Customer Reviews

Motorola Cordless Telephone with Digital Answering Machine and Call Waiting Caller Id

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

 

 

When you get the phone, check to see if it came with a Sanik battery. If so, plan on replacing it ASAP... my suggestion would be a Energizer ER-P510. If you don't, you will experience the static that many reviewers have mentioned, followed by run-down after 30 min of talking, followed by death at about 1 year. As shipped, I should probably rate this phone lower, but if it shipped with a good battery I would rate it 5-stars.

I've had an older model for over 8yrs, which I thought went bad. So I bought these new models. Once I got them setup properly, I haven't had a problem since. The directions are a little sketchy setting up the main base & the ans. machine (TAKE NOTE: Two Separate Devices! Each Need To Be Set Up To Keep Proper Date & Time!). All the features work great! Remote ans. machine access is my favorite. Then I replaced the battery on my old Motorola cordless & that's up & running. Great products!!

We bought this unit because it's the only system on the market we could find that you can use a wireless camera with (we use it as our baby monitor). The system works very well but the answering machine isn't worth a hoot ! ! The machine constantly loses it's settings for no apparent reason (no loss of power) and resets to any given day/date and time it wants, so if you require an accurate log of messages this unit can not provide that. The phones do have caller ID and the day/date seems to stay current on those (assuming you don't leave them off the charger so the battery is dead) The battery life of the phone is awful, it will be on the charer all night and die on the first phone call you make you may get 5 min you may get 30 min. shared phonebook function is great on this system.

Never owned a phone before that does not warn you before the battery dies. Most often in the middle of a call. Maybe this is a "feature" that is turned off...but we can't find any setting for this. Unacceptable. Also, the battery life itself leaves a lot to be desired. We have two handsets and one lasts a lot longer than the other - weird.

good phone, but uses AAA rechargable batterys rather than AA's other phones use, this use of smaller batterys results in a less that 1 hour talk time, i dont ues phone much, but when i do i would expect a longer talk time

We have had issues with other Panasonic and Sony cordless phones we've had, so decided to try Motorola since we like our Motorola mobile phones. We have been extremely pleased with this phone. The sound quality is great, it has all the features we use, the instructions are easy to follow, you can add multiple hand sets, and the price was low. What more could you ask for!

This is a very detailed review. I have had this phone for over a year now. It has its good points, but the bad points make it so that I cannot recommend it to anyone.

I have been a loyal Motorola customer since the days of analog pagers that were nearly six inches long. With the advent of cellular phones, I jumped at the first opportunity to go with Motorola dating back to the old "flip phones" when most everyone else had some kind of "brick" or "bag" cell phone. In fact, I will not own a non-Motorola cell phone, because I know that I can rely on them no matter what. I was very excited when I saw that Motorola made the jump into home cordless phones. I compared the advertised features with some of the home cordless phones that I have used in past years, including V-Tech and Uniden. After some detailed research, it appeared that these phones had all of the features that I required, so I purchased a system that includes three handsets. What a mistake! Because I expect so much from Motorola, I have been very disappointed and feel cheated by these phones. The phones do not live up to the quality of all of the Motorola products I have used for many years.

Almost from the beginning did not measure up to my standards. Now I wish I had returned them and ordered a different brand. Here are some of the short comings that I have found with these phones:

1. The batteries do not last a year. The original batteries quit holding a charge after only three months of use. Motorola sent me a new set of batteries, which lasted a few longer than six months. I ordered some brand name compatible batteries thinking that perhaps using a non-OEM would solve the problems. Two years into ownership f these phones and I have spent nearly the cost of the whole system buying replacement batteries.

2. The battery life while in use is horrible! When I speak to my mother we generally stay on the phone for an hour or more. The batteries will not last that long even when brand new.

3. Since the advent of cordless phones, I have always been able to leave the handset next to me all day without worrying about the batteries. The phones I had before this set were able to last several days without requiring a charge. These phones, however, must remain in the charging cradle all day in order to talk on them for just an hour.

4. With such problems with the batteries, you would think that the phone would display a power meter showing how much of the charge remains. These phones do not do that. You get a beep or two warning you that the battery is low, and if you do not change phones, twenty seconds later you are talking to a dead phone.

5. When talking on the phone, if someone beeps in on the caller-ID, the backlight does not come on so that you can read the screen. If you do not have a flashlight handy, you will not know whose name and number shows on the Caller ID / Call Waiting.

6. The claim that this model has customizable rings is not true. Yes, you can choose from several ring tones, but the only customization is when you choose a different ringtone for the people in your phone book. Everyone in the phonebook gets the same ringtone. You cannot assign a different ringtone to each person in the phonebook. You cannot add new ringtones to the phone without incurring additional fees.

7. The phones lack a Bluetooth interface, which would be a very nice feature for those of us with Bluetooth headsets. Motorola would not even think of producing a cell phone without a Bluetooth interface. Why do they produce a supposedly high tech phone for home use without the same interface?

There are some features of the phone that I love:

1. The volume is loud enough for me to clearly hear even the quietest person on the other end of the phone.

2. The handset-to-handset page/transfer system works flawlessly.

3. The main feature that I looked for with this phone was the ability to access the answering machine from the handsets. This works fine as long as you can remember which keys to use to rewind or fast forward. If you have more than two or three messages, you better not use the speakerphone to check the messages, as the batteries die faster that way.

4. Being able to screen calls via the handset is another nice touch.

5. The intercom/room monitor feature is a great tool.

6. The ability to transfer phonebook contacts to other handsets is quite handy.

7. I really like the feature that allows you to turn off the ringer during specified hours set by the user.

8. The alarm clock feature is very useful. One of the built in sound files is Reveille.

9. Each handset is able to have a name display on the screen so that you know which handset belongs in which room. This helps when you page, use the intercom system, or transfer an incoming call to another handset.

10. The speakerphone feature is great. The volume is loud enough and the person on the other end can hear you nicely even if you are quite far from the handset. Again, if you use it for very long, you risk having the battery die on you.

I would not recommend these phones to a friend. I plan to find a system that has the features I want. I am torn about whether to try a different model of Motorola cordless phones for the home.

Nicely styled. Fairly easy to use except for two top manu keys which are hard to press without hitting the ones beneath them. This is the third 5.8 I've owned and has slightly less range than either of the other two (AT&T & Panasonic). Caller ID doesn't sync with phone book to identify caller. "Private" phonebook being default is a pain if you want phonebook to be shared. Only 10 characters allowed for phonebook entries. Busy screen. Still, overall OK, with lower range being biggest disappointment.

It's a good phone but it has no battery life indicator so when it's out of charge it just beeps and dies within seconds...

I purchased this to replace an old Sony cordless phone/answer machine my Mom had for 10+ years that would hiccup everytime the power fluctuated. This phone has the digital answer machine we needed and much, much more that we didn't need. She is happy with the features she uses but was a bit intimidated by all it offers. The only thing I can vouch for is that it seems to have good battery life, sound quality, and the answer machine has worked much better in the few months we've had it, so we are happy. It does have battery back-up so you don't have to re-record your message constantly due to power fluctuations, which solved our most frustrating problem with the older Sony. I would recommend this phone to meet the normal users needs, and probably many of those wishing for more. I like the fact that you may expand the system, something we might consider in the future.