Side by Side Comparison of: AT&T vs Panasonic

Have for several years used the last generation of this phone and loved it, but it got too old and died. So, replaced it with this newer model of that phone and love it just as much. Love the upgrade of the backlit screen. Also prefer the more normal voice of the set answer on the answering machine, as the old voice was a bit scary, and like that I can do my own recording if I decide to which I could not do on the old one.

Love it!!! This phone is exactly what I was looking for. I primarily wanted a digital answering service so I could toss my old machine but I got sooooo much more. This phone is not high tech but it is not met to be. The set up instructions are easy to follow. If I needed another phone I would definitely purchase again. I will get a longer receiver cord but other than that this is great. Highly recommend it. Also the color is not all white it is a light grey and white which frankly is very attractive.

Excellent is all I can say. I was able to figure out most all the features, without using the manual... took a bit of trial and error... but it's a wonderful phone. The feature I like the most is turning the ringer off and setting the ringer volume. The feature I'm OK with is the volume control on the answering machine... volume can be turned to low, but not to off.... But that's OK... then it's just call screening. One tip that another reviewer wrote that really helped, was IF you have another answering machine on the same line... it needs to be unplugged, in order for the very efficient answering machine included with the phone to function. This is an excellent phone, would recommend.

I have a magicjack ("mj") and anyone who has a mj, and have ever had to deal with tech support, which all they have is chat for tech support, then you know why I hated dealing with tech support. The mj tech support clowns insisted that my problem was the computer, or the internet connection was too slow, or anything, except for the magicjack. They finally convinced me that it was the phone itself.

So, I set out on a trek for a phone. What a trip! In the past, I had seen phones for $10-15 dollars. I figured that I would replace the phone in my computer room without spending a small fortune. We have cordless phones, one of those systems that has two phones. It is not very old, but I thought that I would get something comparable to replace that with. Then I saw, that they cost more than I had remembered. I really did not need to spend that much money. So then, I thought, I would stay with the original idea, and get a real cheap corded phone.

I began reading all the reviews here at Amazon. Reviews are great. I have bought some things with really great reviews on it, then decided that they must have had all the employees for the manufacturer do the reviews, clearly they had been wrong. But anyway, I read the bad as well as the good, to see if I can live with the worst of the reviews. I chose this particular phone. The worst of the reviews, was not something that I could not live with.

The phone reached me very quickly. It was exactly as advertised. I don't like to think I am blind as a bat, and that I didn't need big buttons. Ya know what? The big buttons are great! Not once have I had to squint to see the buttons. It has a nice large read out panel. Not once, have I had to squint trying to see what the panel says.

The phone is not too large, and not too small. It is just right. I have to agree with most of the good reviews I read, and have to disagree with the bad reviews I read. I am glad that I was prepared to watch for issues within the bad reviews, and glad that there was no problem on my phone. The phone is just right, the price, the size, the features, the phone fit what i needed, and I love it!

For those considering purchase who, like myself, hate the sound of a ringing phone, especially a loud ringing phone (and this phone's ring is loud even on the lowest setting), rest assured that you can turn the ringer off completely and never have to hear it. Doing so will leave you with a number of options to detect an incoming call in progress or thereafter. One can choose to hear (or not) the message in real time as it is being recorded. One can choose to hear (or not) a beep every 15 seconds or so after a message has been left. One can choose simply to view a flashing light which starts once a message is recorded and continues until listened to. One can choose any combination of these settings. One of the great strengths of this phone is its excellent versatility in terms of settings allowed. For me that means I never have to hear a ringing phone at home again as I choose not to pick up while the call is still in progress anyway. One more point: the phone comes with certain default settings chosen by the manufacturer. To change settings to those that suit you read the manual carefully. It is long but very clear providing you bring it with you to the phone's location to use as you are choosing your own settings.

The build quality is very good and feels durable.

The heads up display tilts up to about 45 degrees and lights up orange when in use.
During a call it displays the call duration in minutes and seconds.
Font is big and legible and there is a setting to adjust the contrast to some degree.
When not in use it displays the number of missed calls, today's date and time, and number of voicemail messages. It runs on AC power (not batteries). If there is a temporary power outage the information still is retained.

Speed dial is programmable to the dialpad. Hold a key from 0-9 to speed dial for 1 second to auto call. Press the dedicated speed dial button to access the speed dial directory. Press the dedicated directory button to access the full phone book, which is searchable.

The handset itself is relatively lightweight but still feels like a high quality build. The handset cord itself is relatively short, and if extended more than about 3 feet, it will begin to pull the base.

The ringer volume is adjustable from no noise (the backlight will still light up if there is a call) to very loud. I have it set to the 1st setting and it is plenty loud for a small room. The ring tone music is a "business phone" like ringer, and there is no option to change this.

There is also a setting to adjust the audio equalizer to a minor degree, such as increase bass, or increase treble. Like the ringer volume, the call audio volume itself is adjustable from low to high. I have mine set at the lowest volume and it is more than plenty loud for me.

The speakerphone mic works best at close distance, less than 3 feet away. Speakerphone audio is also relatively loud even at the lowest settings.

Over a VOIP system, the call quality sounds better than a cellphone.

In summary this phone is an excellent value and I recommend it.

After three tried, I finally found a quality Cordless phone. It has all the features we needed and is Perfect! I was about to give up on Panasonic and then I tried one more time....and here is the Perfect Cordless phone,. Works perfect, no feedback as with the last one and the keys and messages in the window are so easy to read. I can recommend this beauty to all and hope you don't have to try out so many before you buy this one.
The previous Panasonic phones were awful and I had to fight with Panasonic to return them. Still have not received a refund from the last one, which I purchased direct from Panasonic. Learned a hard lesson. Buy thru Amazon...no fuss...not problems. Panasonic customer service is awful to work with and argued with me. Also had to spend over an hour and talked to four people, to get them to agree to allow me to return the bad phones I bought from Panasonic. Amazon never does this to their customers. Rah Rah Rah for Amazon.

I purchased the Panasonic KXTGE232B system with 2 handsets at the end of April, and so far I am very happy with it. This was a replacement for my Panasonic answering system that was about 8 years old. This one has a lot of features, and after purchasing I got caller id to take advantage of them. The menu list is extensive but does provide shortcuts. It did take me quite a while and a lot of keying to setup the phones and phonebook initially, but once that was done all that was left was some fine tuning later on. The included manual does a decent job of explaining features and telling you how to move thru the menus. Settings that are shared between the handsets only have to be entered once. Some settings are unique to each handset/base unit though. To get things working like I wanted them to did take some trial and error, but I was quickly able to get things right. I have had no problems with sound/signal quality.

Things I like about this phone:

-Uses standard AAA Ni-Mh batteries for easy replacement
-Power backup function (if your electricity goes out, the base unit handset keeps phone powered on. Two days after I got the phone, lost electricity for 3 1/2 hours. I was able to make/receive calls on the remote unit and still had 2 bars left for the base unit battery)
-Lighted buttons, large display
-Call screening on handset and/or base unit, message waiting base beep (You can turn this on/off. Each handset has blinking indicators when there are messages.)
-Talking caller id (sometimes not the easiest to understand, but acceptable)
-Call blocking for 250 numbers (with caller id)
-Can assign different ringer tones for each group of callers - 15 choices (with caller id)
-Silent mode (no ringing) for each handset/base for a specific time period with group bypass
-Easily interfaces with telco voice mail if you choose to use that instead of the answering machine
-There is a volume switch on the handset so you can easily adjust the volume while on the phone
-Each phone can have it's own default ringtone (group ringtone will override)
-Small base unit for easy wall mounting
-And many more features (Alarm, speed dial, one cell phone locater, etc.)

I believe this was a good purchase.

UPDATE 1/28/15: I was having a problem blocking a range of telephone numbers. Instruction manual said to enter 2-8 digits to block. I wanted to block a prefix in an area code. Example, I wanted to block all numbers in the 310 area code that started with 325 (1 310 325-XXXX). I entered the numbers as displayed on the phone, 1310325, but they were not being blocked. I called Panasonic and they told me I could only block an area code. After some experimentation, I found out I got some bad info. The fix was to never enter the 1 preceding the phone number, even though it was displayed on the phone. Once I dropped the 1 and entered only 310325, everything worked okay. To block an entire area code, enter the area code only, do not start it with a 1.
I still love this telephone!

I need a phone you can silence when you want, blocks up to 250 numbers, has the option to silence the dreaded first ring on a blocked call, talking caller id., NOISE REDUCTION/Smartfunction key, side dedicated volume button, and have a led light on top of each handset that flashes when a call comes in, and after a message is left, handy in the middle of the night when you have it in silent mode. This even has a one hundred entry phonebook (more than plenty for my needs) w/9 groups and you can select a desired group to ring thru, that wasn't on my list but is now. Large easy to see, truly backlit keys/buttons, and feels good in your hand. The last couple years they gave us the memory for up to 250 blocked numbers but took away the flashing message alert. Finally I'm happy. Have no use for the cell pairing Bluetooth and all the other bells and whistle models.

AT&T CL4940--Had to replace a Panasonic corded answering machine I had for 5 yrs. The machine was one of the items destroyed by an electric surge explosion after a brief thunderstorm. The model is no longer available, it seems every time something is good it's removed from the market. That machine, together with CL4940 had the same featurers which I don't need. My sole intentions is for answering purposes. Not thrilled the machine is in white but it was the cheapest I could find for my use. Large buttons are a nice feature should I use it as a phone, it's quite simple to program, although I'm still having difficulty setting day/date/time feature. I find the following very interesting---I called AT&T customer support, prior to receiving the item, inquiring if a light flashes when there's a message and was told "absolutely not." Customer support personnel need to become familiar with the products AT&T sell because a light does flash which is extremely convenient because it can be seen from a distance.

This is a fine phone, especially for the price. There are a few shortcomings, for me, though.
I set up the directory OK. But when I want to access the directory you have to page through all of the names/numbers to get the one you want.
There was no way to enter them alphabetically. Same goes for the speed dial.
The instructions were not clear as to how to dial from the directory or speed dial. I am kinda getting use to looking up the number first, then picking up the handset, which, then dials the number for you. Seems like a reverse of my previous ATT phone.

I bought this for my mom so I call her in her room in a nursing home. The large digits of the readout are great, and the large buttons are easy to see and use. My main complaint is the detachable plastic piece that is supposed to elevate the phone in the back so it is angled forward for easier reading. Despite multiple attempts to get this piece to stay in place, the phone slipped and collapsed. I think it would be better if they made the phone itself higher in the back, rather than use the plastic support. My mom rarely uses her phone, so this model is okay for her. But it might be a problem for someone else if placed on a corner of a bed stand where it could unexpectedly topple to the floor.

Nice big buttons for the visually impaired. I bought this phone for my 86 year old mother who has dementia and has trouble seeing the buttons on a standard cordless phone. She would also confuse the TV remote control with cordless phone and get frustrated when she couldn't make a call on the remote. They are both black plastic sticks with number buttons on them so I can see how a sufferer of dementia might get confused. She also started to have trouble with the concept of hanging up the cordless by placing it back in it's cradle so I decided to give her this kind of phone instead and it is helping. The numbers on the buttons are quite large so she can see which ones she's pushing and it looks nothing like a remote. This is a good choice for the elderly.

It does everything I need as a main phone... at a modest price.

Growing up with old style black bakelite phones that weighed many pounds, there isn't much out there these days that is going to please my sense of what is desirable in a phone. But over a period of a few years, I've at least learned not to hate this phone. It tells me who is calling, who has called, and keeps track of the phone numbers I call most often.

I'm sure it also gives foot massages, can cook dinner, and wash the dishes.... if only I'd just bother to sit and read the manual. Not gonna' happen!

as with other phones, the set up is not always easy. however, I did manage to start blocking calls, and that is worth the price of the phone. today I saw 'call blocked' and was most pleased.

They do everything I could want, maybe too much. It's kind of like buying a scientific calculator which does the basic math you mostly use if for and occasionally some higher level stuff --- and a whole lot of "fancy" stuff that you never use. Really, I just wanted to talk to people on it and have it take my messages. How about two versions, one for what I just said and one that will do all the functions you can cram in the chip that you need to have a copy of the instructions by the phone to look up?Good voice quality and those I'm talking to report it sounds good to them.

I was looking for a new cordless phone to replace another cordless phone that was not working very well. With so many phones on the market with different features and functions. I had to find a phone that my mother could use with ease and had the features and functions that she will like. Read the reviews, spot a few that said the phone was good for the older people.I saw the Panasonic KX-TGE233B DECT 6.0 Expandable Digital Cordless Answering System, 3 Handsets, and few other phones. As I was comparing the phones, noticed when the phones made/when on Amazon date, the price, the features and functions. The reviews helped also.What made be buy the Panasonic KX-TGE233B DECT 6.0 Expandable Digital Cordless Answering System, 3 Handsets was that it looked simple, something my mother would have no problems using. Had a feature that will voice the caller who is calling so one can get up to answer it or let the answering machine get it. Get so many annoying robocalls Also this phone will block 250 phone numbers more than other phones will allow. The buttons are big to where she can read it with ease. On the screen the name and numbers are easy to read. Another feature, it has Power Back-Up Operation, so when the power goes out it will still work. That's something new and is needed.This phone has different ringers tones, As I was showing my mother all the ringing tone sounds and to see which one she would like to use. She spoke up about the Christmas ringer tone to use during Christmas time... The ring tones are generic music tones, from songs, video games. Has phone ringing sounds and some sounds that sounds like an alarm to doorbell. Has 5 Tones, 10 Melody tones. Kinda sounds like the early days of when the cellphones came out in the 90's and early 2000's.So this phone will have something someone would like and get excited about. For myself I was not impressed with the ringing tones, not the best. I have heard better ringing tones on phones. I give the ringing tones a C. I guess I like phones sounding like phones, not something fake sounding or lame. For cellphones I like non phone sounds rings. A duck quacking etc just feels better and don't bother others in public. For as landlines phones goes, I like phones to sound like phones. A strong good ring. Am I the only one that feels this way?The phone is light, yes it does feel little cheap almost toyish like. So dropping it might feel like it will shatter in million pieces. In consideration, for my mother use of the phone, it might not get used much, so the wear and tear will be very low. That is something one has to think about when getting a new phone, how it's gonna be used, how many people will use it, how rough are people. Products are getting more and more plastic each day. Something people can not avoid. So I would rate this phone for people who are low to moderate users. So it might wear out faster if one is a heavy user or have more than one person who use the phone.The numbers on the soft key pad might wear out as in the numbers might get rubbed off, the soft plastic might start to rub off and leave behind jaggedness. Has two hard plastic buttons, that big square button next to the talk and off, on that key the ink might come off. And the Noise Reduction key, but this key lights up and is a transparent plastic, so that key will not wear out. The soft plastic has a soft feel to it, was hard to be to get used to. I didn't like it to much as I touched it.Set up was easy, way easier than the other cordless phone she had that was from mid 2008. I followed the instructions, because that's how I roll. I think it would be easy to set up for others who don't like reading the instructions. I read the instructions to find things I would not know since phones are always changing and very different from each other. As some info might not be listed when buying the phone as one has to get to know the features and functions.On the side of the phone it has a sound up and down button, black soft plastic. On the top of the phone when the phone rings it will light up, hard opaque plastic. This phone has an Orange/Amber glow when taken out of the base and when the phone rings.I give the phone 4 stars. Not the best but just an okay phone for light to moderate usage, good for older adults on earth. Has good things and blah things but it's an okay phone. Just A Great Simple Cordless Phone.I give 5 stars to the seller since the package came fast, I bought this phone on June 21 and received it by June 24 by USPS. Very surprised it came so fast. Also I got this phone few dollars cheaper, I think there was a Father's Day sale happening because the other items I ordered was way cheaper then on Monday it seemed the price of everything went up. Very happy with the seller, and how my package arrived.These phones are one of the best sellers from Panasonic, sold at big names stores. Over all these phones are good or just as better than other phones with less features. I'm very satisfied with my purchase.I will give updates about the phone if we run into problems or something. As of now everything seems okay.1 - UPDATE 7/4/15:No problems with the phone. Tried out some of the functions like the Alarm Clock. Can use the phone to wake you when sleeping, Time something. Can come in handy when needed. Weird feature on a phone.Already using the phone to block robocallers, have it to where it will ring one time. Then can view who the blocked caller was on the CID and it has a symbol to show who is blocked when viewing the CID list if one missed calls. Which makes it so much easier when knowing who keeps calling who is blocked. When a person who is block calls they get is just dead silences. The caller can stay on the line for about 20 seconds before the call drops.Like the talking caller ID. Wish we could pick a voice for that function. Same with the Answering Machine. The talking CID has a woman's voice and the Answering Machine has a man's voice. Would be nice if we could change the voices. For the amount of things added to cordless phones now days, seems they could add it in the future.On this phone when robocallers call, it does not turn the answer machine on when they hang up. On the old cordless phone that was replaced, robocallers called and the answering machine picked up as they hung up their phone. I guess it is a good not to have those annoying hang ups when listening to the messages on the answering machine. Seems like people have to stay on the line longer when the answering machine goes through the motions.Also on the answering machine, You will not hear the answering machine message as the phone call transfers to it. On the old cordless phone, we heard the message. Had to get adjusted to this new thing. You will hear the person who leaves the message, on each phone. That's really helpful when not at the main base when someone calls and leaves a message, that one or all people in the household can hear someone leave a message on the phones.Talking CID is heard on all phones. One can remove it if they don't like it.Some phone functions change all the phones and some phone functions just change one phone.Over all the phone is a wonderful upgrade from the old phone. This phone is worth getting.2 - UPDATE 7/10/15 -Used the Cell Phone finder to just try it outIt's sorta annoying when using the Cell Phone finder. It has a beeping/paging dial sorta not really like an old fashion dial up but similar. It does work to locate a cellphone. It calls the cellphone, as the base unit keeps making that weird beeping/paging noise, as it dials the cellphone number to find it. To turn it off the cell phone locator noise, just press the button. Great if you lose your cellphone a lot or the kids keep taking it. It does work but kinda takes little longer to go through the motions of dialing the number and getting the cellphone.Seems like it would have been easier to just have dialed the cellphone by hand on the phone. Kinda what's the point. might be helpful but then again 'like really'!The next model up from this phone is where one can use the Cell Phone Finder and actually talk to the cellphone if someone picks up. The model I have all it does is just call the cellphone and one can not talk with cellphone from the phone.3 - UPDATE 7/11/15 & 7/21/15 -Noticed the time was wrong, picked the phone up off the base and the time corrected itself. Then looked at the other 2 phones and noticed the time was off and again picked the phones up and corrected itself. Next day the same thing happened. Very weird. Can change the setting to manual from Caller ID auto in the Time Adjustment in the settings for Set time and date.There is something wrong with the time settings that is affecting the time on the phone. The Caller ID time should be controlled by the phone company. That's how it was in the beginning when it first came out. When the lights go out, the time would stop and not update until someone calls to reset the time.The time did update and correct its self when someone called. So just a little hiccup in the phones. Have not had any problems since I first noticed this. Just happened on 2 days and have not happened again. So if you don't use the phones much there will be some problems with the time.4 UPDATE 7/21/15 -A robocaller called did not leave a message. after it called, I looked at the phone and noticed this “Voice mail msg. via phone co.” being displayed on the phone. Note I do not have voicemail on my phone nor that I have ever had this service. After looking it up and reading about how to remove it from my phone. The message would not go away unless one calls voicemail, which I do not. after reading up it at the panasonic help site, I finally got the message removed by pressing # for 5 seconds. In the settings under the Voicemail settings - VM tone detect, put OFF.Really odd how robocalls can jack with the phones.Overall had slight problems but always got the problem fixed. No major problems so far.One thing I kinda what to see a change is that soft rectangle menu key. That key should have been a hard plastic. It gets tiresome to press it. It's too soft and too small. I feel it might wear out, like the key will like peel off or something. Have to use the side of my thumb or my other fingers when pressing it. I have small fingers.UPDATE 2017. Still working no problems.Noticed there is another phone just like this one but with a few different buttons. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01HXMJ14S/ref=psdc_172614_t1_B00ISKW56Q - Panasonic KX-TGE433B - I like that one better but the phone I have still going strong and I don't need a new phone but would love to have Panasonic KX-TGE433B since it has the one button call block.

I really likes these phones, especially since they run on regular batteries (I forget which ones, AA or AAA). The only thing I don't like is not being able to just press a button and delete a message while you are listening from the phone itself. You have to go through the menu a few steps in order to delete. Then you delete all the messages. Maybe it's something I'm doing wrong, but I've gone by the book. Other than that, I'm very satisfied with these phones.

Bought it for my elderly grandparents (north of 80). They really like the simple design, large numbers (that do glow orangeish) and clear big font screen. Answering machine is simple and you can listen to message with the handset. Has a locator button on basestation to page missing handsets.I was hoping the handsets would be a bit louder, the noise suppression does help a bit, but my grandpa does still have a bit of a hard time hearing (without hearing aids). They're not truly amplified in the sense of 'chronically' hard of hearing, but for folks that have 80+ years of use out of their ears, they work just fine (much better then their last wireless handsets).I was also a little disappointed in the equalizer. It's "normal", "treble" and "bass". Seems straight forward, but was hoping for some band based EQ. Treble makes everything sound awful (I have young ears and work with sound a lot), but the bass boots does help add a bit of depth to the voice (my dad really like that, easier for him to hear).Call quality on receiving end is crisp as to be expected. I think I'll be getting these for my parents as my dad is a bit hard of hearing.They're really "no thrills" when it comes to features... (talking) Caller ID, key locator, not bluetooth etc. but, that is part of the allure in my opinion (great for folks that don't use technology much).

So far, so good. Have not had it long enough to give it 5 stars, but meets expectations thus far. I bought this system for my 93 year-old mother, and she loves it. Easy to set up, and much better than the previous Panasonic 5.8 GHz KX-TG5633 system that it replaced. The display is much larger, with large text that is very easy to read even without reader glasses. The lighted number pads are also much larger and easier to use without "fat-fingering" the adjacent key. It comes with regular AAA rechargeable NiMH batteries for which you can buy replacements anywhere when necessary. Call Block feature is wonderful! You can completely BLOCK any numbers, area codes, or regions that you select from the "incoming calls" list, and the phone never even rings when one of the blocked numbers calls! So long, you annoying telemarketers!I recommend this telephone system.

1. The screen is not readable in the dark.2. It is also difficult to clean this phone. I very, very,very,very lightly sprayed the phone with a drop of windex and used a paper towel to clean the phone. The readout on the screen stopped working. If you get this phone ONLY use a damp rag or a wash-n-dry to clean it. It has zero tolerance for being wet.

This phone does the job, although it has some odd characteristics. The speakerphone is pretty terrible, and that seems to be the only way to record and play messages. It's usable, but the clarity is below average. The menu system is a little awkward getting used to, but it's functional as well. The ergonomics of the keys and the message system are good. Bottom line: this is a decent, functional telephone. I rate it as solidly average, but few people probably care about such phones any more.

This phone worked well and had an easy to read display. However, when wall mounted, the phone protruded from the wall several inches and had a very unappealing appearance. It stuck out so far that you could see the whole back of the phone. If you plan to use this phone on a desk, it will be just fine. You might want to see this item at a store before ordering. We returned it after one hour.

The delivery time was overnight and that is a plus. I like the phone and would rate it a 4+ except for the following.a. Phone is of very light plastic and as such is prone to be a bit unstable. I realize the design is inexpensive but this is worth noting.b. I`m not fond of the "retractable coil" cords and tho this is easily fixed by substituting handset cords, my disappointment was in discovering the handset end is very small and won`t accept a "standard" connection.To be fair perhaps that is standard altho I think not. I`ll fix this by buying another cord but think it worth mentioning.Of course a personal preference.c. As far as I can ascertain, there is not a battery substitution for the "wall wart", which would do away with the need for the electrical connection.Having said the above, the phone fills my needs and does it reasonably well. For the cost, it is of reasonably good design and offers all the features I might want. I, of course have no experience with longevity of the fone but it is inexpensive enough that I will buy again if it lasts one year.

UPDATE: For reasons unknown, the readout on this phone has suddenly started reading: "12 missed calls" or "15 missed calls" or other random numbers when only one is received. This takes away a very important feature. I am moving my rating from five stars to three. As this is a new business phone I can't afford to return it under warranty service, I need the answering function NOW. Everything else seems to work okay.This is a really good phone for the price, you probably won't get a better deal anywhere. It has several excellent features, primary among them is the setup. Even an old coot like me could figure it out right away, the instructions are barely necessary. Also nice is the fact the phone has dedicated buttons for each item on the answering part, there are no uni-buttons to control multiple features. If you want to listen to your message, hit the "listen" button, "delete," hit the delete button, and so on. The listen button flashes when a message is received, and pushing it plays the message also. The LED panel is a nice orange, it comes on only when making or receiving a call, so your bedroom, if that is where you place it, isn't lighted up all the time.Smiles: An adjustable display panel which flips up to make it easier to see when used on a table. You can answer the phone by simply pushing the speaker button if desired You can skip or replay messages by pushing independent buttons The mute button can be used to put a caller on hold, no need for two buttonsFrowns: While the phone will function in a power outage, none of the other features will. Even worse, you will have to reprogram the entire phone from scratch. Ditto if you simply want to move the phone to another location. A battery backup to hold the programing would have been helpful. I do not know if the answerer works in an outage, but I can't see why it would. This may be difficult to wall mount, I was lucky and already had a phone mounting plate on the wall of my apartment, so it was a snap. Speaker quality is poor, scratchy, but easily audible.In conclusion, this is a great buy for the money, easy to use, easy to setup, and attractive also.

The phone is well designed, except for one major flaw, which I discuss later. The basic controls are easy to use. It has some clever features, like the redial format selection, which allows one to select the format the phone uses to redial a number from the phone log. After selecting a number from the caller ID lot, you can select whether the phone dials seven digits, 10 digits, or 10 digits preceded by 1. The major flaw goes to the heart of the product, the large display. It is large. It is not backlit. An LCD display that is not backlit appears black on gray. It can be read only with strong direct light on it. It is all well and good to see the new message light blinking, but I wish I could glance into the kitchen as I pass and read the text display of how many calls I'd missed, or be able to review the caller ID log without turning on the brightest light in the room. While I'm at it, it is grossly misleading to market this phone with a picture of a backlit display. That is not what the phone looks like when installed.

These aren't as good as the KX-TGA653. They have a tinney sound to them and are not nearly as responsive or fast to the touch as the 653 is. I really don't care for them and I think they are a cheaper version of the KX-TGA653 which is a really good phone. I only bought these KX-TGE232B because of the power back up if the electricity goes out. My other phones work great. Hope this helps. It is like driving a car in comparison to riding a bike.

Nice features and works well except had to buy better batteries. The stock ones do not hold a good charge to last the day so I suggest you buy higher capacity ones. Amazon sells them and once install the charge last over a day!

This phone replaces my last Panasonic which lasted 6 years. Am having a weird thing occur though. Maybe someone can help. Panasonic sure didn't when I tried to use their chat help. Never got a response.Anyway, I cannot dial numbers from my phone, whether or not they are within my area code. To call someone, they have to have called me. I then scroll recent calls and hit call. Then this phone dials the number. If I physically dial a number I get a message saying number cannot be completed as dialed. If I add area code or 1 and area code before the number I still get that same message. Can anyone help me?

I love the quality of voice on the phone and usability. I have always used Panasonic handsets. The quality of this one is no different. I love it.It appears in an attempt to make the phone lighter and save cost Panasonic made one change. They reduced the phone battery size. Now, the phone gets discharged often. I have always remember to put it back for charging. If it remains outside for a day or two, it gets discharged. My experience with the older models was better.If you remember to put the phone back for charging after every use, then this is perfect. However, if like me, you forget to put it back, I will recommend other Panasonic models that have longer battery life.

Update: Doesn't work so great when I am outside the house. Keeps cutting out. Very annoying.This unit does not block Anonymous calls.Everything else is great. Has some cool ring tones, blocks 250 numbers. Stores 100 numbers, would have liked a little bit more than 100 and is a very nice phone.My only hang up is that it says in the manual it will block private/unknown calls. I put in the codes to turn this feature on. But when I call myself with my cell phone and block my number with *67 it comes right through on this phone and shows up as "Anonymous".And there is no way to block this.

I thought this would be a great replacement Panasonic phone for a very similar one I was replacing this with. Unfortunately, there are a couple of issues that really bother me. The minor one is that you often have to hit the TALK button twice to wake it up so you can start using it. The first button press rarely works.What's really the most annoying though is the way it stores numbers into the phone book. It neither stores them in the order you enter them, nor in alphabetical order and you CANNOT re-arrange the order of them after you've entered and stored them. I know, I asked their tech support and they confirmed this. SO, if you have a common number that you call a lot, it will be easier to actually memorize the number than try to figure out where it's stored in the phone book. If I had known of this issue before purchasing, I would have chosen something else.

I should have returned this phone. Not getting an immediate "tone," have to click repeatedly with the base release clicker to get the tone, no ringer/sound, gives off a background buzz noise when in use. Not happy at all despite the other good reviews. Having no trouble with the base weight.

I bought this phone to replace another ATT phone whose keypad suddenly stopped working. It seemed well designed and with a useful set of features. However, I found that, although the ringer was working when I adjusted the volume, it did not ring for an incoming call. I considered this a fault, so requested a replacement. However, the replacement had the same issue, which I had not had with the previous model phone. I thought that it might be a REN issue (the REN of the 4940 is 1.2 - not particularly high), so I tried it on a different phone circuit - the phone rings for incoming calls sometimes, but is unpredictable. The problem is clearly with the phone - perhaps the REN is actually higher than indicated.Apart from this, the phone is attractive and easy to use, and the large keys are welcome. If the ringer problem can be solved, I would give 4 stars.

The AT&T CL4940 is not what I was expecting.I got the phone for my 82 year old mother in law. I wanted a high ring tone, big buttons, sharp hand set audio, simple phone, now that she has problems hearing when the phone rings and the “modern” phones are difficult for her to understand. I thought this phone covered most of what I was looking for, what sets this phone apart is the large, backlit, tiltable display that she can see who is calling and can see what number she is dialing.But what disappointed the most is that the ring tone is NOT “Extra loud” as it’s advertised. The Ring tone is very low, even for me and my husband (39 year old), you can barely hear the phone ring from the next room or down the hall. The flashing light on top of the display is not that bright and if you are not looking directly towards the phone you can barely noticed that is flashing. She liked the phone because of the big buttons, the backlit display and the sharp hand set audio, but the LCD display does not work if the phone has no power, it would have been good if it included back up batteries to be able to work.

There is no place to write or note what speed dial button is whose. It's necessary to scroll thru the stored numbers to find the one you want as they are stored in the order they were entered not alphabetical. Strange way to display numbers when a 1 is first, instead of 1-567-8569 you get 156-785-69. This is not made by ATT, it is made by Advanced Telephone Technologies, I'm surprised ATT would license their name for such a flimsy product, try to wall mount it, it is not like the ATT phones of old that were built to last. For some stupid reason the display shows the model number instead of something useful like the date or time.Look for something else or go to Goodwill and get a used phone from one of the Bell companies.

The big buttons are nice, very easy to dial. Volume up and down is real good. There are two major problems, though. It's very hard to read the Caller ID. Luckily, our cable TV also displays the caller ID so that's what we always look at. It's very hard to see on the phone who is calling. The other problem is once you have heard an answering machine message once you can not play it again. It seems to disappear. So if I listen to a voice mail that my wife would then like to hear, she's out of luck.The big buttons are not worth the hassle with the poor screen quality of the caller ID and the lack of ability to hear a voice mail more than once, so I am not happy with this machine.

I bought this phone last November 2015. I would expect a phone to last longer than 8 or 9 months. It was fine until the last two weeks and I started having problems with it loosing contact with the party that was calling. The other party could not hear me and I could not hear them. Then I noticed that the phone was not storing the messages on the answering machine part. A relative told me they had left a message a month ago that I never received. Then I find out it was not on the answering machine at all but on my voice-mail through my telephone service. I had to buy another phone. Hopefully Iwill get better service. But I do not intent on ever buying this brand again.

I have used Panasonic cordless phones for the past 20 years. Mostly I have been very satisfied. I bought this phone because the headphone jack got damaged in my Panasonic phone but other than that it was performing fine. This phone is identical for the most part in feature etc to my old model. What has changed is the phone is made more cheaply. The phone is lighter weight but in a cheap way not in an upgraded way. Two issues that I already noticed out of the box is that the phone number buttons are extremely cheap. In the past you could easily press the numbers but in this cheaper model they are harder to press and annoying. In addition I would say the sound quality on the speaker phone is not the same level of sound quality.I would rather pay more and get the same quality as I had before. I'm very upset that Panasonic is turning into a "cheap quality" brand. This really has a cheap feeling. Feels like the lack of quality you'd expect from a no name Chinese electronic brand name. I expect more from Panasonic!!!!!! I'd like to see Panasonic go back to being known for quality and innovation. This phone model is cheaply made with no consideration of the consumer. How could Panasonic think that the consumer wouldn't care that the phone buttons are very hard to press? Not sure I'll buy this brand again and I may just return this phone which I still can do.I wonder if Panasonic even bothers to read these reviews.......

I've used Panasonic phones for years, and have been very pleased with them. I thought it might be time to update just because the old phone was showing signs of cosmetic wear and the lettering and numbers were worn off from years of use. I received the TG233B, and noticed right out of the box how cheaply made it was. I charged the batteries (which are now low capacity) and attempted to set it up. Voice quality was terrible and the person at the other end said I sounded like I was in a tunnel. You also have to go through a lot of steps just to program the phone. Over all this is a very poorly constructed phone with a lot of useless bells and whistles. Overall I would not recommend this phone.

I purchased this phone since I am slightly hard of hearing and have hearing aids. This phone rings so softly I don't always hear it, even with the ringer volume turned all the way up. My old phone was much louder than this one. My mother called me 3 times the other day and even though I was in the same room as the phone, I missed her calls. There is no "dedicated volume key" that I can see but it is mentioned in the description. Unfortunately I will have to purchase a different phone or get my old phone out again and eat the cost of this one since the return period has past. Great expectations from the description about amplified volume, but I'm very disappointed since this is not the case.

I read the rave reviews and was super excited to have phones which may actually work. I find these phones to be tempermental. By this I mean when I turn them on and start dialing they require an uncomfortably long wait period for the phone to be awake enough to start dialing. I find myself turning the phone on, dialing, only to have to turn the phone off and start over again. Sometimes I dial the numbers and the dial tone remains throughout pressing the buttons. I also find the button hard to press. I know that seems trivial, but it they require pretty intense pressure to actually press each button. Further, the battery life is poor. My old cordless phones could stay off the hook for several days and still hold a charge for a phone call. These phones, if left off the charger, die rather quickly. when they get ready to die they just die with little warning

It works but not real happy with it. We needed one in a hurry so we got this. It was a little pricier than I would have liked but it seemed similar to the original ones were replacing. The biggest issues is that the range is not as far as the Panasonic KX-TG931T we were using and the LCD display is too large to show the phone numbers on one line when you dial. So the number continues on 2 lines when you dial out. Very distracting. On the incoming calls the ID name only shows partly because the display is so large. If there is a way to change the size of the display, I haven't found it yet. There are A LOT of settings to customize.The handsets have a matte finish (the other had a gloss finish) which makes it slick when your hands are dry. Won't show wear and tear as easily but the gloss finish was easier to grip. And these new ones are lighter weight as well. The bases seem flimsy. The charging ports seem to be the main thing holding the phone on the base. I am waiting for those to break off or get damaged easily. The previous ones had bases that cradled the handset better.The main base is a sleeker design than the other Panasonic we had which is nice because it doesn't take up desk space. But again, the charging base seems like it will break off or fall out. We will keep it and may get another set later on.

Like a number of other reviewers, I was a long-time owner of an older Panasonic cordless (KX-TG6411 / KX-TGA641, circa 2009, also a DECT phone) and I'm disappointed with the quality and performance of this one compared to the older one. Most annoying is the TWO SECOND delay on incoming calls from the time that you press "Talk" to the time that you can actually be heard by the caller on the other end. Also disappointing is the considerably shorter range. The reliability of the handsets is also questionable: I've owned the phone for about a week now and have had numerous occasions where the handsets have failed to answer calls when instructed to, have emitted loud noises into phone calls, or have gone into a state where they are unusable.The user interface is tedious but not much worse than that of the KX-TG6411 which I was already familiar with.On the plus side, at least it's compatible with my Panasonic headset.There are some new features but I don't use them. I would have gladly traded the useless new features that they added in exchange for a good performing basic cordless phone.

pitiful. purchased two of them. the first one did not work properly and was returned. bought a replacement which also did not work properly. returned it for a refund.

I purchased this phone to replace my separate phone, answering machine and caller ID upstairs, even though they were working well. When connected, the new phone appeared to work correctly. The caller ID correctly identified the caller, I could make and and receive calls, and hear the party on the other end but they could not hear me. So I disconnected it and set it aside. It's possible I accidently had hit the "mute" button, so a few weeks later I decided to give it another try. This time it seemed to work fine, until I discovered that if I answered an incoming call on my downstairs phone, there was a loud "zinging" for about 15 seconds. I disconnected the CL4940 and set it aside again and that problem went away. Later I gave it a third try. and it work fine for a couple weeks. Then it stopped ringing on incoming calls. There is a "volume" control which reduces the volume of the ring tone in four stages down to "ringer off." It seemed to function as it should, which is to sound a test ring at each stage. But, even at full volume, the phone did not ring on actual incoming calls. Other reviewers have noted this same problem. At AT & T's suggestion I disconnected the AC power to the phone for about a minute and re-connected it. Apparently this re-sets things because the phone now operates correctly. All of this suggests that they tried to make a phone with too many features.Latest Episode: Since the foregoing, the phone has gone back to giving just a short bleep rather than a full ring and does not ring again. The caller also gets just a short bleep and nothing more. If I do pick up the phone, and the caller has not hung up, we can have our communication. Since it does not ring for the required 4 times, the answering machine function does not pick up the call. Disconnecting the power in hopes the phone can re-set itself does not correct things, Since it has been just one thing after another, I have had to reduce my rating to one star, and even that is too much. I have developed a poor opinion of AT & T products.Yet further episode: It still does not ring (other than the short bleep), so the answering function does not work. In fact none of the functions work and the it does not respond to any of the buttons. The display now says "NO AC POWER" When I disconnect the ac power the display goes blank, so obviously it WAS getting power. So I checked the power supply with a meter and it does supply power. When I reconnect it, the screen again reads "NO AC POWER" What a sad piece of equipment. This is the last straw. It's headed for the trash.

I am not happy with this phone. It will not display the telephone numbers of incoming calls, even though we have caller ID and another phone we have does just that. We are not using the answering system, and have it hooked up to an external answer machine. That answer machine will verbalize the number coming in (another indication that our caller ID through our carrier is working just fine), but I want to be able to see it on the new phone, because often names are associated with the number. There is also no Caller ID log which is another useful feature if it worked! Unless I can quickly get this problem resolved, I will be returning the phone.

After less than a year, this phone malfunctioned. It will, all by itself, connect to a dial tone. If I am at home, I cannot hang up. I have to remove the wire at the phone jack before the phone will work again. If no one is at home, the dial tone makes the phone inoperable.This phone, in a vacation home, is used by our freeze alarm system to alert our plumber. Recently, our furnace failed and the house began to freeze up. The freeze alarm detected the event but with no phone working, the plumber was not notified. The pipes froze.We were lucky that it was not the fire alarm that couldn't get through.

I bought this phone here on Amazon in Oct 2012. Over the past few months, the Caller ID has been fading and fading. Right now it's completely unreadable and I would never recommend this phone because of that. It's such a waste to buy a whole new phone (the rest of it works just fine) so I'm going to try and find a Caller ID box (just one more thing to add to my desk space - ugh!).Stay away from this...

I really like this phone so far. I like that the display sets up at an angle. Love the big buttons. People hear me clearly. I like when someone calls and leaves a message, you can actually hear them leave you the message and can pick up if you want too. .The only complaint is when you have to record a greeting. You have to do it through the speaker part of the phone which makes you sound muddled.I haven't tried some of the advance functions, so I can't give a review on those as of yet.Edit: February 19, 2013. I've had this phone for 2 months. At first I loooved this phone. However, after month one, I noticed static on some of my calls. On the two month mark the speaker phone no longer works. Also, the date and time someone calls you and leaves a message is never correct.This is a huge disappointment. I originally gave this a 5 star. Now, I'm downgrading it too 2 star. This is not quality.Edit: February 19, 2013. Well, later today my phone just went bezerk! Any button I pushed on the phone whether it was a number or delete button, or anything, showed up on the display as a "6" and made a long beep. So, I could not longer dial out. I tried turning it off by un-hooking everything and turning it back on. Again, it wouldn't allow me to dial anything but the number "6" with a long beep sound. Any button I pushed whether it was 1, 3, 9, delete, mute, etc ALWAYS showed up on the display as the number "6" and made a long beeping sound. I really loved this phone until today. I have no idea as to why it would malfunction the way it did.Contact Amazon and PURCHASE a warranty. That's what I should have done. You can't return it after thirty days.I've downgraded this to a 1 star.

I've had a Panasonic cordless phone for more than 15 years and it always worked great. Lately, the battery (which I've replaced several times over the years) seemed to stop working and so I thought I'd purchase a new Panasonic. However, I was surprised and disappointed to find that the latest model lacks the quality and stability of the old model. The voicemail and speakerphone are so muffled and low that it's difficult to tell what the person is saying. Also, the little buttons to access the menu are awkward and difficult to press if you're in a hurry to retrieve messages. Terrible quality.As a result, I returned this phone. ... I guess Panasonic quality has gone down, so I'll now be looking at other brands.

I bought Panasonic Phone KX-TGE232B from Amazon & was delivered, a Panasonic Box & User Manual that said KX-TGE232....BUT Telephone delivered is KX-TGEA20 and works Poorly = Lots of Static & Many Dis-Connects !Panasonic KX-TGE232B Cordless Phone, 2 Handsets

I used to have Panasonic phones and I loved them. The only reason that I decided to get new ones is because the batteries on the old phones weren't lasting very long after several years of use. These new phones are TERRIBLE. There is interference half the time and the phones tend to just shut off in the middle of a conference call for no reason. I don't mean that they hang up the call -- they completely shut off. The only way to get the phone back on is to put it on the charge unit. And this is after 20 minutes of use on a fully charged phone. These are horrible and I would return them if I hadn't waited until after the return date to pull them out of the box. DO NOT BUY THESE!

Purchased this phone in August and it has not worked good at all. Very hard to hear the person I am speaking with, the static is outrageous and it can be sitting right next to the main port and it just cuts off saying "NO LINK". Enhanced noise reduction is far from true.I hate to throw it out but it does not serve the purpose that it was purchased for.Will not purchase this item ever again.

Replaced a five year old similar Panasonic system due to lightning strike/power surge. After a few weeks some of the button designations are unreadable. The large "function" button is now completely blank on all four handsets. Answering machine has been cheapened with functions eliminated. Phones are flimsy. No longer have nice rubber backing. Junk!

I am only rating '1' star b/c '0' stars is not an option. Thought Panasonic would be a safe bet however; after about a month, and at random, the party being called cannot hear me. I can hear them fine - they just cannot hear me. Even if using the dial pad for an automated purpose, pressing the required 'button' is not recognized, it's as if nothing is being pressed at all, the menu just keeps rolling while you keep pushing the required button. I have tried grabbing the 2nd phone when it happens and they both are dysfunctional. You never know when this will happen, there is no rhyme or reason to it. One time it occurred while I was in the middle of a conference call with my employer on the call. Not good. I tried calling Panasonic b/c the return window w/Amazon has passed but I couldn't reach anyone there who didn't have a mouthful of mashed potatoes.