Home > Consumer Reviews > Panasonic KX-TM150B Digital Answering System with Caller ID

This machine does everything I ever wanted, and more:

Have you ever had to wade through 20 saved messages,
one by one, on other machines, just to get to the
very last one, which you wanted to hear again?

Panasonic's KX-TM150B lets you go immediately
to the very last message, if you want,
and then work your way backwards -- I've never
seen so handy a feature on any other machine.

Many other machines force you to play an entire
message all over again if you missed something
that you wanted to write down, but this machine
has controls that make it behave just like a
cassette tape machine -- hold down "rewind"
and it backspaces, release the button
and you hear the backspaced section again;
fast-forward plays at 2X normal speed;
you can also just "pause" and resume again
(to catch up as you take notes, for example).

If you've ever been frustrated by slow operations
on other brands (e.g. Sony), compounded by long,
droning announcements that you can't skip,
you'll like the fact that every operation here
is instantaneous, and you can always interrupt
any operation to do another instead.

The 50-memory Caller ID matches up with each recorded
message, and lets you dial back automatically at any time.

Did you know that you can edit the
saved Caller-ID numbers to adjust for different local
dialing rules (and up to two different local area codes)?

During any live phone conversation,
if someone is about to tell you some information that you'll
need to write down, don't reach for a pencil -- just press
"2-way record," let the caller talk, and re-play it later.

The number of rings before answering can be set to
2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or Toll-Saver(2/4)

The voice menus and prompts are very intelligent,
both for direct and remote operations.

I've installed four of these in different places,
and I've found the sound quality to be as uniformly good
as any consumer digital answering machine I've ever seen
in this price range -- perfectly clear speech, far better sound
than previous models, so when I read other reviews complaining
of bad sound, I wonder whether they bought damaged or refurbished
goods, or had they poured cola into it, perhaps?

Flash memory saves messages indefinitely, even if AC
power fails, and these Panasonics even remember the date
and accurate time for power failures up to five minutes.

I have experienced over two years of flawless performance
from four different units (two KX-TM100B without Caller ID
two KX-TM150B with caller ID); good job as usual, Panasonic!

The machine works well and very easy to operate.
You need to learn a few buttons and you are up and running.
The greeting message quality is excellent.
The machine provides caller ID info which is very nice. You can also re-dial numbers from the caller ID info.
You can check your messages while out from remote phones.
The messages are stored in memory and do not delete with
a power failure.
The speaker quality is good but not great. However, I am very happy with the outgoing greeting message and that is what everyone hears.
Overall, a good investment.

I had this machine for about a month now.
Just two things that I don't like:

The sound could be improved. I can certanly understand the messages but my former 10 year old tape based answering machine sounded better.

It would be nice if they added a built in light in the Caller ID screen (like in cell phones)

Other than that not bad for what it costs.

Hey, I did order this one and it was the last one left on Amazon for $34.99 with free shipping TO BOOT. It got here in less than 48 Hrs. As for the sound quality, not much different from the Panasonic "tape" machine that crapped out on me after 14 years. While recording your greeting, don't get too close to the mic, which is hidden under where it says mic on the bottom of this unit, over-modulation ( distortion ) generally, a bad sounding greeting will be the result. It works fine and the poor sound others have mentioned is false. Works just fine, if you need a $1000.00 machine, go buy one !!!! GREAT DEAL FOR THE MONEY SPENT !! Voice prompts built into this device are an easy setup and playback from remote calls. The only drawback is Only 15 Min. of rec. time. Thats good for me, maybe not you. On the road the "voice prompts" prompt you for anything you want to do from listening to messages, to totally wiping them all out. No real need to carry a remote command card in your wallet/purse, it asks you what you want to do. You can skip old calls and get to "only" the new ones as well. BEST BUY FOR THE BUCKS !! VERY EASY TO USE !!!

For the reviewer who commented that the display was soft plastic and scratched easily, it should have been completely obvious that this was only a tear-off protective covering for the real hard plastic display. The display is excellent, very sturdy, and I have yet to scratch it.

My only criticism is that all of the digital machines these days have poor high frequency response (due to low bit-rate recording and poor antialiasing) which makes softer voices or those who mumble a little bit hard to understand. This machine is no different, I also own a GE digital and find some people are completely unintelligible.

However this machine offers FAR superior features to any other digital machine I've used, is more intuitive (like a cassette machine), and does sound quite good for most voices. I actually find it's sound to be better than my GE even though I've read otherwise by some people. I think some people think louder is better (which can be I suppose), but I prefer intelligibility. Actually I like both, but that is hard to find with digital machines under $100.