Customer Reviews

AT&T 974 Small Business System Speakerphone with Intercom and Caller ID/Call Waiting (Titanium Blue)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I've been looking for a multi-line corded phone for months, and thought I'd found what I wanted in the AT&T 992, which recently became available. It had all the features I was looking for, but the phone did not work reliably. I bought and returned three of them, all with a different problem.

I then decided to try this phone, the 974, even though it's a 4-line phone and I only need two lines. It has worked perfectly, and the overall quality is much better than the 992. I especially notice a difference in the sound quality. Unlike the 992, the line indicator buttons on this phone only illuminate when a line is in use, so it's much easier to see the activity on the lines. A big advantage of this phone over many others is that all the lines work in the event of a power outage.

I haven't used the conference feature yet, but all the other features--speakerphone, headset, caller ID, message waiting indicator, etc.--work as they should.

Previous reviewer was right! This phone is attractively designed and works great with many features. It's the ideal home office phone. It's rare when you plug in a device for the first time that you get a feeling that a lot of thought and effort went into design. When I plugged in this phone I got that feeling when the brief test mode lit up the orange and green lights on the buttons- very nice designed lights! So far using this phone, I have no complaints, just a very minor gripe- if you talk too close to the mic in the handset it causes an annoying static type sound in the earpiece (wind blast noise). This is easily avoidable by talking at least 1 inch from the mic. Still, maybe noise reduction might have prevented this, not sure. Except for that minor quibble this phone is a masterwork of design and function.

I wanted white color but now I really do like the Titanium Blue color it comes in, and it doesn't look blue at all to me, it looks like a dark grey to me (which I like). Even though this is a 4 line phone, it's ideal for just one line use as well, which is how I'm using it for now. I can not review yet how well the multiline and conference features work since I'm only using one line at the moment. Even though this phone is expensive, it was the only phone I could find that had all of the features I wanted that worked well. I started with an ATT $24 phone, then the ATT 945 (which doesn't have caller ID) and finally this one, which has caller ID. I was also replacing a cordless phone because I needed a speakerphone, but also because I had recently heard that cordless phones send out as much EMF radiation as cell phones! The cordless base may also send out strong levels of EMF even when the phone is not in use. That kind of bothered me, since I sit by the phone almost all day long at home office. I found that you can buy an EMF detector that can measure EMF levels from devices in your home. I haven't done that yet but I think I will eventually. Since I sit by my phone almost all day I decided to replace the cordless with a corded and eliminate any possible EMF.

The main features I was looking for: speakerphone, headset option, mute, call timer, caller id, good audio (with volume control), and easy to read LED. It has these and much more. This phone has a superbly designed headset setup- plug in a headset (2.5mm plug) and switch very easily between the headset/handset/speaker, before, or even in the middle of a call. Be cautious of cheaper phones that have headset use but may not be easy to switch easily like this (requires a headset button).

The large LED has a bright green background that displays the black text very sharply and the menu system is easy to use. I figured out how to set the speed dial buttons without the manual. A column of 16 speed dial buttons on the right is nicely designed (each can hold 2 numbers for a total of 32). Push a speed dial, it dials immediately on speaker if you want. Speed dial buttons are easy to push and not too small (unlike lower cost models). All the buttons and controls on this phone are so well designed it's actually fun to use! When I first setup a speed dial, it didn't dial but opened the intercom. I quickly found the preference setting to make it dial, again without looking in the manual. By the way, the manual is very good.

When on a call, the call timer shows length of call. (some lower cost ATT models do not) This phone has intercom/page capability but I haven't used it yet. I tested the Do Not Disturb function- push the DND button and it lights up orange and silences the ringer- I called it and it did not ring- nice for when you do not want to be disturbed- yet it flashes the line button (green) if a call is coming in. A "New Call" light indicates when a call came in when you were away from the phone. Scroll thru the caller ID history to see who called.

This phone has no answering system- this is ok with me because I use local phone co. as my answering service.

The handset is very lightweight and the receiver sounds very good. The microphone in the handset is the only thing about the phone that might be improved, it would benefit from noise reduction, otherwise just remember to talk at least 1 inch from the mic in the handset to avoid the wind blast noise. I find this a very minor gripe because otherwise this phone is fabulous in every other way. The other thing I needed to do was replace the included short 3 foot handset cord with a longer one, but would have had to do that with most other new phones as well.

I purchased 3 of these for my office back in October. First the speakerphone microphone on the one on my desk stopped working most of the time. I had been planning on exchanging the phone on my desk with a coworkers since I use the speakerphone on a daily basis. My investors were out this week and were on a conference call on another of the phones, that microphone stopped working. Today I had a phone interview and the THIRD phone microphone stopped working! They work for 15 or 20 seconds, then the party on the other end can't hear you. These are gone. I was also hoping for a visual indicator that there were messages waiting when you use Verizon Centrex/voicemail. No go there.

I had several Verizon business lines setup with Centrex and this phone allows me to route up to four lines through it, with different settings for each (different rings, or even no rings), it shows caller id data, tracks calls, and has all of the basic features you would want in an office phone (speakerphone, DND, autodial, headset out, etc).

I do not use this in a large environment, so I can't speak to how well it transfers calls or deals with that sort of life - I have a single small office and suits my needs well.

The only thing that I don't like about it is not really a fault of the phone, it is a fault of my own for not looking for a phone with it in the first place - but I want a phone that can talk to my computer. Pass the caller id on to my computer, log, screen, etc - I am in the software business and would like more control over anything in my office.

This phone is basic, but has every feature a small office would need.

The AT&T 974 is a good small business phone. There are only two problems with it, and these appear to be common with all of the AT&T small business multi-line phones. (1) AT&T frequently introduces new models and discontinues the previous ones. Unfortunately, they do not make the intercom, and some other features, backwards-compatible. So, if you want to get the most from your system, you have to upgrade all the phones in the office. This model is discontinued, and it's replacement--I think it's the 1074--causes all sorts of problems with the 974s in the office (intercom, transfer, hold, for example). (2) When you're on a call, there should be an option to mute, or partially mute, the ringer on the other lines. It's distracting to have the phone ring at full volume when you're trying to talk to somebody else. You can press the "do not disturb" button, but if you forget to turn off "do not disturb" when you hang up, you'll miss subsequent calls.

We use an AT&T 974 speakerphone in our small business. It works fine for us, and the built-in caller id display is a big help. It will even display incoming caller information when the line is in use, if you have the "caller ID on hold" feature from the phone company.

The only big drawback we've found so far is with the "hold" feature. When you put a call on hold and pick up on another extension which is not one of the compatible AT&T models, the AT&T 974 does not release the line. After the extension is hung up, the AT&T 974 keeps the line on hold for 30 minutes! AT&T says this feature only works properly with other compatible models made by AT&T. It's an inconvenience, to be sure, and for our household, where we have seven phones, a big investment which we haven't been able to justify yet.

I bought 3 of these. I did my homework in reading all the reviews and still chose this phone as it was the only one at a reasonable price that would do what I thought I wanted it to do.

First - The color - "ick" - I guess I thought it meant a *dark* charcoal gray/blue but it is more of a *light* gray/blue. It certainly does not match anything in an office setting, but I'm more concerned with the function than the color.

Second - The function - The handset if comfortable to hold but you need to make sure it is exactly on your ear and mouth or you lose the quality. I like to hold the phone cradled in my neck freeing both hands to work while talking but that isn't possible as you lose the sound quality. I know .. use a headset, but I don't.

I have one in the home office and one in the kitchen. If I answer in the office and someone leaves the office to get the extension in the kitchen, they cannot answer it until you put yours on *hold* or you transfer the call to that extension, the same goes if it is a phone that is "not" a compatible phone. It seems you have to put it on hold in order to release it to someone on another phone.


The intercom feature works good. The third phone is in another building. I can intercom to that extension phone instead of walking across the parking lot and instead of using one line to call another line thus tying up two phone lines. I have not tried the call transfer yet but I assume it works okay.

I checked room monitor just for the fun of it. I don't really need this and it probably could be interpreted as an invasion of privacy. But I can sit in the home office and turn on room monitor in the other building and listen to see if the Employees are playing around instead of working, or if they are "talking about me" ha ha. This feature to me seems to be a waste. I would much rather that AT&T put music on the hold button. I put someone on hold for over a minute just to test the feature. They said it was dead silence while they were on hold. I heard the 30 second reminder beep.

It is unfortunate that there is no compatible cordless phone. When I intercom or transfer a call to the extension in the other building, they have to RUN across the building to answer the call. It would be nice to have a portable to carry to answer the intercom.

I would have given 4 stars for the operation of the system, but I'm giving 3 stars for the no music on hold and no compatible cordless phone for intercom and transfer.
I could not even consider giving 5 stars because of the quality of the handset.

We got this phone to replace some very old phones that no longer had good volume on the handsets. We are in a two phone line office and just wanted a simple phone that we could use to answer either line and not have to read a huge manual to figure out how it worked. This was the phone for us! Great volume, speakerphone option, with several other nice options like speed dial, call timers, and caller ID. For the price, we feel like we got quite a good phone and more features than we thought we'd need- but like the extras all the same. I highly recommend this phone.

Two issues I had were:
1. When connecting to a Vonage line, Caller ID did not work until after I completely powered down the phone, including removing the backup batteries.
2. The headset volume was always too loud even when the volume was set to the minimum setting. I had to hold the phone away from my ear.

The phone is full featured and seemed ideal for my small business, but it's going to get replaced.

I have four ATT 974's. All the speakerphones cut in and out, making it impossible to have a conversation. Anyone looking to sit on conference calls will be disappointed. Other features are pretty good, but the speakerphone problem trumps the rest. I do not recommend this product, but good luck finding a decent one, I've tried many others with no satisfaction.