Phone

Review by D. Mcdermott:

This new 2009 model of Panasonic’s cordless DECT telephones lives up to its advertising. Sound very clear, battery life is long (my actual 1st day experience was 3-5 hr talking with 10+ in standby), and range is longer than my previous Motorola 5 GHZ model (good enough for a 2 story house plus a basement). The model includes cordless handsets, answering machine, and caller ID, as well as voice prompts of incoming caller ID calls. As a plus, the handsets use AAA Ni-MH batteries so easily purchased when they need replacing. My old Motorola used the typical specialized phone Ni-Cd batteries (with that funny connector), that lasted less than a year and a high cost to replace.

Highly recommend this model. The KX-TG 643x and 644x series are all the same except for the number of handsets that come in the package and whether the base station has its own dial capability. This model allows a max of 6 handsets (the 6445 cmes with 5 handsets-so you can purchase one more if needed KX-TGA 641T).

The caller ID list and address book is centralized, so updating updates the file on the base set. My old Motorola had an address book in each handset plus a shared in the base unit. The voice mail box default announcement is a man’s voice-would prefer a woman’s voice, but you can also record your own announcement

Lastly, the handsets are small(6inch by 1.5 in wide). Not a problem for me but might surprise others. Panasonic sells many DECT 6.0 cordless phones, so do your search carefully. I bought this model because the 64xx model series is new in 2009, plus it has a base station that you can also dial from giving you a 7th telephone set if needed.

Review by Bill:

After a number of years, it was time to upgrade our phone system. I’ve always had Uniden’s, but couldn’t find a decent style phone in that brand, so selected the Panasonic. Seems like phones are like cars.. They have to change the design every year.

Pro’s:

a. The phone has a great feel in the hand. Small, light, nice rubberized backlit buttons. (I hate the plastic buttons of some phones)

b. Sound quality is great. (I’ve not had any issues.)

c. Decent range. Live on a 1/3 acre and had reception in my entire property plus most of my immediate neighbors.

d. Price is not bad. Phone +5 handsets for 9 at Fry’s. (but add on’s are WAY too expensive)

e. Bright and big LED Screen (LOVE this.. My eyes are getting old, not my brain )

f. Talking Caller ID. (don’t have to run to the phone to see who is calling)

g. Integrated VoiceMail indicator so you can see if you’ve got messages. (Nice!!!, I can get rid of that cheap flashing red light thingy that doesn’t work very well.)

Con’s.

a. WHY do they all have to have/be answering machines??? It’s such a waste with VoiceMail!! It would be great to have a choice between a phone with an answering machine, or one without.

b. You can’t name your phones. This was really shocking to me. With the Uniden, we named all the phones.. Office, Kitchen, Master BR, etc. With the TG6445 all you get is 1,2,3,4,5… So when you want to page or conference you have to stop and think.. Now which phone is in the Master BR??? (Again, REALLY stupid)

c. Wall Mount is terrible!!!! Why can’t you have a flush wall mount versus a horizontal one?? It sticks out WAY too far.. So I’ve stuck mine to the wall with double sided table and I rotate one of my satellites for charging the base unit..

d. The selection of ring tone’s is REALLY weak.. only 8, and only 1 or 2 are worth while..

e. Reception meter is pretty worthless. I walked 1 full block and was impressed by the full strength on the meter. Until I turned it on and got extremely poor reception.

f. Phone needs a built in battery in-case the power goes out.. All your phones immediately become useless including the base unit. My new Comcast phone service has a built in battery, so I won’t lose phone service, but I’ll lose the phone. (so we have to have a non powered backup phone just in case). It would be a great feature for Panasonic to add. The base unit can’t draw that much power, so the battery could be small enough not to make it overly bulky.

All in all, not a bad phone, it’s the other features or lack of features that are disappointing.

Review by D. MCGUE:

This is without question, the best land line phone I have ever seen! Please look at my other reviews, you will see that I am NOT a paid reviewer to write what the manufacturer wants.

This phone does EVERYTHING! Sound is crystal clear. Both handsets and base unit have lit displays. Both have selectable ringer tones and volume. Each has independent “phone books” which can be copied from the base unit to the handsets or vice versa. Both the base unit and handsets have speaker phones. The phone books are super easy to program.

The answering system with date/day/time works terrifically! You can select pre-recorded message or make your own. The answering system capacity is 18 minutes or 64 messages. You can select between 2 and 7 rings before the answering system engages.

I like that the base unit works during power outages.

I especially like the five “speed dial” buttons to phone frequent friends or family with just one button. Great!

Call blocking works well.

Cordless handsets have great range and use rechargeable AAA batteries (included). The handset cradle recharges the batteries.

It has a “handset locator”.

It supports English and Espahol. Instruction manual is well written and easy to use.

It even has an “alarm clock” feature.

I have not found a better land line phone! Strongly recommend!

Review by tbyg:

I was torn whether to rate this 4 or 5 stars. For my simple needs, it’s definitely a 5, but it does have some quirks.

Good:

Great sound quality. Corded base for power outages. Speakerphone (which works great) on all components, both base and handsets. Access to answering system messages from all components. Functions as an intercom (and very well, too). 100-number phone book, which can be copied between units either in total or one entry at a time, and nine phone number groups that you can give custom names. Five-number quick dial buttons on base. Large, easy-to-use buttons. Uses rechargeable AA’s (I *think* – might have been AAA’s – standard batteries, anyway) instead of the expensive proprietary kind. Supports up to six handsets.

Not so good:

Some menus confusing. Direct-access to functions using “#” and a numeric code a joke, to me – I want to navigate to a function using an intuitive menu, not look up a code in the user manual. On base unit, LCD contrast is not high enough to read display without backlight (at least in the location we’ve got it). Does not have a memo function as our previous (but much lower quality) system did, so I’m in the market for a fridge magnet recorder thingie now – which is just fine by my husband, as he hated my leaving messages to myself on the answering machine….! ;-> ) Cannot copy phone number groups between units – if you use that function, you’d have to name the groups on each unit and put each phone number in a group individually.

The reason I gave it a “5″ nevertheless is that the “not so good” things I listed mean virtually nothing to me for my simple needs, especially when bounced against the “good” things, which *do* mean a lot to me. Your mileage may vary, which is why I tried to list everything I’ve noticed about the unit so far.

Review by S. Rys:

I have gone through more than 15 types of cordless phones in the last several years. Some of them very good, but not perfect, others fairly awful. When I was doing my research this time for a new phone, I came across DECT 6.0 technology. It claims no interference with WiFi networks, greater range, clear transmission and extended battery life. Bottom line, it’s pretty much true.

I’ve used this phone for a week and it is crystal clear, no interference with my WiFi network, no “hiccups” with a call, like static or audible digital artifacts. My 5.8 Ghz phone would let me talk with a range of maybe 100 feet outside of my house with the front door closed. This telephone lets me go to the end of my driveway, across the cul de sac, and into my neighbor’s driveway without sound degradation. I’d guess that I’m getting about 3x the distance of my 5.8 Ghz phone in a real world situation.

The great thing about this phone is that the battery life is awesome. The phone claims up to 17 hours of talk time and several days of standby. I make a lot of conference calls from my home, and I’m on the phone about 6 hours per day. I’d have to switch cordless phones during the day with ANY 5.8Ghz phone, as they’d last anywhere from 3 to 5 hours. I’ve made 2 days of calls, for a total of 11 hours, and the battery indicator still shows a full charge, without being placed back into the charger. I’m going to keep it out of the charger in standby and talk until the battery runs down, to accurately gauge the battery life, but it would appear that the 17 hours of talk time is a realistic estimate. By the way, the phone uses traditional AAA rechargeable batteries (x2), for each handset. My 5.8 Ghz phone used 3, and had a max talk time of about 5 hours.

The keys on this phone are bigger than other phones, another plus in my book. I’d always misdial a number with smaller buttons. I have yet to misdial with these keys. They’re the perfect size.

I don’t use the answering machine, as I have telephone company voicemail. The only downside to this phone is that the message waiting indicator for telephone voicemail, doesn’t work. I’ve set it to “on”, on every phone, and my 5.8Ghz phone will flash the voicemail alert, but these handsets aren’t flashing. I’ve had this problem with other phones, especially VTech, so I’m thinking that most phones work, there must be something about the connection into my house that doesn’t get the call message alert to the phone. I have DSL and filters in the house. Maybe this is the cause?

Anyway, overall, this is a really good set of phones, they work great, have great sound, and the battery life is stellar. I’m really happy with this purchase. You should probably consider DECT 6.0 going forward. It’s MUCH better than 5.8Ghz technology, in my opinion.

UPDATE:

As an update to my review, the phone is now in it’s 16th hour of talk time, with 5 days of standby (no charging) and it’s still working on the last bar of the battery indicator. I’d say that the 17 hours of talk time is a conservative number. As stated previously, the battery life is the best that I’ve ever experienced with a cordless phone. Actually, incredible by today’s standards.

Review by Paul Stuart:

For those who think all cordless phones are alike, au contraire. I’ve struggled with crackly 900 mhz lemons, 1.8ghz with non-existent range, 2.8ghz housed in faulty answering machine units, and 5.8ghz paperweights where every call was a lesson in hearing impaired.

The KX-TG1033S, however, is a refreshingly great wireless phone system that finally gets it right. Extremely intelligent software plays messages through every unit when call screening, likewise playback of the answering machine is available from each handset. Related, the LCD display is very sharp, ring (and tones) very customizable. (If you’re so inclined, each of the 3 units can play a different tone upon ring.) Love the detailed status information when the phone is not in use.

Most importantly, call clarity is outstanding. Standard and speaker are both surprisingly strong, crystal clear over digital phone service. There is no disparity across any of the 3 units based on physical location and/or being housed in the base answering machine. (A common flaw in other expandable wireless phone systems.) I’ve likewise encountered no range difficulties even when fielding calls in the front/back yards. Not a hiss, signal loss, nothing. The ability to transfer calls, intercom to other units is nothing short of awesome.

A couple of minor glitches worth noting: The Panasonic Menu IS as complicated as advertised. There is a learning curve — albeit small — in how to navigate them before features can truly be maximized. You will be reading the instruction manual, unfortunately. Moreover, the initial charge/battery calibration takes FOREVER. ((Be prepared for a half a day (or more) without your new phones.)) Battery life, however, seems infinite following this early lesson in patience.

Second, there is no graphical display on the answering machine. Thus, number of missed calls/messages becomes unfortunate guesswork. Arguably the greatest tradeoff of a system this high in quality.

These misgivings aside, the KX-TG1033S comes very highly recommended, at a very attractive price point to boot. Sister, high quality expandable systems can cost upwards of a hundred dollars more.

FYI: You might find yourself unable to pull caller ID up on your phones if attached to a fax machine. This is easily remedied via a cheap splitter (despite contradictory info from Panasonic tech support).

Review by JSQ:

We have been using this cordless phone for about a month now and have had no problems with it. Display is clear and lights up, sound quality is fine, and the programming is straightforward. I downgraded my phone service to save some $, so this answering machine replaces the voicemail feature I eliminated (plus we needed a phone that shows caller ID anyway). Caller ID displays on ring #2, and the digital answering machine works well. I am VERY pleased with this purchase and its affordable price: for what I save on my phone service downgrade in one month, I have a new phone/answering machine.

Review by Vijay Miriyala:

I purchased this phone from Amazon and have been using since 2 months

Cons:

- Can not conference 2 outgoing calls. But you can conference up to two system handsets together with one outside call.

- Can save only 50 numbers in the phone book.

- Speaker phone exists only in the handset not in the base. I think this is same for most of the phones in the market.

Pros:

- Great call quality (both using handset and speaker phone)

- Excellent range, I am able to use this phone from my neighbors house. Its amazing.

- Longer talk time and greater battery life. After the full battery charge, I used this phone continuously for 2 hours in a conference call and I still see 3 bars out of 3 in the battery indicator. Panasonic claims the talk time is 17 hours for this phone but i have not tested. I noticed that the standby time is more than 5 days.

- Alarm works perfectly in the handset

- Light weight handset. The handset uses rechargeable AAA batteries which is easy to get.

- Large buttons in the number pad.

- The screen is clear and you can see the caller ids clearly. The screen is auto shutoff after few seconds to save battery.

- I am using one handset but this system can be Expandable up to 6 handsets

Review by Mark D. Wilkins:

This is a great telephone. We were looking for a replacement for our older 2.4GHz phone which had two handsets…some of the buttons didn’t work very well and it suffered from interference in the kitchen when using the microwave. Was thinking 5.8GHz and hadn’t heard of Dect 6.0; check out [...]

This phone is getting close to a cell phone in terms of features…full display (monochrome), multi-segment battery meter, phone book, multiple selectable ring tones, call timer, each handset has a speakerphone, etc. The menus and voice prompt for the answering machine can do english or spanish. One interesting aspect is that many programmable items are done on a per-handset basis, so for example one handset could have its own unique ring tone. Address book entries can be entered into any handset and then kept local to that handset or transferred over to a specific handset or to all handsets. When we got the phone I put in about 15 numbers, and then in a single 5 second operation transferred all those entries to all of the other handsets.

One thing I’ve always hated about cordless phones is that replacement batteries are typically expensive and use outdated (NiCd) technology. This phone however uses two AAA NiMH rechargeable batteries in each handset. So no more searching for a replacement battery specifically made for this phone.

Only two quibbles. The answering machine does not display how many messages there are, there’s just a single light that flashes (on the base unit, as well as on each handset if desired (programmable)) if there are any new messages. If you listen to and keep one message and delete the others, the new message light goes out and there’s no way to tell by looking at the unit that any messages are stored. This is an issue in the following situation: When I listen to messages and save one because it’s for my wife, then when she comes home she looks and doesn’t see any indicator that there’s a message waiting. So each of us needs to get into the habit of pressing the message button to check regardless of whether or not the light is flashing. The answering machine CAN be disabled however (and each handset can be set to display a message waiting indicator when using voicemail from the phone company). Total message time capacity is 16 minutes including the outgoing message.

Other minor beef, and this is very minor, is that only two handsets can be used concurrently for a call. So you can’t have the whole family on their own handset talking to grandpa. But honestly we’ve never used more than 2 phones at a time so this isn’t really an issue, but it would be nice.

This phone can be purchased with four handsets (base unit plus 3 additional), or with 2, 3, or 5 handsets. Functionally they are identical. Each is expandable up to a total of 6 handsets.

Review by S. Sidlov:

I bought a 5 handset version of this phone at a discount box store. (It only supports 6.) I find it wonderful. I live in an area with lots of radio frequencies (cell tower and AM radio, and police radio tower within 300 ft) have wireless G in the house and so do lots of my neighbors. This is a wonderful wireless phone. Sound is clear and crisp. Handset is light, comfortable, with batteries it’s bottom heavy (which I like) and though I wish the screen was a bit bigger, but it’s bright and readable.

Uses AAA size NiMh batteries.

Any handset can be used to retrieve voice mail from your phone company (I have voip, and it worked with that voice mail service) or the answering machine. Any handset can be used to edit/review caller id info (and the action is for all phones). All the functions are the same, start with Menu/OK, scroll to the function, Clear to delete or backspace. It’s easy to learn.

All settings transfer to the action of each phone, so if you select “Call Screening’ all the phones play the calls picked up by the answering machine. This might be a slight disadvantage if you don’t want to hear this all over the house. I recently found that you can press the OFF button to silence the playing of the answering machine’s message at *that* phone, but unfortunately you have to have to press OFF again to silence any message being recorded. OFF will also, silence the phone’s ringing for the call.

If you change one phone to “Message Alert On’ all the phones’ LED light blink for answering machine or voice mail messages – not for new caller id info. This includes, message viewing, caller id editing, so if you erase it or review it at one phone, it’s ‘done’ at all phones. The LCD will show ‘new message’ on the display’ even if the Message Alert is set to off.

A note on the LED. It’s BRIGHT, to me. I find that I have to clear out or /review all messages before going to bed (because I have the Message Alert set to On,), else that phone will be blinking all night. Also, when charging, the LED is always on. I sometimes find myself taking the phone out of the charger to turn it off, since it’s on the night table next to my bed. When the phone is out of the charger, and there is a call, it blinks and the LCD screen comes on, so you will find it in the dark.

Intercom, and Transfer require that you know the handset’s ID number. It’s on the handset display, but now you may need a list at each phone, and if you walk around with them, you must put them back in the assigned room.

Intercom function is nice feature. The kids will answer the phone and you don’t have to yell. However, you need to know where the other person is, there is *no* ‘call all’ function or ‘open all phones’ speakers’ function.

Phone notifies you when a second handset is picked up, Only three handsets can be on the same call.

Transfer function, call’s not for you, press the Transfer button and the number of the phone where you think the other person is. No call all, etc. I find however, that I miss my simpler, HOLD button. I also wish that when you have two calls (call waiting) that it would show the caller ID information when switching back and forth with the flash. It DOES show the second call’s caller ID when the call comes in.

Phonebook (50 entries) can be shared. However, you need to sit at one phone, put in as many as you use and then when completed, you can cause it to copy ALL entries to each phone but only one phone at a time from the Phonebook’s menu. It’s easy to use a caller id entry and edit/save it to phone book. Since each phone can have 50, you could have different numbers at each. You can also transfer single phone numbers to other handsets, but again, you have to do it for the number of phones you have if you want it to be all handsets (or know the ID of the phone that you do want to transfer it to).

The phone has 5 rings and 10 melodies. Rings are tinny and cheap electronic sounds very surprising that they didn’t include better sounding rings. Melodies tend to be bizzare, Nutcracker, jingle bells and such, including one that has birds chirping to classical music. Melodies and anything but the standard phone ring also suppress any special ring tones that your phone provider may have (VIP calling, second number/line, etc.)

Answering machine only has 16 minutes recording time. Calls can be limited to 1 minute or 3 minutes. Says ‘thank you for your call’ when it hangs up.

Base Unit CANNOT be used as a speaker phone, and phones DO NOT work when in chargers, so you can not press the ‘speaker phone’ button the phone while in the charger or base unit. Phone does stand nicely on it’s own, upright, and the speaker phone functions very well.

No battery in master base unit. This is a disadvantage, IMO, since you now need battery backup to make units (with multi-day power supply) function. Note that while you can not use the phone without full power to the base, the phone’s settings and phonebooks are saved during power outages, so you will not have to do any additional setups. (Must have a capacitor in there somewhere feeding the RAM chip.)

I have not touched the master base unit since install, since I can do everything at the phone handset.

Base unit can be mounted to wall, but most kitchens with 5 ft high wall plate will now have this rather ODD shelf-like base station sticking out from the wall. If you have your kitchen wall plate mounted low this won’t be such an issue and you will be able to see the blinking light to tell you there is a message (turning on message alert at the handset will eliminate this need).

Each handset a headphone jack. Comes with belt clips which are worthless, IMO, since the prongs that hold them on are not long enough.

Review by Matthew D. Stehlin:

This phone is totally awesome! Great display, lots of bells and whistles. If you have ever owned a cordless phone before, and the battery dies, so you open the back of the phone only to find a “battery pack”. You look every where and no one carries “that” battery pack. Well…, finally Panasonic got smart and did something about that. This phone comes with plain old Nickel-Metal Hydride Rechargeable AAA Batteries! No more battery pack! In a few years when the original batteries no linger hold a charge I’ll just replace them with easy to find NiMH AAA batteries.

Review by B. D. Mays:

It’s amazing what can happen when I follow directions. Set up of the KX-TG6412M was as easy as taking a few minutes to follow the well written instructions. Once set up, the sound quality was, and is excellent. My wife and I were amazed how light the phone felt in our hands…easy to hold up to the ear. Being members of AARP we both love the large, readable display numbers on the screen. We also love the fact that each phone takes 2 triple A rechargeable batteries – what a great cost savings when replacement time comes around. (They are about 1/3 the cost of normal cordless phone batteries) Finally, when the phones are not in use and not on the cradle, they will hold a charge for 11 DAYS! Talk about energy efficiency. Initial rating? 5 stars…very impressed.