TO PHONE OR NOT TO PHONE (Panasonic KXTG8323)

Member Name: clawson0810

Product:	Panasonic KXTG8323
Date:	23/09/08 (1271 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: LOOKS GOOD - CLEAR RECEPTION

Disadvantages: NO ALARM CLOCK FUNCTION OR AUTOMATIC PHONEBOOK TRANSFER TO OTHER HANDSETS

It recently became clear that I needed to change my home phone as callers were becoming very hard to hear. My old phone had lasted for over 10 years so I decided to splash out on a new digital phone. My previous phone had 3 handsets, alarm, phonebook etc.
Looking around the shops I realised that replacing my trusty old phone was going to be difficult.
Most 'attractive' phones I tried seemed flimsy and not well made but the phones that did have a good solid feel to them generally looked unattractive. (Just because it is a phone does not mean it cannot be aesthetically pleasing).
Eventually I came across the Panasonic range. The KX-TG8323 caught my eye straight away I liked the look and it felt as if it would cope with the rigours of a woman chatting to her mates. It also came with 3 handsets so that I could strategically place phones around the house to ensure ease of getting to a call. So I purchased the Panasonic KT-TG8323 for £105.
The Panasonic KT-TG8323 comes in a set of 3 with an answer-phone facility. The casing is sleek shiny black with a very good sized colour display. The base for the phones are quite small and compact, even the bit with the answer-phone which is great as you do not need to clutter up your furniture with large phones.
The colour display is, as I have mentioned before, a reasonable size and shows the date & time.
Setting up the phone was quite a doddle. It comes with all the leads, both electrical and phone line, that are required and all set into their respective slots quite easily. You have to insert the rechargeable batteries yourself but even this is not a chore as the back of the phone detaches quite easily. I chose not to attach the belt hooks.
The instruction manual that came with the product clearly showed all the options the phone has - 200 phone number memory / 1 button dial / sms function etc. It also shows how to navigate, set up your own recorded message for the answer phone, ring tones, enter & save phone numbers etc.
I browsed through the instructions and then started the set-up. It took a while to input all my phone numbers/names but then it would on any new phone as there is not, as yet, a facility to store them somewhere and download to a new phone (or at least I haven't found one). Once I had done that on one phone I checked the others but was concerned that none of the numbers showed in the memory (my last phone automatically transferred the numbers to all other handsets). So I re-read the instructions and found that you have to send all the numbers to each individual handset. This can be done either number by number or in one lump. I obviously opted for 1 lump and they all transferred smoothly (albeit it was a pain as had to work out which phone handset was which so that I could transfer to both (it gives you the option handset 1, 2 & 3 which isn't too bad). However, this does mean that I need to remember to transfer any new numbers I record or change in the future to the other handsets or I will find that I can only find the number on one handset. I then played with the display options to ensure I liked the colour on the screen / the picture etc. There was also a LCD Dimmer option which I turned to 'ON'.
So after giving the phones the mandatory charging period I made my first call. It was great - I did not have to ask anyone to shout so that I could hear them, the phone felt balanced and comfortable in my hand (a must if you are going to be on the phone for hours at a time).
Everything was fine, I thought, until the first night. I then realised that it did not have an alarm (I always used my previous bedside phone as an alarm - you could set it for the time and then choose the days it went off - great for Monday to Friday and no worry that it would go off on a Saturday or Sunday unless I specifically set it). This Panasonic does not have an alarm. It does have a memo feature though that you can set like an alarm, the only problem being that if you choose 'daily' it will be waking you up at some ungodly hour at the weekend unless you turn it off the night before. If you set it daily, you have to input the date and time each time you do that.
The other problem was the display - gosh is that bright at night. I could almost read by the light it gave off. The only way to get the display to go dark was to take the phone off the charger. When you do that, then the screen goes dark after about 5 seconds.
I re-read the book but the only thing I could see that would affect it was the LCD Dimmer option. But this was already turned to 'ON' on all the phones. (Yes all the other handsets were as bright as a button). I tried changing the background colour and dialling the brightness right down but to no avail, in the dark of night the phone glows like a beacon.
I eventually decided to put the instruction book down and have a play with the handset myself and lo and behold - it would appear that the LCD Dimmer options should be turned to 'NO' to allow the screen to go dark whilst on the charger.
Overall, whilst I like the phone I guess I expected a newer phone to have the same handy items my old phone had - like automatic transfer of phone numbers to all handsets and an alarm. However, I cannot fault its looks or the quality of sound. Whether it will continue working for as long as my old phone - I don't know - it certainly seems robust enough but only time will tell.
In the meantime I have bought an alarm clock for the bedroom.

Summary: CLEAR RECEPTION AND GOOD LOOKS

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