- 100-name/number caller ID memory
- 100-name/number phonebook directory with 4 numbers per name
- Cordless customization software for PC-based set-up
- Recordable ring tones with USB connection
- Animation and picture display
The Good:
1) Slick phone which is fairly comfortable to hold.
2) Easy to move info between the handsets and a great ability to label your handsets for in-house paging (instead of Handset #1, you can label it Basement).
3) Great battery life so far. The panasonics were going dead within 30 minutes after 2-weeks of usage.
4) No effect on my Wi-Fi set-up.
The Bad:
1) The built-in ring tones are terrible. Lots of choices, unfortunately none are very good. The all sound like bad cell phone ringers.
2) The coverage is so-so. In most areas of my house it is fine, but in some areas that were fine with the 2.4GHZ, the Unidens are iffy. Sometimes good, sometimes not so good.
3) Remote functions. Dialing in to get your messages is brutal. You must dial a zero before each function code and it keeps re-setting my greeting so that I have to either re-record on the fly, or go with no message. Luckily we have Vonage so we usually forward our calls when we are travelling for an extended time, but if you have to dial in to get messages on a frequent basis, you will not be happy.
Mixed:
1) Despite the bad ring tones mentioned above, you can record custom ring tones. The only problem is that you have to actually go in an play a song while the phone physically records it. You can't move an MP3 over and then have it transferred to all handsets automatically. Overall it is a good feature, but not very user friendly.
Overall, it is an improvement over the Panasonic, but the ringtones and the remote dialing are some good size negatives if those are important to you. 4 out of 5 stars.
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Update
I ended up returning the unit. The quality throughout the house was spotty at best. I switched to the Panasonic KXTG5576M and that is working MUCH better. Much longer range and much better quality. What I initially thought was Vonage issues, turned out to be Uniden CLX485 issues. Too bad as I did like the feel of the handset and the battery life.I bought this phone to replace my multi line Siemens phone system. The Siemens was great but it had terrible problems with my 2.4 wirless network. The Uniden at 5.8ghz has no problems at all with the network. I'll break it down as follows.
Good:
No wirless network problems
Color screen & lighted keypad
Speakerphone & speakerphone handsets
Battery life & appearance
No range problems (as others have mentioned)
Features
Less than Good:
Import from Outlook (This feature works well but has some bugs. Outlook numbers typically are not entered with a one for ten digit numbers as a one is usually assumed. Most cell phone providers have already figured this out. The Vtech in the same class had a good way of dealing with this problem by allowing you options prior to dialing by letting you select with or without a one. Uniden has no such option. Customer support said you must input the one into your contacts prior to import. If you haven't done this already you will spend quite a lot of time adding a "1" to every number in your contact list.
Product Manual:
In the dial "1" saga, incoming Caller ID (CID) numbers typically do not display a "1" either. The phone gives you the ability to select these numbers and redial, but not the know how. To dial a long distance 10 digit incoming number from CID, you have to press the "*" key which will add a "1" and then you can dial out. This fact is nowhere in the manual and had to be found by searching through FAQ pages on the website.
Phonebook Capacity:
This phone allows for 100 names and 400 numbers. This would on the surface seem to be enough, but you would be surprised once you start to import all of your contacts. I like to import business contacts and retail contacts as well but doing so would definately exceed my limit. It seems odd to me that cell phones much smaller have up to 600 number and name capacity and more but cordless phones have still missed the boat. The Vtech has only 100 total, I don't know about the Panasonic.
Those are my biggest complaints that it would seem could be easily fixed with a firmware upgrade. Other than that this phone is great. Great clarity, loads of features, and great reception. This phone is also less expensive than any other phone on the market with similar features. If you can get past the minor dialing bugs you will enjoy this phone as I have.I have to admit, I was highly impressed with telephone capabilities of this system. There was no interference with our wireless Internet (a constant problem in our house), it was feature packed, and the color screen was very cool.
However, I have never dealt with such a quirky answering machine. It would answer the first 4 or 5 calls, and then it would stop answering (even though the answering machine was turned on the entire time). It would not pick up on the next 2 or 3 telephone calls (which we checked via caller ID), and then it would work again. We returned it and exchanged for another, but still had the same problem. Very unfortunate as it was a great phone otherwise.We've only had this 3 weeks now but its easily the best phone we've ever owned (although we admittedly never buy a phone over $80 or $90). Light years better than the garbage we've had from AT&T or V-Tech. The thing looks nice, although the wall-mount is a little weird because it mounts on the back of the unit so it keeps the same orientation on the wall (like a shelf) as it does on the countertop. I almost didn't buy this because of the reviews here by people who obviously didn't read the manual. Someone said you can't mute the handset sure you can. Yea, yea, the built-in ringtones are lame oh well we picked Fur Elise and its pretty nice. The color screen is very clear it is small but the handset is small so what would you expect. But for those of us who buy a phone to talk into it, this unit is sweet the first call we made with it the person asked if we got a new phone because we sounded so clear. The reception is great all over our house (3200 sq ft). The answering machine is solid and easy to use. All in all a great phone. Why 4 stars? Simply because something really needs to wow me to be 5 stars plus, I can't speak to its reliability since I've only owned it 3 weeks (it does feel very solid). With the rebate and if you find the right price, this is a fantastic phone to own.
Adding your own ringtones is cool and it looks nice
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