AT&T Trimline a - basic phone

I have several phones in the house and am always changing phones to suit my personal needs. The reason for buying this phone is that it can go on the wall jack or just lay on the bed with a line cord and move it around to suit my needs. Placing it on the wall requires the modular telephone wall jack with a plate to hold the phone, which in many rooms is located near the floor in all my rooms except the kitchen where it's high. I have a long cord to the wall jack so I can place the phone at any location convenient for me to move it around the room. The coiled cord to the handset can be stretched to 5 feet. It's a "Trimline" style which is small in size but not very light. I purchased this White Trimline phone because of the Caller ID function and not about the features. This model may be discontinued but there are some around.


A Basic phone.
This phone is solid, just like the old Princess phone. For the 3 line LCD display to function it requires 3 AA batteries not included. The batteries are inserted in the base under the card that you can write the numbers stored in memory by pressing and pulling the tab. The memory will be erased if the batteries are not changed within 5 minutes after they die. For the caller ID and the FLASH to work you need to subscribe with your phone service provider which allows you to see the name of the caller and answer another call. The batteries are needed for the New Call light to work. The New Call light is on the back of the handset and blinks red intermittently when a call has not been reviewed. To stop the blinking red light, just the "Call List" button till you view the callers.

The 7 buttons on the back of the handset are; the 2 arrows (^ & v) to scroll and check the callers, a REMOVE button to delete the call, the CLEAR returns to the idle screen without making any changes, the FLASH button is used for call waiting if you subscribe for this service, DISPLAY DIAL will dial the number in the call list and in the center is the menu button called OPTIONS. The user manual is fairly easy to set up your phone and adjust the way you dial numbers for your home area codes (HAC).

The handset is not flimsy and light and that is one of the reasons I chose this phone. It can store 70 incoming calls in history and can store up to 13 programmed numbers in memory. This phone has Re-dial and Mute. It does not have a Hold button. You can dial a number in the history by pressing “Display Dial” on the back of the handset then lift the handset and it will call a stored number. The Handset has a volume control to adjust what you hear to LO, MED or HI. There is a Ringer Volume on the right side of the base which can be adjusted to OFF, LO or HI.

Not a BIG investment.
So, it’s pretty basic and cheap. Depending on where you buy it can be $10-$15. They have other cheap phones out there, but not the same quality as AT&T which are distinguished and has a long history for excellence. It has been dropped many times and has not broken. I've used this phone for over 1 year. It serves it’s purpose in a bedroom or spare room. It is easy to wipe clean and so far there are no scratches and the dialing buttons which are not illuminated work just like it was new.

Summary
Today we have many choices when purchasing a phone. I chose what works for me. This phone is mainly used in a spare room so the features were not that important to me but the quality of the phone was important. This phone is very stable and has 4 soft 1/2" circular coverings on the back of the base to keep the phone from sliding around and protects from scratching furniture it may be placed on.

A very reasonably priced phone which I purchase more than a year ago that works well and feels solid with good reception on both ends.

The only thing this phone is missing for me is the HOLD feature. Many phones do not have this feature unless you buy a more expensive model.