Customer Reviews

AT&T 1856 Corded Speakerphone with Digital Answering System (White)

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(39)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(20)

 

 

I bought this phone to replace my cordless phones. I had to hard of a time hearing on my cordless phones (and I am not hard of hearing). This phone has great volume and volume control. It is durable and can be mounted on your wall or put on your counter. I did have to buy a longer phone cord so I could walk around. The speaker phone has really good volume and the people I have spoken with on speaker phone can hear me really well. The only draw back is that the caller ID does not light up so it is hard to see at night. Overall I am very happy with this purchase and pleasantly surprised by its quality.

This is a great little phone, and for the price -- well, it's unbeatable, and trust me, I compared a LOT of models.

But (there's always a but, isn't there?) the bad news is that although this phone has "Memory Guard," it's NOT the same as a battery backup. Even tho' the Amazon Product Description says "Power Failure Operation Memory Loss Protection (battery required)" there's no place to put batteries. You can get and make calls when the power is out, but the phone will not ring, so you need another corded phone that will ring to let you know you've got a call. The answering machine will not work during a power outage, and the clock needs to be reset (easy to do) if the power goes out for even a second. But the good news is you will NOT lose messages that came in before the power went out (or after it comes back on, although the time stamp for those calls will not be right unless the power went out for only a few seconds). You also will not lose stored numbers, your recorded announcement, and other settings.

The good news is it's got a lot of features not found on other phones in this price range, notably (for me, anyway) a mute button with indicator that you're in mute mode, volume control for the speakerphone, ability to dial out while in speakerphone mode (no need to take the handset off the hook), and an audible message alert.

I found this easy to set up, but maybe only because I had a cordless AT&T phone that worked much the same way, so I'm used to the procedures for setting it up.

This phone works as expected, although I have a minor complaint about usability. On most answering machines I've had, the "Listen to messages" button is large and easily identifiable.
On this phone, however, the large lighted button actually turns the answering function on and off.
You have to press the South quadrant of the ring surrounding this button to actually listen to messages (similar in use to a cell phone 4-way button.)
Not very intuitive...

For the money, this telephone/answering machine provides the features that you would expect in such a product. Call quality is excellent and speakerphone audio quality is good. I also like the fact that it does not require batteries to retain messages during a power failure.

However, I needed to return this unit for two reasons, both relating to the answering machine part of this product:

(1) If you choose to record a custom outgoing announcement, the audio quality is abysmal. No matter how many times I re-recorded the outgoing announcement, the pitch and volume were altered in such a way as to make me sound very tired or depressed. The answering machine changed the pitch of my voice to make it sound lower and made the volume of the first two seconds or so lower than the rest of the announcement. It altered my voice so much that it did not sound like me.

(2) The volume change described above also affected incoming messages. The first two seconds or so of an incoming message sounded lower in volume than the rest of the message.

I recently purchased the 1856 and experienced the same problem the reviewer did as listed in the comment, "warning: when you mount it on the wall, the handset slides off".
Solution: the small plastic piece (less than 1"x1") located just under the handset ear piece slips out. When you slip it out, there is a small hook on one end. Turn the plastic piece around, insert it back into the phone base, and your handset will stay securely in place, even mounted on the wall.
The phone works great!

Great feature-laden corded phone, answering machine for the price. Must thoroughly read through the manual to set up features correctly. Most impressed with the clarity of recorded messages and the quality of the synthesized voice (not robotic sounding). Slightly light weight, but seems to be constructed with high-quality plastic. Only time will tell how durable this unit is. Would have given 5 stars, but feel that next version should have a backlit LCD display for easier viewing in a darkened room.

Love this phone. Clear sound. All the features I wanted -- nice clear speakerphone that is easy to access... easy to read and push buttons... and a decent size caller ID panel. Would have given it 5 stars if the ID panel had been backlit. Have to put a light on to read it. But the light is usually on anyway, so no biggie. Very good quality phone with very good quality sound. I recommend it.

AT&T 1856 Corded Speakerphone with Digital Answering System far exceeds expectations. Simple to operate, superb sound quality, just the right size and weight, and stylish. What more could anyone ask for in a combination telephone answering system. Great buy on amazon.com at less than $[...] with free shipping. Hello!?!

The AT&T 1856 phone has provided everything I expected from it. The sound is clear without cutting out as it did when I used a wireless phone. I can see the caller ID display a lot easier than with the wireless. There is the health benefit that the earpiece doesn't get hot next to my ear or emit harmful radiation. It reminds me of the way phones used to be way back when Ma Bell ran the best phone service in the world. You know when phone service was a monopoly. I added a longer cord so I can still sit in my living room and use the phone that is hanging on a wall in the kitchen. I just got it so I can't comment on how long it will last.

What I dislike about this phone:

1) The handset frequently would not lay totally flat when in the cradle so that I wouldn't notice it until the phone company sound alert for "your phone is off the hook" would come on.

2) It's cumbersome to use. The play messages button isn't a separate button, but rather you have to hold the bottom part of a four way button down to play them. I wish that AT&T had made this the way to turn the machine on and off instead of the large red button which would have worked better as the button to play messages, in my opinion. How often do people turn off their answering machine? Not nearly as often as you would want to play back your messages.

3) I've not been able to delete messages after they were played; I'd have to replay them and then push the upper part of the four way button down and hold it during the message playback.

4) After just over a month it stopped answering calls so I returned it.

I do not recommend this phone.