I remember the good old days when you had to have a phone. Then a separate answering machines. And if you were a cool kid on the block, a separate caller ID box. And now, I love that you can get all three bundled into one unit. When we moved into our new house, we had caller ID, so we had to get an answering machine and cordless phone with caller ID. We chose the
AT&T 1465 Cordless Phone. And despite a few flaws it has worked pretty well.
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What it is
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The AT&T 1465 Cordless Phone is a cordless phone with digital answering machine and caller ID built into the handset.
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Features & Commentary
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The cordless phone aspect works great. The frequency is 2.4gHz which means it is at a high enough frequency that it won't interfere with wireless networks, baby monitors and it won't stop your pacemaker. The sound quality is, well, phone-like. Phone quality is naturally bad by design, but this phone doesn't make it any worse. The sound is clear on this end and just as clear to the other person. The rage is fantastic. I've actually been on the phone while walking outside and across the street to the mailbox with no degradation in sound quality. I've never heard any noise, buzz, or static when using this phone.
Another nice feature is the ability to plug in a hands-free set into the side. This feature works decently in a pinch, but when I'm on it, people complain that I sound far away. Strangely, the phone did not come with a hands-free set, but if you are like most people, you have several pairs laying around gathering dust. This feature is not that practical for everyday use, but for a conference call or long hold durations, it can be a neck-saver. It would be nice if the base was also a speaker phone, but given how little I would use it, it is not a deal-breaker.
The answering machine is a digital recorder which means it doesn't use any tape. This creates a natural limitation in the number and length of messages it will hold. With tape, you can just swap in a new tape. With digital, thing get messy, either failure to record or deletion of older stuff. Thankfully, we've never had a problem with lots of messages. And my wife's friends and family don't just leave messages, they leaves novels. We've had upwards of 30 minutes worth of messages stored with no sign of impending doom.
Like all answering machines, they can be listened to remotely via a 4-number key combination. One of the previous problems we've seen with answering machines is that every time you call in to retrieve a message, you end up leaving another message. Very annoying that each time you listen to your messages, your message counter increments by one. Thankfully we've not seen this issue with this machine. Apparently, it knows not to keep it as a message.
The only drawback with the machine is that the playback at home is very muffled. Often times, we have to repeat the playback of messages because a word or two got distorted. We've tried turning the volume up and down, but apparently, the speaker is very weak and can't handle the output sound without distorting. This is the biggest flaw we've seen with the phone.
One nice touch is that the play light is a large clear button that lights up when you have messages and blinks red when you have unread messages. I can tell from across the room what the status of my phone popularity is. Eye candy, I know, but it's still a nice feature.
The Caller ID works well, but there is a noticeable delay between when the phone rings and when the information appears on the handset. Usually by the second ring, we know the name and phone number of the person calling. Or in the case of my mother-in-law, I know it is her because it says "BLOCKED". Luckily, she is the only one we know with caller ID blocking, so by default, she has ID'ed herself as the caller. Funny that.
The caller ID queue holds up to 90 saved numbers. So if I wanted to be a creep, I could go through the call log and find out who called my wife during the day. Wow, that really is creepy, isn't it? Regardless, once I find a number I want to keep, I can program it in. Very convenient. The display is a basic monochrome LCD. It would be nice if there was a backlight, but not a big deal. The letters and numbers are easy to read.
Other nifty features include the handset pager which beeps the handset until it is found. I can't tell you how many times I've used this to find the lost handset. Also, the handset fits in the cradle either facing in or out. I don't know why you'd want to face it in, but it's an option if you desire. And finally, the clock in the center of the speaker looks cool and allows me to see the time while on the phone. It doesn't automatically sync up with the answering machine clock, so in a power outage you have to set them both separately. But still cool and looks good.
Conclusion
The AT&T 1465 Cordless Phone is a stylish and functional phone. It has good features with a few design flaws, but is an inexpensive solution for your phone needs.
