Panasonic Expandable Cordless Phone System with Call Block and High Contrast Displays and Keypads - 1 Cordless Handset - KX-TGD510B (Black)

I'm a millennial who hasn't had a "landline" phone in 15 years. To resign a contract with my cable provider to continue a discount, it added voice for no additional cost so I decided to get a phone to plug into it since the service would be active.The phone works, it doesn't look like garbage, the screen is easily readable, and the speakerphone seems to be loud enough to be useful.Maybe I'd use this phone to call a customer care number where I knew I'd be on hold for a long time and lay it down on speakerphone, but I could use my cell for that, so I'm likely to never really use this."Landlines," even my comcast provided one, are better for calling 911 though, as the phone system is much more likely to have an immediate address for you, so I guess if I or someone in my house is having a heart attack, this is the phone to call it in.Reading the other reviews here are comical. This is a $30, nearly throwaway phone, with excellent range and signal security, that people are comparing to their original Panasonic ruggedized 900mhz and 2.4ghz phones that cost $200, in 1990's money, in the 90s. That type of quality left the consumer market decades ago, and I doubt the people complaining about this one would be able to handle a present day quality Cisco or Avaya commercial wireless phone.

standard 1 line phone plug, np. pleasant ring tone with vol control, good. Voice quality great - friends have commented we sound better than old cordless. Clear display with caller ID, missed call log (bells and whistles). Has handset finder button on base.I'd say it's a no frills simple unit. Serves my purpose for talking while cooking or lounging on the couch.Happy with my choice and the price and the unit.

This is an inexpensive, but nice phone with a tan-colored lit keypad and a bright-blue LCD screeen to read information from. No answering machine, but if a call is missed, it will say so on the screen. You can use the CID (I assume that means Caller ID) button to flip through the different phone numbers that have called.One of the more unique features on this phone is the "Call Block" feature. Somebody calls you and you don't want to hear from them again, hit the call block button. It probably will not save you from the various call scammers since they have learned to mask the phone number with various different fake phone numbers, including your local area code. However it may help if an unwanted person, or company keeps calling you all the time.This brings me to one of the gripes. A blocked number will still ring once before being blocked. On one hand you get the satisfaction of knowing the call was blocked. But I would rather not be alerted that someone has called at all. This may be due to the VOIP phone service I am using and regular landlines may not experience this problem.Edit: According to Panasonic, the first ring is because the phone is getting the Caller ID. Fortunately, this can be turned off (pg. 16 of the manual) but it will turn off the first ring of all received calls.Another minor issue is it can be difficult to place the phone in the jack properly without it being lit up. There is nothing on the jack to indicate where it is, so in a darkened room, it's a bit of a problem to place the handset back on the charger properly.As for battery life, well let's just say my Aunt loves to jabber, yet even after I could stand no more and kicked her off after an hour and a half of talking, the phone still has plenty of life. There is a "find my phone" button on the jack if you happen to leave the phone somewhere.The phone comes with AAA NI-MH rechargeable batteries from Panasonic which are easy to replace if needed.

If you search for 'how to determine how much charge is left in my NiMh batteries', you'll find there's no good way to measure that, even with an expensive multi-meter.The problem with these types of batteries is that they will fall rapidly from the initial charge amount, and then get to a charge amount (voltage) that they will stay at until they are almost completely depleted.That translates to phones like this one will show 3 bars (full) for only about 1/2 a day. Then show 2 bars for only about another 1/2 a day. Then show 1 bar for 6, 7, 8 etc days.See? that's the point. The meter (gauge - bars) isn't showing the amount of charge left accurately. And that's because it's basically impossible to determine that with NiMh batteries.So, if you see it drop to 1 bar only after a day or so, and think it needs to be re-charged, and put it back in the cradle, you're going to shorten the life of the batteries dramatically by creating a memory effect and / or charging the batteries WAY more often then they need to be.Here's what I'd suggest; buy the eneloop 750maH aaa batteries (they have twice the capacity as the oem batteries). I'd also suggest buying a good battery charger (for AA and AAA) like the La Crosse ones Amazon sells. That way you can recondition batteries if needed, or have spares ready when they do run out.DON'T keep putting the device back in the base, leave it OUT of the base. My current eneloop batteries have been in for 6 full days, not much talk time (5 to 10 minutes), and will probably last a few days more. I'll just swap in newly charged batteries when it indicates low battery.But that's the point, this 6 days? 5 of them have said 1 BAR! See how inaccurate that is? It's a function of the batteries, it's impossible to measure remaining charge accurately. Don't trust the meter. You'll have to fully charge, then remove handset and count how many days before you get Low Batt. That's the only way to accurately gauge (and replace appropriately) how long batteries will last.All the other features of the phone have been great, for my unit. Great sound, call blocking, caller id, all working great. It's nice to not have to jump up and run to get the corded phone, which didn't have caller id! Looking forward to blocking the spammers.Had a cordless phone before, but the battery thing had me baffled, and they were expensive! Stupid battery packs. But now with AAA, and a separate (conditioning) charger, and (now) understanding that the meter is not accurate, looking forward to having this phone for a long time.Cheers