Customer Reviews

GE 27939GE3 2.4 GHz Cordless Speakerphone with Digital Messaging System and Caller ID

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(31)

 

 

Over the past month I've bought about 10 2.4GHz phones with built in answering machines and call ID. I got 2 two AT&T phones, both of which were defective, 2 Simmons phones that didn't get any reception, 1 Panasonic that felt flimsy, and a bunch of cheep-o's from my local store's. The cheap no-name ones performed as well as the 100+ dollar ones. But since I'm a finicky little ..., I kept looking some more.

I've used GE phones in the office where I work. Those phones ruled all of the ones I tried and it was only a 900 MHz. So I came to Amazon and stumbled upon this one. After using it, I fell in love with it. This is the best phone I've tried. The only one that was even good by my standards. The more I use it the more I love it.

Features: great reception, adequate volume, excellent call-ID, call-ID "call back" feature (this is where you select a name and/or number in the call-ID history and press call back and it dials the # for you), Call waiting (which I haven't used), excellent digital answering machine, answering machine remote capabilities from handset, intercom, conference calling.

Nifty things I've seen it do: After accidentally unplugging it, the answering machine reset it's own clock when someone called me. I assume it did it with the call-ID.

After trying 10 phones in a month I think I'm qualified to make a reccomendation or two. This phone/answerer/call-ID rules all.

We bought this phone a few weeks ago, and I wanted to try it out a bit before writing a review. I should mention that the major reason we bought it was because Consumer Reports called it the best value in 2.4Ghz phones. I'm quite pleased with every aspect of the phone, especially the answering system, the "look and feel," and the quality of the features (ex. handset volume is adjustable to 5 levels, crystal clear sound on answering system greeting and messages, caller ID is advanced while also being simple to use). Of course, the most important issue with a cordless phone is reception, and on this, the GE phone comes up a bit short. It's true that if you stay near the base, you get great sound. But if you wander a bit, you begin to hear the occasional click and hiss. One more thing, the 2.4 GHz is almost *too* strong. It sometimes picks up conversations coming from other cordless phones in the area. We live in a large apt. building, so it happens more than it would if you're living in a single family. A quick channel change usually clears up that problem, but it's still annoying when it happens. Despite these minor issues, the phone is a keeper.

this is a cool phone, no bulky antenna, no long awkward antenna, speaker phone, dual keypad, answering machine, which all work quite well, but it seems the shortness of the antenna has made the reception just as lacking....honestly, i can't walk more than one room away before the fuzziness kicks in. i thought it was just me until i read all these reviews. i like the design, it's cuter than other phones, i really don't like antennas but it seems ge has yet to master the short antenna trick....so until they master this, keep your 900 mhz which will work far better than this 2.4 ghz phone.

As you should have seen by now this phone has MANY features, especially for the price. The design is quite good, it feels good to hold and it is almost perfect. Almost....there is one MAJOR problem with this phone. The signal strength is absolutely poor. You can hardly walk anywhere before you get all kinds of distortion in the signal. Not any little distortion either. The max range on this is half that of my 900MHZ Vtech 3 year old phone. It is a huge let down really. A phone with such potential to be hindered by something so basic, especially since its 2.4GHZ. I still however gave the phone such a high rating because of the great number of features, design, etc. But be warned, if you need a phone for distance, stay away from this one.

To Qoute another reviewer - this phone reminds me of one of the first cordless phones I owned when they first came out.
- walking about 25 feet away from base caused lots of static, clicking and popping; switching channnels or relocating base does not change this
- poor sound quality on the answering machine playback, callers sounded like they were underwater, although maybe they were, its been raining alot here lately

- There may be some good features to this phone, but I'm not keeping it long enough to find out

We were looking to replace a clunky old Uniden model with something more contemporary-looking, and to be honest, we were pleased with almost everything about this phone--the styling, the size, the dialing, etc. But one of the most important things an answering machine has to do is PICK UP INCOMING CALLS. If your answering machine can't do that reliably, wouldn't you say you purchased a bum product? Well, about two weeks after buying this guy, co-workers started saying "hey, don't you have an answering machine?" and I knew we had a problem. Tested it and sure enough, it picked up only about 50% of the time. Our Uniden never had that problem. We sent it to GE and to their credit, got a replacement phone in about 2-3 weeks. Only problem is, the replacement they sent PICKS UP CALLS ONLY 50% OF THE TIME. Unbelievable. Never again.

Our previous Panasonic cordless 900MHz phone was replaced with this GE phone when the Panasonic keypad stopped working.

We liked the CID and answering machine. The sound quality and battery life were good. We were perfectly happy with the phone for some months. But then the speaker in the base station for the speakerphone stopped working. I replace it with a speaker from an old junk answering machine. Not great, but usable (speakerphone is not that important for us). Now with over a year of use the GE keypad has stopped working (have to press multiple times. Sometimes you end up getting a double entry. Very frustrating when you have to attempt to dial multiple times).

Taking apart the phone, it has the keypad construction as our Panasonic had. Some kind of black disks embedded under keypad buttons make contact with against the circuit board when the buttons are pressed. I assume these disks are supposed to be conductive (but they have a high resistance). There was also some lubricant. Anyway, these keypads are definitely not built to last. I had expected to use this phone for many years. Why should you have to replace your phone every year or two? I will not be buying a Panasonic or GE again, nor any phone with the same kind of keypad (maybe all brands use the same keypad technology?).

I just bought this phone because my trusty 900 MHz Sony finally crapped out. This phone looked like a great deal in the store, but now I know why they were selling them so cheap!

The range is pathetic. Sound quality goes down very quickly as you get away from the base. It reminds me of the very first cordless phones that you had to hold in just the right orientation in just the right place to get good reception.

The LCD display is all but illegible. You have to look at the screen at some weird angle in order to increase the contrast to where you can read it. The time/date stamp is particular difficult to read.

The botom line: my mom was right -- buy the best and only cry once.

I bought this phone about 18 months ago, and have not been happy with it from the beginning. NOW, the buttons are broken......you have to pound on ALL of them to get them to work. I live alone, so it's not like there is a rough-and-tumble bunch of kids using it.
Also, the answering system is below quality, and when you are receiving another call, the call-waiting buzz/beep is WAY too long.
Overall, a very, very disappointing purchase. I am now in the process of looking for a replacement.
DON'T buy this phone

This is second GE phone I have had (had a corded phone earlier). Excellent quality, and excellent noise performance in both cases.

I had tried a cordless phone by SouthWestern Bell, and by V-Tech, before settling on this GE phone. Both had bad sound quality performance. Completely satisfied with the sound quality performance of GE phone.

The minor bads:

Speaker phone and answering machine volume is not loud enough for me. Sound quality of recording is OK. Similarly, loudness for handset is not enough.

Handset is a bit heavy, and gets fairly hot unless air conditioning is on.

In spite of the above, the best phone in terms of features, sound quality.