| Reviews : Panasonic KX-TG6500B 5.8 GHz DSS Expandable 2-Line Cordless Phone (Black) |
Panasonic KX-TG6500B 5.8 GHz DSS Expandable 2-Line Cordless Phone (Black) Product By Panasonic Available From 1 Sellers |
Technical Details
- 5.8 GHz digital spread spectrum signal
- Expandable to 4 handsets, 1 included, with integrated speakerphone
- 60-minute integrated digital answering system; 4 ring tones
- Caller ID/wall waiting with 50-call memory
- Supports 2 lines; flash, redial, hold functions
Product Description
Panasonic KX-TG6500B BLACK 2-LINE 5.8 GHZ EXPANDABLE CORDLESS PHONE SYSTEMSimilar Products
Customer Reviews
By Elly (Queen Creek, AZ)
I bought this phone in 2004 in NY and thought it was over priced, but I wanted a cordless that I didn't have to pull an antenna up on ;D, and that had a good solid feel to it. The handset is something you don't want to have experiment with on the fly if you're on a call because you will fumble the options. Once you know where they are and what they do and you've cut off a few calls, you get it. I've moved to AZ and find that in one corner of the house it sounds like I'm speaking through a tunnel when on the phone. Other than that, I find the sound quality to be excellent.
This phone is being used in a home office. It will handle conference calls and transfers from the base. It does take more room than the newer phones do on your desk, and the handset is larger. The display window lights up for easy reading, and the fonts are a good size. As another customer mentioned, you don't get the CID feature on the base. I've had this phone for almost 6 years and have never had a problem with it. It's only now that I'll need to replace the battery b/c it's just starting to give me trouble, not fully charging.
This is not an attractive phone, but it is a good, solid, reliable one.
By Michael Steinhart (Sedona, AZ)
Usually, I just write 'warning' reviews, but, since we have had this phone for over two years without one iota of trouble - here goes something different. Oh, and add to that, we bought it and two extra handsets, refurbished, for $195 total - it has been one great investment.
We use one line for a land line (that we maintain for infrequent calls, conferencing, faxing and TiVo's automatic daily calls) and the second line to hook up a Dock-N-Talk so that our cell phones automatically sync up and can make use of all the handsets for incoming and outgoing cell phone calls (the phone makes use of the cell provider's caller ID and displays and remembers the incoming cell numbers).
Yes, the menu is a bit of a pain, but we have totally gotten used to it. Yes, the 'missed calls' notification on the unused handsets is dumb. Yes, having individual phone books on each handset without a 'copy' feature is a time waster. BTW, someone said something about not having battery back-up, and while that is true, it does have flash memory and no messages are lost when there is a power failure.
With all that said; we find the sound quality to be quite good and so do those we speak with (no interference of any kind, even in our heavily laden electronics playground); the range is great, we can go all over the backyard and garage, in the car (I was working with a Sirius rep on my car's reception) with no loss of signal. Like I said, two years later and it is still going strong.... and, the letters and numbers do not even wear off!
By C.S. Haviland
I have been using this phone for a couple of years now, but I'm back on the market for a replacement. Why? Because this phone only allows up to 3 accessory handset units plus the base. (Four phones altogether.) I now live in a big house and I need more phones.
If it were not for that limitation, it would be worth my money to keep this phone.
Strengths:
1) Some people report that phones of this type (what ever the brand) may not work next to your computer if you have a wireless network. I have heard that some customer support reps will advise users to place their phone at least 15 feet away from the computer, which is absurd when you're using the phone in a home office, where you use the computer daily. I don't know if anyone has ever reported such a problem with the KX-TG6500 but I have never had any problem with its reception at all. The sound is good enough for me. The Panasonic manual DOES warn you to place the phone away from your computer, which is perplexing given that many people need phones next to their computers. Maybe it all depends on the type of network you have.
2) I love the blinking light that flashes at the top of the antennas of each phone. If you have headphones on you might see the light flashing and know the phone is ringing. The light also flashes if someone has left you a message.
3) I have two distinct phone numbers, and this is a 2-line phone. The base and all the handsets accommodate 2 lines. I have set up all phones with a distinctive ring BASED ON WHICH LINE IS CALLED. Surprisingly, some multi-line phones cannot do this, even when they sport distinctive rings. It is very important to me that if someone calls line 2, it rings differently from someone calling line 1. In fact it's a deal-breaker, so as I search for a new phone, I'm trying to find the same functionality.
4) The cordless phone I replaced was an older Southwestern Bell Freedom Phone. Which by the way was JUNK. The Freedom Phones LCD displays die after 8-12 months -- little by little the bars fry, until pretty soon you can't see anything on the screen. I replaced 3 of the Freedom Phones under warranty and they died also. I finally gave up. So I am very happy to report that I never had any problem with the LCD displays in the Panasonic KX-TG6500.
Weaknesses:
1) Despite that the Southwestern Bell Freedom Phone was junk, they did get one design right: you can program a banner for each handset, so that when you call a handset, you get the banner name on your phone. For example, name the handset in the living room as "LIVING ROOM" and intercom it from your home office by selecting "LIVING ROOM" on the display. Seems a no-brainer. The KX-TG6500 *cannot do this.* You have to intercom it by *number.* That means you need to remember which phone is in which room. And if they get switched by a busy wife who doesn't remember which number goes in which room, you're bound to get irritated. The Uniden TRU9466 2-Line Expandable Cordless System with Dual Keypad and Call Waiting/Caller ID and other phones have the same banner / intercom feature as the Freedom Phone did, which is good.
2) As I mentioned, the Panasonic is limited to a network of 4 phones total (the base plus 3 accessory handsets). No more.
3) The phone book is a little irritating. Sometimes I have to press more buttons to call someone from the phone book than I would if I just posted their number on my desk and dialed them straight. Kind of defeats the purpose. Sometimes I get lost in a maze trying to find someone by not entering the phone book because I'm in a rush, and I wind up in some other function. Really, why wouldn't they design a phone book button? Why make us push Menu, then the down button, then Select, then the down button a hundred times to find our name? Wouldn't it make more sense to push a phone book button and then the first and second letter of the person's name? You'd think.
4) The mute button doesn't have any light or indicator that it's turned on.
5) My old Freedom Phone, as well as the Uniden TRU9466 and others, allow you to "intercom" ALL the other handsets at the same time. Makes sense, if you don't know which room your wife is in. Can't do that with Panasonic KX-TG6500. You have to call one handset at a time, by number, until someone answers. Which is really annoying when you're trying to transfer a call on a busy day.
6) This and many other phones with an "intercom" feature don't have a way to actually broadcast. For example it would be more helpful if I could just literally intercom all the handsets so that they automatically broadcast my voice as speaker phones. That way I can make announcements to the whole house, or to one or another phone, without someone having to pick up the handset. This phone doesn't do that, nor do any of the other phones I've researched so far.
By J. Ruffingsr
My small, growing business loves this phone. The ability to page, and talk to each other anywhere in the building makes life easier. Clear reception throughout parking lot, and out to first intersection.
By James Wedewer
Overall, this phone system does what I need it to do, and I won't go over many of the general positives and negatives here. Here are my specifics:
1) No caller-ID on the base unit. My previous Panasonic 2740 had this...why did they get rid of it? (more on the 2740 later)
2) Doesn't remember your caller-ID redial settings. i.e. all my calls show the full area code, but when I want to dial, I have to press call, then edit, to get it to dial without the area code. My 2740 system remembered my edit settings (or maybe it's just the way called ID comes in now with Vonage).
So why did I upgrade from the 2740 I liked so much? Because of an annoying popping noise when both lines were in use. It was a great system for 3 years...I had 5 phones with it and it worked perfectly. Then one day, line 2 got a popping noise on the line whenever line 1 was also in use. This simply would not go away no matter what I tried (unplugging, pulling phone batteries to reset them, checking the lines, etc.) I tried another 2-line system and confirmed it was the phone itself, not the lines.
So after almost 2 more years, my new TG6502 system (same as 6500 but with an extra handset included), the same thing starts happening a couple days ago. It's fixed for now, but for how long I don't know. I pulled the batteries from every handset, unplugged the base for a couple minutes, and all seems to be good for now. Only time will tell...and my wife...when she tries to use her line to talk with people. Hopefully this is the end of my ordeal, but I absolutely long for the day when someone other than Panasonic has a decent 2-line phone system that doesn't die after a couple years. I'm not looking forward to another $300-400 system in my house.
UPDATE: Well, long story short, the Vonage adapter I was using for my 2 phone lines was the culprit. When this came up, I was also in progress of finding a new VOIP provider. Switched to SunRocket, plugged in their adapters to run two phone lines, and voila...no problem! I'm betting my old system was fine too. Fortunately found someone on Craigslist to finally take that off my hands and get it out of my closet for $100.
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