Review on PANASONIC Link2Cell Bluetooth Answering KX TGM430B by Evan Hernandez

Enjoy this phone after a few weeks. Block call immediately. (For those confused by the erroneous manual, this phone doesn't have a physical "LOCK" button as advertised. They block calls with the display when the phone is ringing.) 2) Rounded earpiece with a dimple and more sound holes than usual ; It's kind of an old fashioned design that sits comfortably in the ear and helps the hearing a bit I find. 3) The Slow Talk feature works quite well. I've used it before with faster interlocutors, particularly foreign-accented customer service agents in call centers. It's not very noticeable (which is good), but it helps a little. 4) The backlit and talking keyboard is wonderful. Since I have poor eyesight, I've always wanted a phone that speaks numbers when I press them. This feature is disabled by default; turn it on! 5) Large, easy to read display with time and date as standard when stationary. 6) I like tone controls. Multiple equalizer options, quickly switchable by a button on the top, which can help you to hear the interlocutor depending on his voice and the quality of the phone. I usually go through the sound options on calls until I find one or more that make it easier to hear that particular caller's voice. CONS: 1) It is not possible to sync the same music ringtone between handset and base station. There are NO music tunes in the database. For example, the phone has a great "Theme 2001" that I use, but this ringtone is not in the default settings, so I have 2 beeps when I receive a call. Muting or turning off the base's ringer also turns off or off the speaking caller ID, which I need at full volume. So I really can't use music ringtones on my phone; I have to use the standard drill rings that the base also has in order for both to fit. A colossal post of designers. If you want to use music ringtones as ringtones, set them on BOTH the handset and base so you only hear a ringtone when the phone rings! Otherwise they are useless. 2) At this extravagant price point and with a phone included, the base had to include its own display and keypad, as is often the case with many AT&T and other phones in this price range. Panasonic has made disappointing savings here. There's nothing special about the base station, believe me, other than the flashing red light when the phone rings. 3) The position of the volume buttons on the side is just a little bit higher than where the thumb usually goes when holding the phone; I often accidentally hit the volume down button. I had this problem with previous Panasonic phones. It's amazing that over the years they haven't learned NOT to put big, important buttons right where you hold your phone! You should either move or sink these keys so your thumb doesn't have to press them as often. The phone is a bit heavier than most; I like the solid construction. As for the Bluetooth function, it recognized my mobile phone without any problems. However, I currently have no service on my phone, so I can't give you feedback on how well it connects when using it to make or receive Panasonic calls. Overall, this is my favorite phone I've ever had. I usually send things back to Revain that I don't think will be more than 80% satisfied (90% for items this expensive) and I keep them. As I mentioned, it has some inconveniences, but I can live with that. It's nice to have a nice phone with a few features that I actually USE, like call barring and a voice keypad, that also give me different ways to understand people better. You end up having to pay too high a price to get all these features. UPDATE: I just had a 4 hour conversation with a very quiet person on their iphone 7. I could barely hear them at first. A great opportunity to really use the features of this phone. As she spoke I changed the tone control; relieved, but not for long. I had to keep repeating them during a conversation; One EQ setting worked for a while, then I had to switch to another. I haven't found a good setting to leave it on. Then I turned on Boost for the first time. It boosted the volume enough at the default settings of 15 to 18, but was deafeningly shrill at higher settings and had to be turned off. I left it at 18 for the rest of the call and it worked really well. It was louder but not clearer; I still had to change the sound settings frequently to try and improve clarity. I ended up putting her on speakerphone, which worked fine; I could hear them well and vice versa. However, something unfortunate happened; we switched off suddenly. I checked the battery; it was half dead but ok (so you can tell by that, 4 hours of chatting in a row with Boost on will drain a fully charged battery by a little over half.) She swore it wasn't her phone to which she's very accustomed was.. and says it doesn't turn off randomly. If it was mine, which seems likely, I don't know why it happened. I was right next to the base. Nothing out of the ordinary happened; I was mid sentence, there was a loud click and she was gone. Overall I would rate the features I used in chat 3 stars out of 5. I just *couldn't* get the clarity I was hoping for, even with the phone held firmly against my ear the entire time, but I did. was given extra volume and was able to hear her better, constantly adjusting the sound settings to try to adjust the quality of her voice at any given moment. (It was a huge pain - but a regular speaker wouldn't need to mess around like that.) But I think of it this way: without these features, with another phone, I probably wouldn't be able to hear them all. UPDATE 2: After a few more calls, I experienced a few more random disconnects. It has nothing to do with battery life or distance from the base station. I can run for 2-3 hours, then suddenly decide to switch off. On the last call, this happened a few minutes after the person called me back after the first disconnect. I unplugged the phone lines from the surge protector if that was the problem. Let's see if that helps over time. Also, I don't think too much about the BOOST feature. I've used it a few times and it always produces the same effect: boosts speech and line noise but doesn't improve clarity. I like most of the phone's features, but it's not very helpful in hearing other people clearly.