Home > Consumer Reviews > Uniden EXAI-3248i 2.4 GHz Analog Cordless Phone with Caller ID and Digital Answering System (Ivory)

I've used it for about 2 weeks and can say that this phone is pretty amazing. It's lighter than my Nokia 3361 cell phone, the handset is very ergonomic, and the voice quality is superb. I sometimes find that I have to talk at a lower volume because of the noise cancelling system. The other party hears me crystal clear. The battery life is astounding - I charged it the first time and its been about 10 days. I've used it for some short conversations and left it in standby otherwise.
Pros: Very lightweight, ergonomic, easy to use, nice answering machine interface, excellent answering machine features, great range and voice quality.

Cons: Takes just a tad longer than I'd expected to lock onto a channel. 900 MHz phones are almost "instant-on" while this 2.4 GHz takes a bit longer to lock onto a channel. Meaning if I press "TALK" it takes 2 mississippi's for the dialtone to go on. I'm not sure if this is inherent with all 2.4 GHz phones but its not really a nuisance.

UPDATE: I read Mr Patel's review and noticed he did not experience the dial tone delay in his phone. I bought another Uniden 2.4 GHz cordless (different model) for my office and it has the same delay. Perhaps he's used to 2.4 GHz phones but there's a definite 1.5 to 2 second delay from pressing TALK before you hear the dial tone on either phone.
With my 900 MHz cordless phones, there is no delay.

Regardless my 5/5 rating for this Uniden model does not change. After using it for quite some time on long calls it has excellent battery power retention/usage, excellent quality, low susceptibility to interference (I can talk next to an active microwave w/o any interference) and great features/design at a low price.

UPDATE PART 2:

It's now almost a year and the phone is working great. The answering machine never drops any calls, the answering machine quality is fantastic, etc... The 1.5 second delay from pressing TALK to hearing a dialtone is still there as it is with my other 2.4 GHz Uniden.

I have found this phone to be near perfect. The quality reception is the best I've had. I live in a 2 story home and have clear reception from the basement to the 2nd floor. The digital answering feature has worked well.

My only complaint would be the lack of a speaker phone. Like most cordless phones, there will be a time when the handset is not around and the phone is ringing. Without a speaker phone at the base you cannot answer the phone and must find the handset. Since there is a speaker and a mic at the base I imagine it would be easy to do if Uniden wanted to add this feature to future phones.

Overall I am very pleased with the quality I have seen so far...good luck with your phone!

As many revewiers have stated before, you'd be hard pressed to find a better deal. The quality is outstanding, and with this price--it's a must. Don't pay attention to any complaints about interference--it has nothing to do with the phone's quality. With any wireless device there's always a chance it will pick up some noise, but all you have to do is switch it to a different channel (which is not difficult at all, unless you're completely technologically challenged). Oh, and Caller ID *does* work when connected through a modem. All in all, it's sleek, it's inexpensive, and, most of all, it's reliable. Get one.

I'm thrilled with the phone's quality - voices come through crystal clear and I've not yet found the corner of the house that loses reception. The handset is light and very nicely designed - I can cradle it between my shoulder and ear and not accidentally hang up the phone.

However, the answering machine is another story. The voices are so garbled that it sounds as if all my friends have horrible colds or are holding a blanket over their mouths. I've only had one other digital answering machine, an AT&T machine, and I wasn't thrilled with that one either. Perhaps digital hasn't been perfected yet.

...send it to me rather than buying a phone made by Uniden. I bought this phone and it never worked. This phone's range in my home was completely limited to the room where the base was situated, and the reception was horrible even while standing next to the base. It's not even like it was a little bit of fuzz or static on the line, it would cut out completely and explode into this wild and disturbing noise (similar to the noise you hear when you dial a fax number on your phone...horrible), and the sound is even worse on the other end of the line as I learned after calling home to my wife. We bought a 5.8 GHz by Uniden to replace this one, thinking that maybe we need a more powerful phone, but we had the exact same results...extremely limited range and horrible clarity. We have since purchased a digital cordless phone/answering system by V-Tech and have had ZERO PROBLEMS. I'm not trying to say that V-Tech makes the best phones because I'm sure that there are many other quality brands, but from my very recent experience, Uniden phones are garbage. I encourage you to buy a different brand of phone so that you can avoid the trips back and forth to your electronics store returning terrible, worthless phones made by Uniden. I wish I could give this phone 0 stars.