Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This phone system replaced an old Panasonic 5.8 GHz system we had had for a long time. Since we generally like Panasonic's brand reliability, we decided to get another Panasonic. Here are my pros and cons when it comes to the KX-TG6533B: PROS: - Handsets are lightweight and feel well balanced and ergonomically well designed. - Display is very bright and readable with large letters and excellent contrast, so no squinting or getting out the glasses necessary. - Handsets can be given individual names such as "Office", "Living Room" etc. No more confusing which handset belongs where when several are out of their holders at the same time. - When new phone numbers are entered, these register immediately on the other handsets - no separate transfer of entries to other handsets is required. - Sound is very clear. We recently switched to a VoiP provider and calls made with the old phones had sound issues a lot of times. Now people comment how much clearer we sound. Big Plus. - We utilize the voice mail system our phone service provider offers, i.e. not the answering machine on the Panasonic base unit. One of the most useful features of this phone system is that after an initial set-up (entering the voice mail retrieval phone no., password, etc.) the phone periodically and automatically connects to that mailbox and informs us on the handset display that new voice mails have arrived. No need to separately dial into the mailbox anymore to find out whether or not we have new voice mails. - Every now and then we get calls in the middle of the night from people who had the wrong number or mis-dialed - annoying, to say the least. Enter this phone system's Silent Mode: It enables individual handsets to not ring during a specified period of time, e.g. at night. Very useful. - There is an option to activate Talking Caller-Id. When someone calls, the name of the caller is announced between rings. Another winner in my book, just as: - The Call Block feature to permanently store unwanted callers in a list on the phone. These callers then only receive a busy signal when they attempt to call. CONS: - Phone holders are generally lightweight and tend to move around a bit when handsets are taken out, or are being put back in. Not a major problem at all though, just wanted to mention it. - The system stores only 50 phone numbers. I don't think that is nearly enough in today's world where many people have home, work, and cell phones, i.e. 3 different numbers for one person would then need to be stored. I entered but a handful of my family and friends' numbers and in no time got dangerously close to capacity due to having several numbers for one person. - The ring tones/melodies are not very good or appealing. I was really unpleasantly surprised. The most annoying are way-too-fast, synthesizer-like renditions of classical pieces. Oh my, Panasonic - this could have been done so much better. These tones/melodies sound like they come from the beginning of this technology, about 20 years ago. Ugh. SUMMARY: There are many features I really appreciate about this phone, nonetheless I am not totally blown away. After switching from 13-yr. old technology to this system I must say that I expected a bit more. It seems to me that Panasonic added a number of cool features but didn't improve on some of the older functions, such as phone book capacity and ring tones. But all in all still a good system. UPDATE 8/17/2011: I thought I'd add a quick update since it has been over a year that we have had this phone system: I am still rather happy with this phone and have not encountered any of the bad issues the 1-star reviewers have seen. As a matter of fact, there is nothing that I would modify in my initial review - I still like/dislike the same features, but my favorite two features are definitely the Call Block feature (it is just great - the phone rings once and that's it. The call is then blocked immediately. Finally no pesky calls from ominous 800 numbers anymore), and the Silent Mode feature which we have set to being in effect after 11 pm so we won't get any (ringing) calls during the night. One point I would like to add is that I found the batteries to hold up great. I have had calls that went on for hours at a time, and none of the handsets ever died on me. I think the longest call was around 5 hours (I know, I know...) and while the indicator bars went down to one, it was still working when I hung up. I was and am very impressed with that.