Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Edited May 30, 2013. Pushing up to 4 stars, simply because it's a great product once you get the hang of it, but there are still issues you may encounter that aren't intuitively obvious without having the manual at hand and/or playing with it for a few days. Also, the audible caller ID feature is proving to be both annoying and fun, and it may help in your decision. OLD: I'd give 3 or higher stars if I'd never used a Panasonic phone product. I'd give it 2 stars if this product was something I had no experience with. It's very good overall, but it sucks in the details. EDIT: I'd now call it 4 stars after some experience with it, but still, the instructions and all the possible programming problems you may encounter are concerns. Some reviewers and commenters have cast aspersions upon other reviewers and commenters who have pointed out issues, as if those with the issues are somehow not very bright. That being said, if you've read this because you're not that bright, you aren't the only one. Basically, what the unit tells you it will do out of the box isn't what it will necessarily do FOR YOU until you set it up. I bought the 4 handset version to replace an older Panasonic cordless array, based on the specs and the very few reviews I could find. For the most part, I'm happy with the units after a week, but caveat emptor: some of the claims in the advertising are a bit exaggerated and some of the instructions in the manual are either unclear or unhelpful, and I haven't been able to contact Panasonic during their help center hours to figure out if my solutions are the recommended ones (and you may want to consider this: I've tried to contact the help phone line and the online help more than an hour before they officially close at 9:00 PM Eastern--I get nothing). At this point, I think I'd be very happy with this product if I'd never used a previous version of Panasonic phone products, and I'm a bit irate with them since I have used those previous products. I'd still recommend it. EDIT: I did get through to Panasonic's help line, just to see if I could. They are slow, somewhat helpful, but seem to be reading from the manual, so if a lack of clarity in the manual is an issue for you, talking to them may not help. On the plus side: the sound quality of each unit is great; changing phonebook settings on one unit changes all the others; pairing with an iPhone is easy but with some funny issues not covered in the manual nor on the Panasonic website. This unit also doesn't have a problem with WiFi or microwaves for sound quality. The speaker phone is fantastic. The handset has no protruding antenna, and is fairly small. The keys are also large. After a few days, the basic operation will be obvious, and you'll probably love it. EDIT: This part is why I've rated it higher, and modified my review. The sound quality and inter-unit communication is great. Notifications on the units for an incoming call on a paired cell is fantastic, though takes some getting used to. Calling from the unit via hardwired landline OR cell is easy and works great with the paired cell nearby. And, recognition of the cell after pairing is very quick: the unit recognizes my cell when I walk into the house. On the minus side: there are quite a few things I'm annoyed with, the first being that the manual is required for doing anything beyond just shoving the cords in; some of the features and programming require you to reference the manual for either handsets OR the base unit; and some of the simple descriptions in the printed manual as well as what I see on the Panasonic website as of 5/10/13 don't help with the problems you may encounter. This product somehow combines user-friendly setup with arcane and tortuous fine-tuning. EDIT: nothing different here. FIrst: don't throw the manual away. There are many programmable functions that you'll only find by reading the manual, and its index is adequate but sparse. The Panasonic website information for this product is horrible at this point (5/10/13). Second: if you have an iPhone 5 (not sure if this is true for earlier versions): pairing via Bluetooth is easy (scarily so), and sending contacts from the IP5 to this unit MANUALLY can't be done. What I found is the following, which will probably only make sense once you get the thing: 1. On your iPhone, if you want to transfer phone numbers to the Panasonic with MOST of the information, set up those numbers in your Favorites list on the iPhone. 2. Set up the contact transfer on the Panasonic once the pairing is done; select AUTO for the phonebook transfer (since MANUAL doesn't work, or didn't for me as of this writing): allow a few items to transfer, then CANCEL it. Then, go back to your iPhone, and look under SETTINGS and BLUETOOTH. Find the pairing for the Panasonic unit. There should be a list of address books the unit will try to pair with. Deselect everything on the iPhone except the Favorites (where you've put your transfer data). 3. Then, return to the #618 "phonebook transfer" on the Panasonic, select AUTO, and the contact numbers you put in your iPhone Favorites will be pulled into the Panasonic system. 4. Then, even if you've followed the manual's instructions about setting up international, you'll find that the imported numbers probably don't include 1 in front of the 7 digit numbers you pulled in. At that point, you have to edit each imported number to make it dial correctly. 5. My experience: even if you set up the international/country/domestic settings before import of the numbers, you'll still have to go into the Panasonic handset and fine-tune and/or change what was imported. EDIT: 6. You may not have the same issues if you have only one address book in your iPhone (I had 4, some corporate, some iCloud, some shared). Anyway, if you only need a few or a few tens of numbers pulled in, the mediocre method used by the Panasonic unit means you'll have to edit some numbers instead of putting them in from scratch. It's not that big of a deal, but it's not what Panasonic advertised. Third: read carefully and test the "benefits" like audible caller ID, paired Bluetooth text notification, and cell connections. These are all selling points, and can quickly become pains in the ass. You can change how the Panasonic units handle these things. I thought it would be neat to have each Panasonic unit notify me when I have a text message on my paired cell, until I actually did it. Turns out that can make you suicidal. EDIT: the audible caller ID is even more annoying (or enjoyable) if you get calls with strings of consonants or vowels in the caller ID name line, or calls from names that the phone recognizes but can't really pronounce. I'm leaving it on, just for giggles, since the voice announcement does some creative things with abbreviations and multiple letter strings that aren't simple words (e.g. a call showing up as coming from "ATT" is announced as coming from "at"; a friend whose last name is French was announced using some sort of diphthong-speak transliteration). I've found that such announced calls are more enjoyable if I've been drinking, and if you have callers with names recognized by the system who have names that include strings of vowels or consonants that sound a certain way using the correct pronunciation, you may want to use the audible feature just to see what it will come up with. I'd love to know how the audible caller ID works in Poland, Wales, or France.