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AT&T E5965C 5.8 GHz DSS Expandable Cordless Phone with Answering System

AT&T E5965C 5.8 GHz DSS Expandable Cordless Phone with Answering System

List Price: $179.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Nice battery hog
Review: Both incoming and outgoing voice seem to be very good. The phone is ergonomically acceptable, though nothing that should fetch a high price. It is silly that the base and handsets can't share a single directory. The reason I'm returning the phone is that it is a battery hog. Inexplicably, it comes with laughable 1400 mAh AA batteries, which really is embarassingly cheap of whoever AT&T licenses the brand to. But even when I put in a longer life Nickel Metal battery, it is drained far too fast. It sure is hard to buy a quality, reliable cordless phone anymore.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: This phone is terrible!!!
Review: I bought this phone because of the wireless internet. My 2.4ghz always would kick us off of the internet. Well the AT&T fixed that problem but created a new one. I couldn't wait to use this phone but was dissappointed because of the fuzz in the back ground. I tried everything in the book. The fuzz will come and go and it does not matter if you stand by the base or not. AT&T said the phone must be defective but I returning it and getting a refund because after seeing reviews on many 5.8. Fuzz seems to be a big problem. I think I will stick with 2.4 and keep my $$$$ in my pocket.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: This phone is terrible!!!
Review: I bought this phone because of the wireless internet. My 2.4ghz always would kick us off of the internet. Well the AT&T fixed that problem but created a new one. I couldn't wait to use this phone but was dissappointed because of the fuzz in the back ground. I tried everything in the book. The fuzz will come and go and it does not matter if you stand by the base or not. AT&T said the phone must be defective but I returning it and getting a refund because after seeing reviews on many 5.8. Fuzz seems to be a big problem. I think I will stick with 2.4 and keep my $$$$ in my pocket.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent Phone
Review: I can't see why the other reveiwers gave it a one star, This is a great phone, seems some of their reasons were quite petty. The buttons work great, I've never had a problem. What most people want is good voice quality, clarity, and range, this phone is second to none. I have tried many panasonics and every one had muffled sound. The range is the best on the market (except for the Engenious cordless) About calling from caller ID, all you have to do is choose the caller from the list and press the center button and it gives you four optional numbers to call, some with or without area codes or with or without '1' in front of the number to be called. And the color screen may not serve any function, it just looks nice, some people like it, how can you give it poor marks for that? And even though it transmits 5.8 base to handset and 2.4 handset to base, it doesn't interfere with wireless computer networks, (at least the Lynksis brand)
I have tried panasonic 5.8 and 2.4, Uniden 5.8 and 2.4, Siemens, VTech, and this phone has a quality feel, sounds good and has the best range of any of the phones I've tried. It depends on what you want a phone for, if you want great range, great voice quality, great battery life, this is a excellent choice. If you are going to get petty about all the little features, good luck. (of all the criticisms of this phone, you can find reviews of a different phone that gets poor marks because it doesn't do what this one does) Also it seems pretty durable, it's been dropped several times and works fine.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Exceptional Quality and Value
Review: I purchased this phone plus an additional handset and have found them to perform exceptionally. The ability to charge additional, standard rechargeable AA batteries in the base is great. But the key item is the fact that those recharging batteries also keep the base alive during power outages, thereby allowing the phone to work and saving time settings.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: One flaw...
Review: I read the review that cited one major flaw with this phone. I was really interested in the phone and the review made me curious. I downloaded the manual from another site and found that the caller ID can diplay (and dial) the number in several formats. One version does not include the "1" before the area code but you can set the phone up to dial this way. I bought the phone and it woks great!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Close to perfect
Review: I researched a lot of phones and have found this one to have the majority of the features I wanted. Let's face it, choosing a phone comes down to personal preference. A defect to one person may be a feature to another.

The good: The sound quality of the base station and the handsets - they're great. The answering machine is fine too - clear as a bell. Talking caller ID a nice feature for those of us too lazy to get up off the couch to look at the CID display. The phones are just overall easy to use - my wife says so too. No interference with my 802.11b Linksys wireless router either.

Wants: 1) I can see that over time with several handsets it will be a challenge to keep up with the stored numbers on each phone. It would be nice to have a central list that the handsets and base station share so updates occur once for all phones. However, as my kids grow up it will probably be nice for them to have their own numbers on the handsets in their room... 2) More ring tones. The ones that are on the phone are kind of cheesy. Not a big deal though, you can find one that's acceptable.

Overall, we're very pleased with this phone.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Almost perfect, but one HUGE flaw... :o(
Review: I'll have to return this phone. I'm truly disappointed as well since this phone was excellent, except for one gigantic oversight by the engineers. When the Caller ID displays and stores the numbers, it leaves out the "1" in front of the area code. So whenever you dial someone directly from the Caller ID, which most people with CID do several times per day, you have to manually add the "1" by going through a two-step process from the handset, or a three-step process from the base! You can't set it to do that as the default!! Even my 4 year-old Panasonic could do that. And of course the same goes for when you add numbers directly from the CID to the phone book. Instead of being able to add the number in one easy push of a button, you have to manually edit the number in order to add the 1 in front of it.

I specifically buy the top-of-the-line in phones so that I'm not short of any features. That, of course, is the only real difference between phones in a particular line. They just subtract one or more features in order to offer other models at lower and lower prices. This method didn't work for me in this case, as even the top model was short an important feature.

The only other lacking feature worth mentioning, which wouldn't alone have been a deal breaker, is that it doesn't have a call timer.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Pretty good phone, but...
Review: I've been using this phone for about 5 months now, and I'm reasonably happy with it. Sound quality is good, battery life sufficient for my purposes, etc.

The big flaw is that the answering machine and the phone are not well integrated. The interface for configuring and using the phone is quite good. The interface for the asnwering machine is quite different and rather difficult. So the whole unit is somewhat like an apple glued to a pancake.

A minor flaw is that calls are timestamped with the day of the week, not the date. This is fine unless you're going away for several weeks at a time.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: If Quality Counts
Review: I've looked and read many reviews of the phones in this catagory. The negative reviews of this phone almost kept me from purchasing the 5965C (I'm convinced some of the reviews are for different model phone). I didn't purchase through Amazon, because I wanted to see and feel the phones before making a decision. I'm glad I went with my "gut feeling" about this rather than the evaluations. You can't see quality or how the buttons are laid out and function on-line. This phone feels and looks like what I'm use to and has the quality few phones have. The buttons are positioned where I expect them to be and are large enough for reading without my reading glasses. This phone was designed for those in my age bracket (middle age). I found top rated phones that reposition the buttons (VTech) where you wouldn't expect them to be or have buttons so small and pushed together, misdialing is going to happen more frequently. In my book, a phone should FIRST be easy to use, everything else is secondary.

I consider it a plus that it uses easy-to-find-anywhere batteries. The battery backup feature was one of those secondary features that appealed to me, since we loose our power once or twice a year. The inexpensive batteries allow me to have several around for any emergency.

Another positive is the color display on the handheld unit. It is in full color (not a monochrome version of color which is a different model). I find the color enhances the visibilty of the phone icon system and alpha-numeric characters (without my reading glasses).

The ability to transfer calls from one handheld to another will reduce the frustration of running upstairs to see if a family member is around to take a call. You can also call another handheld and carry out a conversation (now my family may never see me :-).

Everything works as expected, though I can't find any information / documentation about how to setup pictures of family and friends to show up with the CID system. Not that I would actually use that feature... You can add Caller ID's into your phone book AND setup whether a "1" is needed or not when redialing that number.

Lastly, the voice quality is as good as any quality corded phone. Unless you want one of the new-purposes-for-a-phone (play music, synchronize phone books, or display images), you would do well to buy this phone. Yes, you could pay less for a phone with equal sound clarity, but you won't find better quality than the 5965C. [I don't work or have any investment in AT&T]


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