Home > Consumer Reviews > Motorola MD681 5.8GHz Cordless Speakerphone w/Answering System/Caller ID

After reading all reviews on the MD681 I was a bit concerned regarding motorola customer serivce, finding batteriy replacements, answering maching voice quality, and not having the handsets talking to the base (in terms of synching phone book numbers, and messages waiting.) that I have read about.

I decided to buy the MD681 after considering the Panasoni 5100. The other top line competing phone.

The 5100 reviews had me more concerned (LCD Screens not working, poor battery life, low volume on handset). These seem to be larger issues to me because if I paid all that money to have one of those features fail or not work properly to my satisfaction I would be very upset and the phone would be useless. These shortcomings of the Panasonic appear to be true quality issues compared to the feedback on the MD681 which are just personal preference issues related to system process and customer service.

I did speak to the sales rep at the electronics store before I made my final decision, and he said that he sells more Panasonic 5100s (they are popular brand among phones, have more bells an whistles) than MD681's but he see's a lot more returns of the Panasonic (quality issues).

Therfore my decision went to the MD681. Bottom line I decided that I wanted a simple expandable phone that is well built to quality standards, that is reliable, take messages, and will let me hear and talk well. I believe the MD681 meets all these needs. I do not need all the bells and whistles (offered by the 5100) to complicate something as simple as making a phonecall and having a conversation, and then need to be worried about the technolgy holding up to reliability standards.

I am not sorry one bit that I purchased the MD681. It is a very simple system, very well built, the handset and base sound quality is very good, and I was very surprised that the handset speakerphone mic and speaker worked extremely well. Reception is also very good. I have the base set up in my office on the first floor and I can walk through my entire house (up and down stairs) and backyard without losing any reception quality. Not even a hiss.

I did not find customer service with Motorola an issue. I did write them an email from their web site requesting where I could find a replacement battery (If I needed one) and recieved a quick response back. These batteries can be purchased through radio shack for about $14. This eliminated my concern regarding battery replacement which I don't think I will need.

The answering machine voice quality is good. I do not know what folks are complaining about. It works!

As for the central system and synching the handsets with the base in terms of phone book, and message waiting. I will get around those issues. Once the phones numbers are programmed I will have no issue there. As for message waiting, I'll just hit clear as necessary.

If you are looking for a solid, simple, and satisfactory expandable cordless phone product the MD681 is a sure bet compare to others.

:-)

In August I bought the Panasonic 5110 and was very impressed by the many features and fine performance BUT the handset was huge, there were antennae all over the place and the gaudy chrome accents ate away at me to the point of me searching for something else (yes, even after spending $250+). A week ago I noticed the new 5.8GHz Motorola MD681 and bought it the next day to check it out.
I was more than pleasantly surprised. Although it doesn't have quite the full complement of features of the Panasonic 5100, it does have the following valuable and unique features:

1) Battery back up-doubles as a spare handset battery.
2) NIMH batteries-more power,less memory problems.
3) Sharp blue backlit displays that you don't need
glasses to read.
4) Sleek slender handsets-light and comfortable to hold
with the very functional trademark rubber grips along
sides.
5) No antenna on the base and just a vestigial nub on the
handsets.

The 5.8GHz performance is excellent and the menus and operation are so intuative that one hardly needs to read the manual. The simple sleek styling, already attractive at first, grows on you even more over time. Motorola, a newcomer to the cordless market, has perfected their earlier models both in performnce and style in the MD681.

I've had this phone now for a week and have come to really like it - so much so, that I'm going to go out and get an additional handset for my home office to replace a corded speakerphone. The handset itself has a decent speakerphone built in and I was pleasantly surprised by the sound quality.

Others have mentioned that the sound quality of the answering machine is poor. In my opinion, it's every bit as good as any other answering machine I've ever owned. Others have also complained that the handset and base station don't share a phone book. There's a simple solution to work around this. When somebody calls you, you simply enter the Caller ID menu and then press save on the handset and the base station. It takes about 5 seconds. The same works if you call somebody. I dialed a number and the caller ID worked in reverse, showing me the name of the person who's number I just dialed. Menu > Caller ID > Save. Done. It's that easy. I wouldn't want to enter numbers by hand on each device, but this is such a simple way to do it, I don't know who would try anything else. Spend an afternoon calling your friends and you'll be done.

The handset, while slim, fits comfortably in your hand. I was concerned about this, but it's not an issue. I've mounted the base station to a wall and while it sticks out a little bit farther off the wall than I'd like, it's less than others and after about 2 hours, it really doesn't bother me anymore.

The menu system is nice and you can even adjust the contrast of the screens. My only gripe about the phone is the ring tones. Can't any phone mfr (cell, wired or wireless) make a phone that has a good old-fashioned ring to it anymore? I had to cycle through to the 6th ring tone before I found one that wasn't annoying. Oh - you might want to make sure to set the ring tone on the phone and the base station to be the same. Otherwise, when the handset is on the base station, the rings are out of sync and the two different tones are annoying. This and only getting one battery in the box are what keep me from giving it 5 stars.

I would have no problems recommending this phone to anybody. I bought it direct at Circuit City so I could return it easier if necessary, but I'll be keeping it and ordering another handset.

I purchased this phone 11/11/2003 from Circuit City. I was replacing a very troublesome Siemens Gigaset 2420 (2.4 GHz), used for about 2 years. The Siemens handsets just went spastic at random,experienced repetitive choppy,wavy sounding and dropped calls. I knew some of this was interference but a Panasonic 2.4 GHz I owned had far less problems with interference. I decided to move to 5.8 GHz which solved the interference problems from microwave, garage door opener, computers, wireless hubs and routers, etc..

Pro's on the Motorola MD681:
Nice slim handset with the rubber grips, very nice blue backlights, sounds great using base or handset speaker phone, headsets, or handset mike. Mute available on all modes. These DO NOT have NiMh batteries, has NiCad. I will have some battery packs made me by a local vendor and use my NiMh from my Siemens handsets. Very easy menus and buttons are crisp with good contact, should last a long time.

Cons- When receiving a call, MD681 DOES NOT check it's phonebook from the caller id, it displays CID from call. It CANNOT transfer a phonebook or entry from one handset or base to another handset. These are minor issues and the other features, fit and finish more than make up for them.

In the 5.8GHz category, I would recommend this Motorola unit as well as the Panasonic KX-TG5110M 5.8 GHz DSS Expandable Cordless Phone with Answering System and Dual Handsets. I picked the Motorola because of the form and design of the base and handsets.

I would not recommend Siemens...

My previous phone was a Siemens Gigaset 2.4 GHz system with a base plus 3 extra handsets. I had to sell that due to severe interference with my 802.11g WiFi system. I replaced it with the Moto MD681 with 3 extra handsets.

After two weeks of solid use, I'm happy with my purchase, but only because I had my expectations properly set by the previous reviewers here.

Comparing this directly to the otherwise great Siemens system, here are the key highlights and downfalls of the Moto 681 system.

Pluses:
+ Excellent voice quality
+ No interference with WiFi/microwave/other electronics
+ Better range
+ Excellent speakerphones on handsets (having the speaker on the 'back' is not a problem at all)
+ Clean look, good blue backlighting including keys
+ Vibrating alert available
+ Base can be powered by backup battery during power outage

Minuses:
- No way to sync phonebooks and/or clock of base and handsets
- No way to check messages from handsets
- Mediocre sound quality of answering machine outgoing message
- Poor selection of ringtones
- Caller ID system poorly integrated (saving a phonebook entry from caller ID of previous call defaults to just number without 1, must manually edit)
- Can't customize handset names (always just 'Handset 1' etc.)
- Must buy base backup battery separately (Radio Shack carries them, #23-272)

If you accept these caveats, the basic phone function and call voice quality itself is really solid.