Panasonic KX-TG7644M DECT 6.0 Link-to-Cell via Bluetooth Cordless Phone with Answering System, Metallic Gray, 4 Handsets

I've owned several multi-phone systems like this and enjoyed them very much. More importantly, I watch carefully to see how my guests and other family members find them intuitive and useful, or avoid them. In other words, if I handed a phone to anyone important to me, I'd be very disappointed if they couldn't use it as a regular home phone. And, here, they only get a 4 star. They are still too complicated and easy to fumble, especially if you are used to using one hand and a thumb to do the manipulations you are used to doing on a smart phone.The features are great and of course, it's primary feature, other than an integrated multi-phone for a single line, it's designed to sync to your cell phone using bluetooth. This allows you to seemlessly walk into your home and transfer your cell phone to the home phone system (better sound, more places to find a handset). Even if you don't need that cell phone feature, it's a great system for running a home answering machine and tracking with caller ID.What I don't like about the system is it's archaic address book operation. It's awkward and not very intuitive. Even though I've used the same programming methods on 2000 era phone systems, I found this really primative. It's like TEXTING when you grew-up writing letters or long email essays.I think the way future phone systems need to do, is like the car industry has figured out. These appliances should rely more and more on the cell phone for the intelligence and let the home phone (or home office phone) become a smart slave unit for Audio enhancement. Cars are turning their smart panels to let the cell phone drive the, particularly for hands free calling or navigation. So, this phone system is technically "primitive" in it's sophistication and programming, not much evolved from the VHS tape era.I expect better from Panasonic, but for reliability and out of the box ready to use, I rate it a 5 star product.

Range on this phone is the best of any phone we have ever owned. I can now make calls in our detached garage through 2 stone walls. Pretty amazing, even before the purchase of the range extender. Sound quality is acceptable, not exceptional.User interface was designed by people that like to push buttons. Lots and lots of buttons. Entering data and modifying entries requires reprogramming your brain. I think the designers figured that the Bluetooth link to cell and download your cell's phone book feature would remove the need for common sense data entry. Why can't these guys just copy the design of contact entry from any basic Nokia phone ? Nokia figured this out 20 years ago.Link to cell works well for taking your cell calls through the phone system.The cell phone book transfer feature is a different story. This was part of the reason I purchased this phone. The problem is my cell phone has over 3000 contacts. The Panasonic phone system holds about 3000 contacts. A contact in this system is defined as a name and a single phone number. A contact in your cell phone that has 5 phone numbers is now five different contacts in the Panasonic system.Okay, no problem, I didn't want all 3000 of my cell phone contacts in this phone anyway. The problem is the phone ( at least for me ) will only download my entire cell phone directory. Every time I attempt to use the feature to download only selected contacts, the Bluetooth link is immediately disconnected. This occurred every time for all 3 cell phones I tried. ( Motorola Atrix, HTC Tilt2, Blackberry ) I have given up on this for now. Perhaps I will modify the contact list on my Tilt2 to hold only the contacts I want to transfer and then send over the entire phone book.Screen font is very large. This limits the number of characters allowed in each contact entry. It's workable and good for us folks with older eyes.I would recommend buying this phone to anyone who needs the great range.

The longer I own this phone the more I like it. The call quality is great, there are a ton of features, it's forward-looking, it's pretty easy to figure out.It can link to 2 bluetooth phones PLUS a land line and can also link to a bluetooth microphone/headset. One handset can make or receive a call on a cell phone while another handset makes or receives a call from the landline (sorry, can't do two bluetooth calls at the same time. Also can't use bluetooth headset while a bluetooth call is active. Essentially there's only one bluetooth connection at a time). You can even ditch the landline altogether and set it for mobile only for those of you that don't have landlines. That's forward thinking.What I really love about the phone is that it will read off your caller ID when a call is coming in so you don't have to run to see who it is, but it's not just playing at the base, ALL handsets will read off the caller ID. Also, when someone is leaving a message, it won't just play at the base, ALL handsets will play the message. Handy for times when you're not near the base and someone is leaving a message. No more "hey kids, who's leaving a message? ...I don't know, some guy..." Even if your'e in the basement, you'll hear the message. I didn't think I'd like that but I love it.Tons of contacts allowed in the phone, plus it will read the contacts over bluetooth from your mobile phone to populate it in the first place. They're light so they have a cheap feel to them, but perhaps we're just conditioned to think light = cheap, but they're plenty strong and to me light means easier to use for long periods. They are light, but they're not crappily built.The base has speakerphone which I didn't expect. Plus all the typical recording features. The sound quality is great on both the base and the headset.Overall, I highly recommend them.