909 was a good option for one of the phones I needed to replace.
Boy, are some of the reviews of this phone WAAAAY off. This thing is an engineering catastrophe.
Every function on this phone, save for the basic function of actually dialing a number and talking with another human over the handset, WILL NOT WORK unless four AA batteries are installed! Considering that all landline phones draw DC power by default, how is it possible that this phone can't tap any advanced functions without batteries installed? My old speakerphone used one AA to keep numbers in memory alive should there be a power failure, yet even the speakerphone function on this AT&T will not work unless all four batteries are installed. Here's the FAIL list if the user does not install batteries:
Memory backup
Caller ID
Menu functions
Mute
LCD display
Speakerphone
Clock
Directory
Hold
Redial
Flash
CALL INFO light
That's a joke. Worse, the box veils the truth by playing up that this phone does not need AC to run. Well, neither did my old GE speakerphone, as only one of its functions depended on batteries, not most all of them. An addendum inside the AT&T box tells the sad truth about what leaving the batteries out means. And yes, I removed the batteries as a test, and this phone's advertised strengths vanish. The manual doesn't even get this lack right, insisting the display works without batteries when the handset is lifted. Again, tests reveal this to be wrong also.
Obviously, battery consumption will be huge with this phone. That's a joke, too.
This is supposed to be a desktop/wall-mountable unit. But hanging it on a standard wall mount reveals two maddening problems: The backing plastic is thin and doesn't make for a tight connection, so the phone wobbles on the wall mount, plus the LCD display angle shifts so badly it becomes unreadable, no matter the lighting. No amount of contrast adjustment fixes that LCD-readability problem, either. (The Amazon.com picture of this phone implies it has a helpful greenish backlighting, but no backlighting exists. No doubt AT&T supplied the image.)
Do I even need to talk about the clipping when the speakerphone volume is raised? Should I mention the clicking heard by people on hold?
If this phone had been released in 1980, some of these problems could be excused. But for this phone to be so much worse than a phone I purchased 10 years ago is reprehensible engineering. It doesn't matter what the cost, I'd pay twice as much for this phone if it matched what my old GE could do. That it claims to and yet fails so miserably is frustrating to the nth degree.
I've reviewed a couple hundred products here on Amazon.com, and I've got to believe that only the sonic mosquito deterrents are worse products than this utter piece of techno-rubbish. It's as if AT&T never asked a human being to use this phone so as to get actual product feedback. That so many purchasers of this phone on Amazon gave it good reviews is baffling when it fails on such simple levels. - Corded Telephones - Corded Speakerphone - Good Quality - Corded Phone'
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