Panasonic Cordless - A Must Have

I am so close to forgetting about cordless phones altogether and switching back to the olden days and buy a corded phone that hangs off my wall. If it wasn't for the fact that I have a toddler running around I would run out to the store and buy a corded wall phone. But I need the cordless phone for obvious reasons. So here is the million dollar question...why is it so hard to find a good cordless phone for your house?.

After searching for the right phone I think (hope) I finally found the one to fit my needs. I did some research and asked around and the name that kept coming up as a great phone was the Panasonic. Years back I had a Motorolla which was the best. I loved that phone. It had everything I needed. The base had a keypad and a speakerphone. It was great for when the phone was ringing but you couldn't find the handset anywhere or maybe your child hid it as a "joke". But unfortunately my son's sticky fingers broke the buttons. He loves to play with the real phone not his toy phones and after a few months of this it finally broke. Oh well. So it was time for a new one.

I purchased the VTech phone. It looked so cool. It had a smooth dialing pad so my son's sticky fingers couldn't break this phone. It had a cool blue back light when you dialed or when it rang. It just looked like it had everything I needed. Well, I was wrong. This phone is HORRIBLE. Please see my review on that one. I promptly returned it and purchased this Panasonic cordless. I love it. So far so good. Some of the details of this new Panasonic phone are as follows:

The one I purchased has the phone with the base and 2 extension handsets. The whole thing cost $120 at Target. Not that expensive for 3 phones altogether. The only thing is that I didn't really need the 3rd nadset but Target didn't carry any other packaging. So it was either this one or nothing.

What I love:

1. On the base it has a keypad that I could dial out. This is great when you can't find the handset and need to make a quick or emergency call.

2. On the base it has a speaker phone I could use when I can't find my handset. A great feature also when you can't find the handset in a hurry.

3. It has a built in answering machine which you could turn on and off. I do have the Optimum automated answering service but I prefer the answering machine on this phone. You can just hit the play button when you see the light blinking and hear all of your messages. With the answering service you have to call in your phone number and hit a bunch of different options, so annoying when you are in a rush.

4. The caller ID gives the option of dialing the number 1 when redialing a past number. This is the one option that I hated about the VTech phone. It didn't have this choice when you made a phone call using the number from the caller ID. You don't always have time to look up a phone number and sometimes you don't have the person's phone number that you need to call back. This option is so helpful.

5. The buttons are easy to use. They don't stick and aren't hard to push. They are big enough to fit comfortably on your fingertips when dialing.

6. It came in silver, love the color. I know the other choice I could have picked was black but that package came with 4 extra handsets. My house is not big enough to need so many extra handsets. That would have been an unnecessary purchase.

7. The handset has some substance to it. Not too light not too heavy. My VTech was way too light and my son would send it flinging across the room. No wonder it didn't work very well. This one has just enough weight to it once you put in the battery pack.

8. Great reception. No matter where I am standing in my house I can hear the person on the other end of the line clearly. You can change the volume also on this phone. My husband says I talk too loud so he can lower it if I am on the phone. I tend to lower it when I am talking to my mom. She gets a little loud as well.

9. Phone comes with voice caller ID too. I think you can disable it but I like it. When I can't get to the phone I can hear who is calling. If it's not important I don't have to rush to find the phone or run to the base. I didn't know if I was going to like this feature but I have to tell you...I LOVE IT!!!!!.. The only thing about this option is that the voice person doesn't know how to say certain names. It sounds kinda funny.

10. Overall this Panasonic is just a great phone. You will not be disappointed with this purchase. So far I am not disappointed at all.

A very important thing....please shop around before making any purchase and always keep the receipt when making a big purchase. You never know if you are going to need to return it and most stores nows are having very strict return policies Target will only let you make two returns without a receipt for the entire year. Even with that policy they have certain rules that apply.

If this phone turns out not be as great as I think....I am definitely going back to the way our parents did it....CORDED WALL PHONES! You can't go wrong.