AT&T E5965C 5.8 GHz DSS Expandable Cordless Phone with Answering System

Amazon Customer Reviews

(5 out of 5)

Excellent Phone

I can't see why the other reveiwers gave it a one star, This is a great phone, seems some of their reasons were quite petty. The buttons work great, I've never had a problem. What most people want is good voice quality, clarity, and range, this phone is second to none. I have tried many panasonics and every one had muffled sound. The range is the best on the market (except for the Engenious cordless) About calling from caller ID, all you have to do is choose the caller from the list and press the center button and it gives you four optional numbers to call, some with or without area codes or with or without '1' in front of the number to be called. And the color screen may not serve any function, it just looks nice, some people like it, how can you give it poor marks for that? And even though it transmits 5.8 base to handset and 2.4 handset to base, it doesn't interfere with wireless computer networks, (at least the Lynksis brand)
I have tried panasonic 5.8 and 2.4, Uniden 5.8 and 2.4, Siemens, VTech, and this phone has a quality feel, sounds good and has the best range of any of the phones I've tried. It depends on what you want a phone for, if you want great range, great voice quality, great battery life, this is a excellent choice. If you are going to get petty about all the little features, good luck. (of all the criticisms of this phone, you can find reviews of a different phone that gets poor marks because it doesn't do what this one does) Also it seems pretty durable, it's been dropped several times and works fine.

(5 out of 5)

If Quality Counts

I've looked and read many reviews of the phones in this catagory. The negative reviews of this phone almost kept me from purchasing the 5965C (I'm convinced some of the reviews are for different model phone). I didn't purchase through Amazon, because I wanted to see and feel the phones before making a decision. I'm glad I went with my "gut feeling" about this rather than the evaluations. You can't see quality or how the buttons are laid out and function on-line. This phone feels and looks like what I'm use to and has the quality few phones have. The buttons are positioned where I expect them to be and are large enough for reading without my reading glasses. This phone was designed for those in my age bracket (middle age). I found top rated phones that reposition the buttons (VTech) where you wouldn't expect them to be or have buttons so small and pushed together, misdialing is going to happen more frequently. In my book, a phone should FIRST be easy to use, everything else is secondary.

I consider it a plus that it uses easy-to-find-anywhere batteries. The battery backup feature was one of those secondary features that appealed to me, since we loose our power once or twice a year. The inexpensive batteries allow me to have several around for any emergency.

Another positive is the color display on the handheld unit. It is in full color (not a monochrome version of color which is a different model). I find the color enhances the visibilty of the phone icon system and alpha-numeric characters (without my reading glasses).

The ability to transfer calls from one handheld to another will reduce the frustration of running upstairs to see if a family member is around to take a call. You can also call another handheld and carry out a conversation (now my family may never see me :-).

Everything works as expected, though I can't find any information / documentation about how to setup pictures of family and friends to show up with the CID system. Not that I would actually use that feature... You can add Caller ID's into your phone book AND setup whether a "1" is needed or not when redialing that number.

Lastly, the voice quality is as good as any quality corded phone. Unless you want one of the new-purposes-for-a-phone (play music, synchronize phone books, or display images), you would do well to buy this phone. Yes, you could pay less for a phone with equal sound clarity, but you won't find better quality than the 5965C. [I don't work or have any investment in AT&T]

(4 out of 5)

Close to perfect

I researched a lot of phones and have found this one to have the majority of the features I wanted. Let's face it, choosing a phone comes down to personal preference. A defect to one person may be a feature to another.

The good: The sound quality of the base station and the handsets - they're great. The answering machine is fine too - clear as a bell. Talking caller ID a nice feature for those of us too lazy to get up off the couch to look at the CID display. The phones are just overall easy to use - my wife says so too. No interference with my 802.11b Linksys wireless router either.

Wants: 1) I can see that over time with several handsets it will be a challenge to keep up with the stored numbers on each phone. It would be nice to have a central list that the handsets and base station share so updates occur once for all phones. However, as my kids grow up it will probably be nice for them to have their own numbers on the handsets in their room... 2) More ring tones. The ones that are on the phone are kind of cheesy. Not a big deal though, you can find one that's acceptable.

Overall, we're very pleased with this phone.

March 2006 Update: We're still very happy with this phone. No problems at all. Good battery life on the handsets and no interference with my wireless. We'll be adding a third handset this month.

(1 out of 5)

Almost perfect, but one HUGE flaw... :o(

I'll have to return this phone. I'm truly disappointed as well since this phone was excellent, except for one gigantic oversight by the engineers. When the Caller ID displays and stores the numbers, it leaves out the "1" in front of the area code. So whenever you dial someone directly from the Caller ID, which most people with CID do several times per day, you have to manually add the "1" by going through a two-step process from the handset, or a three-step process from the base! You can't set it to do that as the default!! Even my 4 year-old Panasonic could do that. And of course the same goes for when you add numbers directly from the CID to the phone book. Instead of being able to add the number in one easy push of a button, you have to manually edit the number in order to add the 1 in front of it.

I specifically buy the top-of-the-line in phones so that I'm not short of any features. That, of course, is the only real difference between phones in a particular line. They just subtract one or more features in order to offer other models at lower and lower prices. This method didn't work for me in this case, as even the top model was short an important feature.

The only other lacking feature worth mentioning, which wouldn't alone have been a deal breaker, is that it doesn't have a call timer.

(5 out of 5)

Excellent Phone - Great Features

This phone has excellent reception. While searching for a new phone, I have tested the higher-end models from Panasonic, Uniden and VTech. The AT&T E5965C "clearly" had better reception and range than any other model tested! Also as previously stated there is no WIFI interference.

Some of the better features as listed in the product description (above) include: AA NIMH batteries (good usage life, no memory issues, easy to replace). 25 minutes of very clear answering machine record time with slow/fast message playback options. The ability to check the answering machine from any of the remote phones is a wonderful convenience and lastly the hands-free speaker phone on any of the headsets is extremely clear and easy to understand, both talking and listening.