AT&T 992 2-Line Corded Phone
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- Multi-Line Operation: 2 Lines Operation
- Type: Corded Phone
- Features: Caller ID Speakerphone LCD Display
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Better Than The 972, But Suffers From Reliability Problems.
Pros
LCD is backlit. Large buttons & lettering. Can be wall mounted.
Cons
Poor quality control. LCD's LEDs can go dim. Caller ID problems found on some telephones.
Recommended it?
No
The Bottom Line:
Poor reliability keeps me from recommending this telephone unless you don't use caller ID and don't need the LCD back light. 1 out of 5 stars.
(Note: This review of mine was written a while ago. At that time, there was only 1 listing for the AT&T 992 and the listing had mistakes. This listing is correct, so I am re-posting the review here and have deleted the original posting).
The AT&T 992 2 line corded telephone replaces the AT&T 972 2 line corded telephone in the AT&T Consumer Product line.
VTech, the manufacturer of AT&T telephone products since 2000, has given this telephone a fresh look that is similar to those used by the 4 line telephones in the AT&T lineup.
What does it look like?
The telephone's face is mostly black in color with a few exceptions: the area around the LCD, which is silver in color. Buttons for the most part are black with white lettering & numbering, with the exception of the buttons that deal with LCD functions. Those buttons are either silver with black lettering, or silver with symbols or letters etched into the buttons. The other exception is the "Speaker" button which is a light shade of blue and a silhouette of a speaker imprinted on it.
The buttons used to store telephone numbers in memory are located along the right side of the telephone's face. Located to the left of the memory buttons are the buttons for the hands free speaker, mute, headset and volume down & up. Moving to the left, we see the standard 12 button telephone keypad. Moving upward, are the redial, flash & pause buttons. Continuing upward, we see buttons for conference, telephone line 1 & 2 selectors and hold. Just above those buttons, and below the LCD reside the directory, call history and remove buttons. Just to the right of the LCD are the buttons used to toggle through the telephone's programming menu. There are 10 LEDs on the face of the telephone. These LEDs indicate when a function is active, such as the hands free speaker, mute, headset and others. Each telephone line has 2 status indicators. a green LED indicates which line will be selected when the handset is lifted, or the speaker button is pushed. The red LEDs show that a line is in use. Each line has a bright red dual function LED. If you subscribe to caller ID from your local telephone company and you receive a call, the status LED for that line will glow. If you subscribe to your local telephone company's voicemail service and there are new messages waiting for review, that same status light will blink.
The 992 provides a 100 name & number directory. With this directory, you can save names & telephone numbers directly from caller ID records if you subscribe to that service from your local telephone provider.
The rear of the telephone contains 3 telephone line jacks and a selector switch that determines which line an optional device, such as an answering machine, modem or fax machine, will use to send & receive calls on. Oh, let's not forget the all-to-familiar jack where you connect the external AC "wall wart".
The bottom of the telephone contains the compartment that houses the 9v battery which is used to keep basic telephone functions alive during power outages.
The telephone can be placed on a flat surface or wall mounted. The telephone's base can be reversed to accommodate either mounting position. A small tab just underneath the handset cradle can be removed & reversed to hold the handset in place when the telephone is wall mounted.
Nice Touches
After years & years of churning out telephones with unlit LCDs, VTech seems to have gotten the message that their telephones need to have back-lights. The 992's 4 line by 16 character display is illuminated by 6 small greenish-yellow LEDs. As was the case the the old AT&T 962, the back-light is always illuminated, unless you scroll through the telephone's programming menu, where you will find an option to turn the back-lighting off.
The oversized buttons & lettering will be welcomed by people with less than perfect eyesight.
Not So Nice Touches
While the 992 provides up to 16 memory spaces to store telephone numbers, the directory card is a bit on the small side and does not provide much room to write on. (It may be a good idea to make copies of the blank directory card, keep the originals as spares and write on the copies. That way you will always have clean cards to write on if you make changes to the directory).
As was the case with the AT&T 972, the ringers for each line sound a bit on the cheesy side. I really miss the old Western Electric double gong brass ringers.
I'm used to having the hold button stand out from the rest of the buttons on the face of a telephone. The hold button on the 992 is black and may take a few seconds to locate. It shouldn't be too hard to color that button either orange or red.
The handset is similar to the ones furnished with AT&T telephones for years. VTech decided to move the RJ-9 jacks deeper into the handset. This poses a problem for people who want to add a handset cord detangler, because the detangler will rub & scrape up against the handset when it rotates
Using The 992
Anyone familiar with VTech based corded telephones will have no problems navigating the 992's menu. VTech really hasn't changed the menu all that much. If you are new to VTech made corded telephones, read through the owner's manual before trying to set this telephone up and keep it at hand as there are many options to consider.
Calls made and taken on the 992's handset sounded good, with maybe just a hint of noise in the background. Volume with the optional headset seemed somewhat low.
Buttons have a good feel to them as they are being pushed. The LEDs on the face of the telephone are nice & bright and stood out fairly well in a brightly lit room. Conference calls made through the 992 often ran into problems with the 2 other parties not being able to hear each other unless I muted the speaker or handset.
The hands-free speaker sounded fine and reasonably clear. I had no problems manipulating the caller ID screen. The information on the LCD is arranged the exact same way that the 972's screen was. Scrolling through the 100 name/number directory was simple as was adding and removing entries. The redial function is a real timesaver as it will redial a busy telephone number once every 40 seconds up to a maximum of 10 tries. The flash button is used to access services, such as call waiting, 3 way calling and others. All functions seemed to work as intended.
Problems, Problems and More Problems
I must admit that I had high expectations for the 992. Sadly VTech, once again, shows that it has a long way to go with improving the reliability of its telephone products.
The most disappointing problem had to do with the LCD's back lighting. About 3 weeks after purchase, the 3 right LEDs went dim, making it difficult to see that half of the screen. Sometimes powering down the telephone and powering it back up cleared the problem for a while, but the LEDs would eventually dim again. I exchanged the first 992 for another 992, and within 7 days, the LCD's 3 left LEDs went dim.
Opinions of the 992 on other websites seem to indicate another problem, this one with caller ID. Apparently a batch of telephones have a defect where if you connect 2 telephone lines to the jack labeled "L1 or L1/L2" and the 2nd line has caller ID, the information will not appear on the screen. Line 1's info will appear normally. If you connect the 2nd telephone line to the jack marked "L2", then you get caller ID info for the 2nd line. Neither or my 992s had that problem.
Still, the question begs to be asked. "Why can't VTech get it's act together and make a good quality telephone that doesn't succumb to problems almost right out of the box?"
VTech has been producing telephones long enough that they should have worked out the bugs in their production systems.
VTech has admitted that their products have not been selling well in the USA.
Sadly, the AT&T name, which once stood for high quality telephone products, is being hurt by VTech's inability to correct its own quality control problems.
Summing It All Up
The AT&T 992 offers a good set of features at a reasonable price. Unfortunately, poor quality control on the part of the manufacturer causes me to suggest that people either hold off on purchasing this telephone in hopes that the 992's replacement will be more reliable, or look for an AT&T 962 on the Internet. The 962, made before VTech took over production of AT&T telephones, seems to be an all around better telephone.
The AT&T 992 2 line corded telephone replaces the AT&T 972 2 line corded telephone in the AT&T Consumer Product line.
VTech, the manufacturer of AT&T telephone products since 2000, has given this telephone a fresh look that is similar to those used by the 4 line telephones in the AT&T lineup.
What does it look like?
The telephone's face is mostly black in color with a few exceptions: the area around the LCD, which is silver in color. Buttons for the most part are black with white lettering & numbering, with the exception of the buttons that deal with LCD functions. Those buttons are either silver with black lettering, or silver with symbols or letters etched into the buttons. The other exception is the "Speaker" button which is a light shade of blue and a silhouette of a speaker imprinted on it.
The buttons used to store telephone numbers in memory are located along the right side of the telephone's face. Located to the left of the memory buttons are the buttons for the hands free speaker, mute, headset and volume down & up. Moving to the left, we see the standard 12 button telephone keypad. Moving upward, are the redial, flash & pause buttons. Continuing upward, we see buttons for conference, telephone line 1 & 2 selectors and hold. Just above those buttons, and below the LCD reside the directory, call history and remove buttons. Just to the right of the LCD are the buttons used to toggle through the telephone's programming menu. There are 10 LEDs on the face of the telephone. These LEDs indicate when a function is active, such as the hands free speaker, mute, headset and others. Each telephone line has 2 status indicators. a green LED indicates which line will be selected when the handset is lifted, or the speaker button is pushed. The red LEDs show that a line is in use. Each line has a bright red dual function LED. If you subscribe to caller ID from your local telephone company and you receive a call, the status LED for that line will glow. If you subscribe to your local telephone company's voicemail service and there are new messages waiting for review, that same status light will blink.
The 992 provides a 100 name & number directory. With this directory, you can save names & telephone numbers directly from caller ID records if you subscribe to that service from your local telephone provider.
The rear of the telephone contains 3 telephone line jacks and a selector switch that determines which line an optional device, such as an answering machine, modem or fax machine, will use to send & receive calls on. Oh, let's not forget the all-to-familiar jack where you connect the external AC "wall wart".
The bottom of the telephone contains the compartment that houses the 9v battery which is used to keep basic telephone functions alive during power outages.
The telephone can be placed on a flat surface or wall mounted. The telephone's base can be reversed to accommodate either mounting position. A small tab just underneath the handset cradle can be removed & reversed to hold the handset in place when the telephone is wall mounted.
Nice Touches
After years & years of churning out telephones with unlit LCDs, VTech seems to have gotten the message that their telephones need to have back-lights. The 992's 4 line by 16 character display is illuminated by 6 small greenish-yellow LEDs. As was the case the the old AT&T 962, the back-light is always illuminated, unless you scroll through the telephone's programming menu, where you will find an option to turn the back-lighting off.
The oversized buttons & lettering will be welcomed by people with less than perfect eyesight.
Not So Nice Touches
While the 992 provides up to 16 memory spaces to store telephone numbers, the directory card is a bit on the small side and does not provide much room to write on. (It may be a good idea to make copies of the blank directory card, keep the originals as spares and write on the copies. That way you will always have clean cards to write on if you make changes to the directory).
As was the case with the AT&T 972, the ringers for each line sound a bit on the cheesy side. I really miss the old Western Electric double gong brass ringers.
I'm used to having the hold button stand out from the rest of the buttons on the face of a telephone. The hold button on the 992 is black and may take a few seconds to locate. It shouldn't be too hard to color that button either orange or red.
The handset is similar to the ones furnished with AT&T telephones for years. VTech decided to move the RJ-9 jacks deeper into the handset. This poses a problem for people who want to add a handset cord detangler, because the detangler will rub & scrape up against the handset when it rotates
Using The 992
Anyone familiar with VTech based corded telephones will have no problems navigating the 992's menu. VTech really hasn't changed the menu all that much. If you are new to VTech made corded telephones, read through the owner's manual before trying to set this telephone up and keep it at hand as there are many options to consider.
Calls made and taken on the 992's handset sounded good, with maybe just a hint of noise in the background. Volume with the optional headset seemed somewhat low.
Buttons have a good feel to them as they are being pushed. The LEDs on the face of the telephone are nice & bright and stood out fairly well in a brightly lit room. Conference calls made through the 992 often ran into problems with the 2 other parties not being able to hear each other unless I muted the speaker or handset.
The hands-free speaker sounded fine and reasonably clear. I had no problems manipulating the caller ID screen. The information on the LCD is arranged the exact same way that the 972's screen was. Scrolling through the 100 name/number directory was simple as was adding and removing entries. The redial function is a real timesaver as it will redial a busy telephone number once every 40 seconds up to a maximum of 10 tries. The flash button is used to access services, such as call waiting, 3 way calling and others. All functions seemed to work as intended.
Problems, Problems and More Problems
I must admit that I had high expectations for the 992. Sadly VTech, once again, shows that it has a long way to go with improving the reliability of its telephone products.
The most disappointing problem had to do with the LCD's back lighting. About 3 weeks after purchase, the 3 right LEDs went dim, making it difficult to see that half of the screen. Sometimes powering down the telephone and powering it back up cleared the problem for a while, but the LEDs would eventually dim again. I exchanged the first 992 for another 992, and within 7 days, the LCD's 3 left LEDs went dim.
Opinions of the 992 on other websites seem to indicate another problem, this one with caller ID. Apparently a batch of telephones have a defect where if you connect 2 telephone lines to the jack labeled "L1 or L1/L2" and the 2nd line has caller ID, the information will not appear on the screen. Line 1's info will appear normally. If you connect the 2nd telephone line to the jack marked "L2", then you get caller ID info for the 2nd line. Neither or my 992s had that problem.
Still, the question begs to be asked. "Why can't VTech get it's act together and make a good quality telephone that doesn't succumb to problems almost right out of the box?"
VTech has been producing telephones long enough that they should have worked out the bugs in their production systems.
VTech has admitted that their products have not been selling well in the USA.
Sadly, the AT&T name, which once stood for high quality telephone products, is being hurt by VTech's inability to correct its own quality control problems.
Summing It All Up
The AT&T 992 offers a good set of features at a reasonable price. Unfortunately, poor quality control on the part of the manufacturer causes me to suggest that people either hold off on purchasing this telephone in hopes that the 992's replacement will be more reliable, or look for an AT&T 962 on the Internet. The 962, made before VTech took over production of AT&T telephones, seems to be an all around better telephone.
