I Love To Push His Buttons
Written: Apr 17 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Many features, sound quality is excellent!
Cons: Takes time to program, don't lose your receipt or your manual!
The Bottom Line: It may not look fancy but sometimes the real treasures are hidden under a rough exterior.
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| kcc8898's Full Review: Panasonic KX TC1740 900 MHz - Cordless Phone |
When I was first in the market for a new phone a year ago, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I had no comprehension as to what made a good phone ideal and a bad phone, well, bad.
All I knew was that I wanted a phone that “had it all”. I was tired of the wires emitting from my old, bulky answering machine and it’s little box friend Mr. Caller ID. No matter how nicely I stacked my phone base, answering machine, caller ID box, and the memo pad with pen together they all ended up in a big wire mess that looked like cats had fought smack dab in the middle of them.
I definitely found that and much more with:
My King of Cordless
The Panasonic was my second choice, my first being returned the same day I bought it due to the echo factor. The Panasonic offered many of the same features as the Sorry, oops, I mean Sony, did but just didn’t look as cool. I happily gave up the look for the better quality though.
Due to the fact that this is a 900 mega-hertz phone, an echo is not something you need to worry about. (The first phone I picked out was NOT 900 mega-hertz and echo was ALL you could hear with that one.)
I was not aware of the complexity of this phone until we returned home and I dove into the instruction manual. The phone has so many functions that they even had to include a smaller hands on guide for just the immediate functions (meant for those of you who don’t believe in reading the manuals).
Oooh, Just Look At What He Can Do!
(If I described each function in detail, this review would turn out to be as long as the manual itself so I will try to just lightly touch upon the things I think need to be explained.)
The Handset
The handset has a display for your caller ID, along with four buttons for the caller ID menu. The “Exit” allows you to exit from you caller ID list, the “Edit” either adds a 1 or removes the area code of a number so that it will dial the number exactly as you normally would, the “Clear” magically removes any unwanted numbers, and the “Call Wait” button allows you to click over to another incoming call.
There are also two directional buttons that serve two purposes. The main purpose is to toggle between numbers in your caller ID; the other purpose is for programming your phone.
The battery compartment is also located on the outer side of the handset. The battery is a nickel cadmium battery and is replaced with a Panasonic P-P501 (KX-A36) battery.)
The interior side of the phone offers the regular numbers for dialing, an intercom, ringer, redial, playback, program, flash, remote speakerphone and channel change button.
The Base Unit
What is unique about this phone is that you don’t need the handset to use the phone. I had this trouble with my last cordless…if you couldn’t find the phone, you couldn’t call anyone! Not only does this phone have a locator button to help find your handset, but it also has everything you need to dial out and answer incoming calls in the base.
There is a display to show the amount of messages you have as well as a blinking light to alert you of new messages. There is a separate light for your Caller ID instead of one light for both that and your messages, which is nice.
The menu buttons for your Caller ID and your answering machine for the base unit consists of an “Erase”, a “Greeting Record”, “Greeting Check”, “Repeat/Rewind”, “Play”, and a “Skip/Fast Forward” button. Most of these are self – explanatory except I do want to mention that there is a pre-programmed message for those of you like me who HATE to have their own voice on their answering machine.
There is also a dialing pad on the base so that you can dial out using speakerphone. Other functions available on the base unit are a hold button, volume that controls the message volume, a program button, redial, call waiting button, and the speakerphone button that allows you to answer a call via speakerphone.
Overall features
Ringer
-Can be set off, or at a low or high volume setting
Handset
-One of my favorite options is that you can program your phone to either immediately answer the call as soon as you pick up the phone from the base unit, or you can program it to only answer when you press the “Talk” button. This way I can pick up the phone to see who is calling on the Caller ID but I don’t have to answer.
-The number pad lights up when you press “Talk” so you are able to see your numbers in the dark.
Caller ID
-Will show name, number, date, time, and number of times caller has called
-Will show the name and number of an incoming call while you are on another call if you have visual Caller ID service through your telephone company.
-Will store up to 50 names
-With the handset you are able to callback a number just by using the Caller ID. Just toggle the names until the person you want to call is in the display box, turn the handset and hit “talk”. The phone will automatically dial the number in the display box.
-You can store numbers that are on your Caller ID into your speed dial.
-The display unit lights up as soon as you touch one of the menu buttons.
-Also displays the battery life
Flash Memory Message Backup
-Messages are not lost during power failures
Pager Calls
-You can program your phone to page you with any incoming calls or messages
Answering Machine
-You can listen to your messages from your base unit, your handset, or you can call your machine and listen to them from another phone after entering a security code.
-When you play your messages, the Caller ID shows the number of the person who left the message.
Battery
-Battery needs to be charged 4 hours prior to first using the phone
-When fully charged, the battery will last for 8 hours talk time or 21 days stand-by time before needing to be recharged. The handset will beep when the battery is low.
Speed Dial
-You are allowed 10 stored numbers on the handset, and five on the base unit.
Intercom
-This allows you to speak to someone in another part of the house using the base unit and the handset. You can also transfer calls between the two.
Flash
-Allows you to set the flash time to 8 different timed settings.
Automatic Security Code Setting
-This is done automatically by your phone without you even knowing it, and prevents unauthorized use of your telephone line by another cordless telephone user.
Temporary Tone Dialing
Redial
Why He Rules in My House
I love that I can always locate the handset using the locator button on the base unit. I also love how one unit can do SO much, without having to have three different devices with wires everywhere.
I have had no problems with echoing, as I mentioned before. I also haven’t had many problems with static or other people cutting in with other cordless phones and that’s great seeing as I live in a townhouse unit. I haven’t had ANY trouble with the range of this phone, either. I have talked while going to get my mail and while running to my car without any trouble.
The battery hasn’t given me any trouble in the year that I’ve owned this phone, which is a plus. In fact, I’ve only worn the battery down once even though my husband is horrible at returning the handset to the base unit and I have 800 minutes of long distance under my belt just for last month.
My Final Thoughts
I highly, highly recommend this phone. I also recommend the customer service although if you want much from them you’d better have saved your receipt. I’ve only had to call once and they were willing to help out but the problem was actually a power issue, not an issue with the phone.
As you can imagine with so many options available it does take a while to read up on how to program them all. I still haven't used some of the features, but the ones I have used work great. The manual explains everything in great detail and I had no problem setting up the phone for first time use, although it did take about half an hour.
As I stated in the beginning, this phone wasn’t my first choice. I’m happy to say that I have learned from my mistake…sometimes looking cool just isn’t everything.
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed my work and please feel free to send any questions you may have my way. I’ll try to help in anyway I possibly can!
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
kcc8898
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Member: Kathleen
Location: Ohio
Reviews written: 44
Trusted by: 48 members
About Me:
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. -B.F.
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