I have owned this phone for about 3 weeks and it has worked out really well. I went back and forth between this model and the Vtech touch screen model. In the end I chose the Panasonic because it had more of the features I was looking for. While the Vtech had a touch screen and a sleek design, the Panasonic seemed to have more features. I have 2 cell phones synced to it. 1 iphone 3Gs and 1 Motorola flip phone (a freebie from AT&T) and both sync up automatically to the base unit without any problems. I LOVE that I can use the handsets to make and answer calls from my cell phone. I set it up so that each cell phone and the landline all have unique ring tones so we know when the phone rings, if it is a call from one of the cell phones or the landline. The other features I really enjoy are the talking caller ID (sometimes you just don't feel like getting up to see who's calling) and the call block (we get alot of calls for donations to different charities). I also really appreciate that you only have to enter a phone number once into the directory and it will automatically share the info with the other handsets. I did not try loading my contacts from the iphone into the Panasonic, this is one feature I knew I wouldn't use. I also have not used the conference call feature. I programmed about 20 numbers into one of the handsets and then ordered 2 more directly from Panasonic. The additional handsets were very easy to register and I didn't have to re-enter the contacts into them. Once they were synced with the base unit, they learned all of the existing entries. The directions are very easy to use, but I keep the user guide handy as there are alot of features and I forget how to access all of them. It really is a great phone for the price.
Panasonic KX-TG6582T DECT 6.0 PLUS Link-to-Cell Bluetooth Cordless Phone Solution with 2 HandsetsI just wanted a phone, but the confusing array of features available today makes deciding upon one difficult. I had certain criteria that MUST be met:
- Base unit must be wall mountable, securely, on a standard phone wall plate
- Base unit must have its own keypad and speaker and function as a standalone phone
- Memory retention through power failures (of at least a few hours) without the need for batteries (why? If a phone's memory relies upon backup batteries and they're dead, you won't know it until the power fails, then it's too late).
- If the handset is in the charger or base, just picking it up answers the call
- Talking caller ID and answering machine with reasonable capacity
- Lastly, must not be made by Motorola. Never again!!!
as well as other features that ought to be considered standard. That narrowed the list. This model has all that plus:
- A nice big backlit display
- No protruding antennas
- A big fat red LED that you can see across the room blinks when there are messages. Press what's blinking and it plays.
- The wall mount simply rotates in place to convert it to a desktop stand. No parts to lose.
- Handsets use standard AAA NiMH batteries. No proprietary battery pack.
- Ringer may be programmed on or off by time of day
- Each handset functions as a speakerphone. Sufficiently loud.
- Customizable ringers
- Call block, up to 30 entries
- Caller ID is editable: when you return a call it remembers the area code / prefix you used to return the call
- 650 entry phone book, searchable by name. Pressing 6 takes you to the first "M" for instance, and you can scroll from there. Pressing 6 again takes you to "N" etc.
- Bluetooth, but I thought that's just for a headset... Link-to-cell does much more.
Among Panasonic phones only the KX-TG6500 series has this link-to-cell thing. It wasn't a must-have feature for me, but it sounded like it might be useful. I read the reviews and concluded it may or may not be convenient or reliable enough to use, but I was pleasantly surprised by its capabilities. If you want to ditch your landline phone this feature makes it an easy decision. The manual has several entries designed for people who don't have - or no longer need - a landline. Link-to-cell exceeded my expectations. Like a fridge with ice through the door, it's destined to be one of those conveniences I can't do without.
I have two Sanyo cell phones, different models. How they would mate with my land line phone was a mystery to me, but each one paired swimmingly with the Panasonic. Once paired, they automatically connect when within range of the base station. I thought this would be limited to just a few feet but the work perfectly well even in another room 25 feet away. You can use a handset to make a call with your cell phone, even though your landline may be in use by someone else. Cool! Two cell phones can be paired simultaneously, though just one may actually be in use for calls at any one time.
When taking your cell phone out of range, or turning it off, it reconnects automatically when within range or turning it on again. Most of the time this happens instantly, on rare occasions it takes a few minutes, but it always reconnects on its own. Be sure to set your cell phone's preferences to leave Bluetooth on all the time and to reconnect automatically: on my phones it's called "always allow" connections to trusted devices. Transferring my cell phone's contacts, over 300 entries, worked fine. I can't explain why other people reported problems transferring their contact lists.
Speaking of problems I don't know why some reviewers thought the menu structure was difficult to navigate. It's not. For example, you can set just one handset to ring if your cell phone has an incoming call, or all the handsets. This is something you'll probably do once and never bother with again, but it's easy. Menu > Bluetooth > Link to Cell > select your cell phone, and then select the handset you want to ring. The manual explains you can also press a sequence of keys to navigate to a specific item - in this example pressing #, 6, 2, 7, 1 will get you to the same place, but only Rain Man is going to do that. The rest of us will press "menu" and follow the prompts. All programming is done the same way.
There is no objectionable delay using the menu. Accessing my contact list from the handset takes less than a second. There is no discernible delay connecting when you answer a call. I was concerned about those review complaints but I haven't found any problems. Perhaps they're experiencing some Bluetooth or DECT interference, though that seems unlikely.
Range is excellent. The signal didn't start to break up until beyond 200 feet from the base station, outside, through several walls. It was still usable for another 100 feet or so until the phone reported "out of range". This is better than the 2.4 GHz piece of junk it replaced, and almost as good as my Panasonic 900 MHz analog phone.
The ringtones are lame, which is to be expected. You can choose from anime incarnations of Vivaldi, Beethoven, and Wagner plus some unclassifiable unknowns. Fortunately there are a couple that actually resemble a ringing phone and even one that sounds like a doorbell.
The voice quality is good and the batteries last for many days. You would think that should go without saying but there's nothing worse than a phone with lousy voice quality and handset batteries that don't last a day without recharging. Never again!
One feature that I wish it had but doesn't, and one I wish it didn't, but does:
- No volume up/down controls on the side of the handset. You have to use the up/down rocker switch on the front of the handset, so you need to take it away from your ear to adjust the volume. Minor complaint.
- What's up with this "ECO" mode nonsense? If a handset is sufficiently close to the base unit a little "ECO" icon lights up to let you know it's using less power. Why? Is that supposed to make me feel smug or something? Using less power is great - the batteries will last longer but why occupy valuable display real estate with some useless icon telling me it's simply doing what it ought to be doing anyway? Other LCD display info includes useful stuff like the handset number, the battery level, the time and date, how many cell phones happen to be paired at the moment, etc. but "ECO" is useless clutter.
In summary I would be hard pressed to find a phone I'd like better than this one. All the features I wanted plus more that I didn't know that I wanted. Now I need them too. This is a very feature-rich phone that will be hard to improve upon if I ever need to buy another one.
I would purchase it again, but I would get one with more handsets - it's cheaper than buying them later.'
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