Customer Reviews

AT&T 1070 Corded Phone, Black/Silver, 1 Handset

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

 

 

Overall, this is a great telephone. All features worked beautifully, each button pressed produced the expected result -- press the Transfer button while on a call, the LCD prompts "Transfer line to ?". By keeping one function per button, and also utilizing the navigation menu-driven options through the phone's display, anyone can easily figure out how to do anything on these phones without ever needing to read any of the documentation.

The speakerphone sounds nice, although the volume of the speaker could've been louder (in my opinion). Each phone allows you to control the ringing tone, volume, and delay ringing options for each line individually. Believe it or not, that level of control of line ringing assignments are usually reserved for KSU systems only! Intercom calling worked flawlessly. All-Page was loud and very practical for a busy home with office, or larger retail store.

With a cost of between $100-$150 per phone, these are an outstanding value for any large home or growing business with 2 or more phone lines looking for the simplicity of replacing their old phones with something more serious, flexible, and functional.

These phones have all the features we wanted in our small business and we are convinced these are the right phones for us. Unfortunately two of the first three phones we've purchased have had the speakerphone microphones die in the first 72 hours of use.

The phone is great for almost everything and has 4 lines, do not disturb, intercom, caller id, 1-touch speed dial, etc. My only complaint is that the speakerphone is not clear. The speakerphone on my cell phone works better. That being said, when using either the handset or a headset, the sound quality is excellent.

I am on my second at&t 1070 "speaker"phone (returned the first because the speakerphone didn't work on it, and now have my second one with the same exact problem). I'm probably going to return it and buy a competitor's product, even though I've been a loyal AT&T phone buyer for decades.

the headset and handset functions work beautifully. The 4 line function is wonderful. Unfortunately, when I bought a "speakerphone", I did so because I actually needed that function to work, and with this product, it appears to be a common problem that it doesn't. When you have the speakerphone button on, you can hear them, but they can't hear you, even in a totally silent room, which kinda defeats the purpose of buying a speakerphone in the first place, doesn't it?

I have searched the manual and looked online for troubleshooting information to fix this, and can't find something actionable beyond returning the stupid thing. Given all the other people posting about the same problem with no fixes offered, there appears to be a design flaw or quality issue with the speaker function that the company seems to be ignoring.

Of course, you don't figure this out until after you have invested substantial time in setting up autodials, defaults and such.

If you never use the speaker function, this product is a 5, but if you actually need the speakerphone function of the speakerphone, avoid like the plague.

I recently had to give up my 2-line, cordless phones when I added a third phone line. While using a corded phone for business has taken some getting used to, this phone is working very well. It has many handy features that my old phones did not have - an extension for each phone (so we don't have to yell across the office at each other), transferring, etc.

The one thing I would caution any buyers on is the speakerphone feature. It stinks. I read this was an issue with this phone, but I underestimated how often I would want to use the speakerphone since I now had a corded phone. The user can hear just fine, apparently the issue is on the listener's side. The speaker cuts out, hisses, is quiet too quiet - I've received numerous complaints.

If you don't plan on using the speaker feature, this phone will be fine for your daily use.

AT&T phones have always done right by me. I saw the reviews that said they had problems with the speakerphone and figured it wouldn't happen to me - NOT! The microphone for the speakerphones blew out within 5 days of purchase. If you don't need/use the speakerphone, then it's fine.

Updated 4/23/11
Further to the comments below. In our own AT&T 1070 vs. the Panasonic KX-TS4200B bake-off, we ultimately went with the AT&T 1070. But for intercom speaker/line quality issues, both phones have this problem, which since the intercom works using radio frequencies, is typically caused by outside interference. So in addition to my earlier comments below, 2 recommendations for isolating the cause:
1. Make sure your cell phone is typically not placed on your desk right beside the phone
2. Check out this link to track down interference problems - especially making sure your power adapter is plugged into the wall and not into a power board:
[...]
There have been several similar reviews on this phone, which I would echo, for intercom users only. From our experience, having tested both AT&T and Panasonic 4 line phones, we have found that both phones have similar issues, with Panasonic being the better of the two. Some contributors here reported the AT&T speakers failing after a few days, others two out of three were bad, etc. Here is our experience

We first owned AT&T's older 974 phones for several years. Eventually after several years, they failed, not on telephone calls but on intercom calls. A loud, unacceptable screech developed. So we purchased two 1070's and found that while the loud screech problem was gone, on one phone the speaker on intercom was unintelligible. Swapped phone positions, the problem traveled with the phone. Ordered a 3rd phone. Same problem to a lesser degree. Returned all three and purchased 2 Panasonic KX-TS4200's.

We purchased the Panasonics knowing from the AMZN review board that there was going to be delay in the phone recognizing key presses. Some users couldn't stand it. Others could. We found same, although with a medium-paced, deliberate dial, it was fine. However, in the end, we concluded we could live with it either. But the speaker problem on intercom calls re-emerged, to a lesser, but still not good, level.

The AT&T and Panasonic techs won't help you on this. They will just tell you to try doing a hard reset of the phone. But I think we may have fixed it, or at least alleviated it on the Panasonics. The solution, we think, no matter which phone you buy, is to try configuring non-adjacent extension numbers, which are presumably working on just different frequencies and possibly interfering with each other. For example, rather than setting up Ext 11, 12, 13 and 14, try 12, 16, 20 and 24. Can't guarantee it will help, but try it.

Of course if you are not an intercom user, or even if you are and don't mind connecting by intercom with either the handset or the earphone, either the AT&T or Panasonic are great phones. But I do believe, with AT&T, there is a higher risk of the intercom speaker system eventually failing - just based on our own 974/1070 experience, plus the reviews on this board. AT&T needs more robust electronics here, and you may have to return a phone, or two, or three to get one that works. Once you do get it right - great system.

Everything works as advertised. Got sick of trying to run down all the cordless phones, found two in the hamper. We have 3 lines one landline, one magicjack phone and one ATA. I wired the the house with 4 pair when built so each phone line is either a gigabit network or set for up to 4 lines. Office is in the basement so it's very convenient to forward the call to one of the other phones when needed. And the kids can't walk off with the corded phone.

I had been using the AT&T 993 by itself and needed to grow to 4 handsets. I upgraded to this model so that I could have intercom between the handsets and have multiple lines. The phone works well and is well made. I am using the Plantronics Mobile Convertible Headset M175C which plugs in directly to the headset jack. The headset works well but does not provide additional amplification for the speaker or listener and the chord is short. I plan on buying this conversion piece [] Adapter-Amplifier_2104.php which will allow me to us any plantronics headset amplifier and the built-in headset button of the phone.

If the 1040-1070-1080 series is used on a line shared by non system phones (etc), the hold button on the phones will not recognize when a non-system phone picks up the line (ie: if you put a line on hold, apparantly only a system phone can release the hold) (This info is confirmed in the at&t phone website FAQ's) Sorry, no review here, I won't be able to use this system.