Home > Consumer Reviews > Panasonic KX-TG5110M 5.8 GHz DSS Expandable Cordless Phone with Answering System and Dual Handsets

I waited for this phone to come out for what seemed like forever. I was tempted by other 5.8 Ghz phones, but none of them really measured up. Some were not true 5.8 (2.4 one way and 5.8 the other), the others could not use both handsets at the same time or share a phonebook (*cough* Uniden *cough*). I must tell you, when I got this phone, it was worth the wait.
Pros:

The buttons are very responsive.
True 5.8Ghz phone
Excellent sound quality
Shared phonebook between base and other handsets (you can transfer each number individually)
Almost lifelike speakerphone quality (best that I've heard so far)
Redial of the last 5 made calls
3 mail boxes
Phone conference between handsets and/or base
Call transfer between handsets and/or base
Backlit display and buttons
Privacy button, so other handsets cannot join (if you wish)
Mute button (where have you been all my life, no more covering the mic with a hand)

Cons:

Huge handset (when compared to earlier Panasonic models)
No clock on the handset display (AT&T and Uniden have this feature)
Can't figure out how to erase messages from handset (maybe its just me)

Bottom Line:

I love this phone. Definitely worth the wait. Best panasonic so far and by far the best 5.8 Ghz phone out there right now. (not the cheapest though)

I bought and tried three different 5.8GHZ phones available on the market... Uniden, VTech, and the Panasonic. The following is what I found:

Uniden
The Uniden looks good, but only performs decently. The handset is a bit big and clunky, and fairly heavy too. The worse feature of the phone is the ear piece. It sounds very tinny and not really that impressive for a phone of this quality and price. It's like talking to someone with a tin can up to your ear... all treble and no bass... doesn't sound natural. Probably the worse sounding ear piece I've ever heard on a phone.

VTech
First of all, it doesn't truly utilize 5.8GHZ technology... it's 2.4 one way and 5.8 the other... so this still can cause problems with outside interference and computer networks. The phone performs fairly well, but there was nothing that special about it's performance or features. A 2.4GHZ phone for more than $50 less would perform the same.

Panasonic
WOW! BY FAR THE BEST PHONE ON THE MARKET. I honestly found no flaws with this phone. Great range (further than the other two), never experienced static once, great sound and clarity from the ear piece, really nice answering machine and caller id features, very clear displays,.. the lists goes on. Just an all around great phone. I'm glad I tested them all out to see what was the best bang for my buck... the Panasonic 5.8GHZ phone blows the other 5.8ghz phones out of the water... it's not even close. If I hadn't tried them all, I may have been satisified with the other 2, but having tried the Panasonic, I wouldn't even consider the Uniden or VTech phones... they are mediocre in comparison to the Pansonic... yet cost the same price.

Go with the Panasonic... I love it. Best phone I've ever owned.

Take a close look at all of these reviews. Most of the old reviews are excellent and they gradually get worse as you get towards the newer reviews. This is a direct indication of this phone's reliability.

I've had the phone for about a year now. My first review was 5 stars. My current review is a GENEROUS 3 stars.

This phone is loaded with great features, the speakerphone is excellent, and the reception has been good in my 3 level house (it even works when I go to my mailbox which is over 30 feet away).

The main problem is the battery life. At about 10 months the battery life began deteriating rapidly and I had to replace both batteries. Very annoying.

I've also noticed some other reliability issues - like the ringer breaks up now when there's an incoming call. Also, the speaker phone doesn't seem to work as well as it used to. The speaker seems to break up a little.

If you don't mind changing the batteries every 8-12 months than this is a good phone for you. Personally I would recommend a newer model with a NiMH battery.

I wrote some tips based on problems noted in other reviews as well as some items that surprised me after I got the telephone home. We had a nice telephone before, but this one has several features that we had not seen before. Here are some items, followed by the page number in the manual for further reference. I noticed that the manual is available on the product page. If any of these items seems very important, then I suggest you check the manual for more details.

SETUP

=>Although you can connect 8 handsets total, only four can be used at once. (page 24)

=>The privacy button, when pressed, prevents others from joining the conversation on any of the extensions to this telephone. (page 45)

=>You can copy all the items in the phone book to another unit. (page 38-39)

MESSAGES

=>If someone calls and wants to leave a message after you have answered, you can transfer them to a mailbox. (page 57)

=>You can check messages from the handset. (page 54)

=>You can erase all messages or just one. (page 56)

=>The light only blinks for new messages, not for all new calls. If you received calls, it says "received calls" on the LCD screen. The blinking light issue for all new calls was the only thing that we hated about our last Panasonic phone. I couldn't find where it talked about this in the manual, but I tested it several times.

=>There's only one thing about the telephone that didn't make sense. There's a button right next to the blinking light that lets you know that you have a new message. That made me think that was the button to push to play back messages. Wrong! That button turns the answering machine on and off, that's all. To play back a message press the number of the mailbox, 1, 2 or 3. (page 53)

=>You can set the playback speed to slow playback... nice for writing down telephone numbers. (page 55)

=>Stored messages are not affected by power failures. Messages are saved until erased. We lost our power for five days due to weather. When the power came back on, our messages were still there. (page 22)

CALLER ID

=>It's very easy to erase all the items in the Caller ID list or just one. (page 33)

=>If you subscribe to Caller ID, the date and time are set automatically through the Caller ID information service after the first telephone ring. I unplugged the phone, this worked. The manual does warn that the time might be wrong after a power outage, but we have not had problems with that. (page 17)

MAILBOXES

=>We don't use the multiple mailboxes and had some concern about that. As it turns out, that doesn't matter, the calls automatically go into mailbox one and we just don't use the others. (page 50)

=>You can password mailboxes 2 and 3 to prevent anyone else from accessing the messages. (page 51)

GENERAL COMMENTS:

There are several other features that we don't use, like the monitor function. I tested it, though, and it seems to work ok. When you call the other phone to monitor, it doesn't ring, but the monitored handset does say "room monitor" on the LCD screen.

The handset is longer than my old handset. So if I hold the telephone with the mouthpiece lined up like I'm used to, then the sound is faint. But if I line up the earpiece with my ear, then I can hear fine. Until I did that, I thought the volume was too faint. It felt a little awkward until I got used to it.

The manual is straightforward, complete, and easy to follow. There is a good list of troubleshooting errors that refers you to a page. Great index. The one thing that I don't like is that some of the methods to complete functions are slightly different on the base than on the handset. I basically only use the handset, so that has not been a big deal.

I bought this telephone because I have a wireless headphone that uses the 2.4 ghz frequency. I wanted to be able to use the headset while others were talking on the telephone. For that, it works great. We owned another Panasonic telephone. This one is much easier to use. I like this telephone quite well and highly recommend it.

Let me tell you why I bought this. Expandability, features, speakerphone, intercom, usable distance. In short, if you need any of these features...get this phone system. All of these work well in my house. I'm buying at least two more extensions today to make a total of four handsets.
I've owned many Uniden phones. I've bought and returned Sony and other Mfr. phones. I've researched and bought the the Siemens 4215 phone for my family. However, I have to say this is a better system. I'm a design engineer with a strong pension for quality products.

This phone can reach into our steel pole barn with no apparent loss of signal (200+ feet away) through brick, glass and steel. I stood on the other side of the microwave (from the base station) that used to render my 2.4 Ghz unusable...it had no effect on this phone. I have more trials planned. I bought this at 6th__ [local website][local website].

Cons: Weird optional ring tones, standard Panasonic long antenna. Reorganizes phone list alphabetically (might be changable) after entry. Handset is a bit slick (should change over time)
No time display on handset LCD, however, does record Caller number and time of call on each handset. LCD screen is okay but not as easy to read as my AT&T 6310 GSM cell phone (very good contrast and illumination)

Pro's: Numerous. 11 day standby. LCD tells you in text when phone is done charging. Battery cannot be overcharged. Very good sound quality..it lacks the digital reverb of my friend's older Panasonic phone. Hold and intercom functions. At least as good sounding or better than all our previous phones. Speaker phone sounds very good but haven't used it too much.

In short, find your best price and get it. At [money amount]you could spend 50% more and get a piece of garbage with a lot less features.