Rating: 
Summary: Not as impressed as I'd hoped
Review: The operation of this unit is straight forward and intuitive. Very nice. My big complaint after owning it one week is the air noise in the handsets. Every call has a constant air noise that drives us nuts. We'll be exchanging it for something else this week. We called the AT&T help line and they asked about modum interference, computer equipment interference, microwaves, etc., but none of those conditions existed. We moved the base to 3 different places and still no change. The other thing that was annoying when purchased is only 2 of the 3 handsets worked and we had to exchange for a working 3rd handset. If the clarity were there, we'd love this unit ; HOWEVER . . . .
Rating: 
Summary: several minus's on this one
Review: I've had this phone for about three weeks now, so these are some preliminary thoughts which I'll amend down the line if need be. I'll just mention the problems that I have an issue with: 1. If the base staion is anywhere near a wireless computer or any electronic equipment the speakerphone is useless. It emits horrible howles of feedback. I've heard this is due to the 5.8 GHz specs... not a problem with the 2.4's. I wanted to use this for my home business, and now to do so is REALLY a pain. I mean, where else would I have my phone but close to my other office equipment, especially my computer!? May have to return it based on that alone... or get a corded phone and put this one somewhere else. 2. The speakerphone on the handset... once it is turned on, in order to turn it off you can't just push the speakerphone button again. This will activate the non-seakerphone function but leave the speakerphone on as well. Pushing the off button gets you a dial tone. 3. There is no dialing from the basestation... well i shoulda noticed that when i bought it! 4. To delete messages you have to push delete WHILE the message is playing. if you wait til the end, you have to push play again and then listen to the all to lengthy preamble by that computer voice announcer. 5. sometimes i can hear my voice through the ear speaker when i am talking, other times not. i'd like to my voice either amplified through to the ear speaker of the handset, or NOT. this intermitent stuff is no good! On the other hand the phone looks good, and has perfect reception for my purpose. why can't someone build a decent telephone...? bizarre.
Rating:
Summary: Former 2462 User not impressed
Review: I had an att 2462 and I must admit that this phone is a step down. While the phone does have "bass boost" or "Treble boost" and a picture of a clock when idle, it definitely doesn't sound as good as the 2462 did. The sound is hollow and tinny. Additionally, the answering machine is worse, as instead of being integrated into the menus, it is now a duct-taped-on afterthought - you have to set the answering machine's time independently of the phone time (which sets itself from caller ID) - and the answering machine uses an entire separate set of functions which have nothing to do with the phone. This has the effect of "de-integrating" the callerID and answering machine which was done so well on the 2.4 ghz. They have yet to allow handset directory sync.By the way, this phone is almost identical to the Vtech 5.8 phones which have the most minor cosmetic differences (LCD clock is square vs. round, blue neon vs yellowish light) and have all the exact same menus. The 5881 vtech doesn't have a charger on the base, but has a speakerphone, while this phone doesn't have a speaker phone and the base is a charger. I am returning both the 5840 and the Vtech 5881 tomorrow and getting a panasonic. The att 2462 was my perfect phone except for the lack of directory sync and 2.4ghz (wifi conflict).
Rating: 
Summary: Overall a good phone
Review: I just bought the 5840 last week at Sam's. They must have been discontinuing this model cause they had them reduced to $80.46. I read a number of reviews before purchasing this phone and some were helpful. I found the distance on this phone to be better that the 900mhz I previously had. I can walk to my shed and down my driveway and still have clear reception. The answering machine works well and the other features of the phone are good. About the only drawback is not having the ability to dial from the base. This would be convenient if the phone was in another room. I haven't experienced any of the problems other posts have indicated. I found it useful to leave the belt clip on the phone as it helps when cradling the phone between your head and shoulder. I just ordered another handset from Sam's. They had the best price at $56 and change. Wish a "spare" battery had been supplied with the phone for the base when the power goes out. But they are available online for around $6 to 7 bucks. Overall a good phone. I think some of the problems in previous reviews could be alleviated by reading the instructions.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Phone
Review: Voice quality and range are excellent on this phone. It is very clean looking, simple to operate phone without lots of confusing symbols on the buttons like alot of other phones. Although it may be 5.8Ghz to the handset and 2.4 Ghz back to the base, there is no interference from my wirelesss internet connection or the microwave! On either end of the conversation, I tested it well. I tried the Uniden 5.8Ghz but range was terrible indoors. Only problem is the answer machine, messages are quiet and muffled. I returned this 5840 and got the ATT 5830 and a seperate answer machine.
Rating:
Summary: A fantastic expandable phone
Review: I love my AT&T 5840. The handset is comfortable and solid, and the reception throughout the house (and outside) is great. Especially if you have teenagers, you'll welcome the easy-to-use three mailbox system. Remote dial-in to get messages is a breeze, especially since the phone prompts you once you interpret the answering message. When the line is in use, the corner of the base set is illuminated in vibrant blue light, so it's unlikely that someone will pick up the phone in the middle of a call. Best of all, the phone does not interfere with my wireless computer network, a huge relief given the potential for problems. That said, this phone is not perfect. The volume adjustment key is on the side of the receiver, so, if you grip the phone just right, it sets off a series of beeps as the handset tries to adjust the setting. Also, the handset is not easily wedged between the ear and the shoulder - it slips out too readily, although AT&T supplies an earphone to remedy this problem. I explored a lot of options, and this phone seemed like the best despite its flaws. For me, the main selling points are the excellent reception, ease of use, sturdy construction, expandability, and a lack of interference with a wireless network. I highly recommend this phone for these reasons.
Rating:
Summary: Great answering machine; extreme range
Review: My wife and I finally decided to retire our 8 year old Nortel (sold by Sprint in those days) answering machine and corded home phone. What made us want to finally give up the old reliable beast was we had assembled a 'hodge-podge' of phones through the years, having: The Nortel (which is both our phone and answering machine), two corded GE phones, a 900 mhz GE and a 2.4 Ghz Panasonic. If you have a teenager and a six year old, plus a working home office, you can probably relate. We were wanting to buy something that offered a nice base unit with answering machine and something that would allow additional 'satellite' phones to be connected, ease of use and all follow one common design theme. We actually put this on the back-burner and looked over the past six months at offerings from Panasonic, V-tech and Siemens, never really finding one that really excited us enough to replace what we had. While shopping this past weekend, we saw the new AT&T 5.8 Ghz phone and decided we had put it off long enough. We also purchased an additional handset to replace the Panasonic and have plans to purchase two more to replace the General Electrics. Here's what we found: --The design itself (base and handset) can be labeled either 'high tech' or 'European'. It's definitely a 'pretty' phone; the base unit is equally as nice. Controls are VERY intuitive and well laid-out. Build quality is very good to excellent; the handsets feel robust in your hand and the materials used appear to be of high quality. --The answering machine itself is actually extremely easy to use. It offers 3 mailboxes so you can customize your greeting to allow a caller to plop their message into one of the three mailboxes. One gripe here: You cannot further record individual mailbox greetings; i.e. If you tell a caller to hit '2' to send to our daugher's voice mailbox, they are greeted with a 'BEEP' and no message; our old Nortel allowed six mailboxes and customized greetings within EACH mailbox. However, this isn't as bad as it sounds. We found that everyone that called us always complained our answering system to be too complicated and, in over 8 years I don't think 2 people ever used the feature. Quite honestly, I'll bet the phone vendors did a little market research and found nobody uses it, cause it sure isn't a cost factor (maybe .01 cents each) to allow a chip to do it. I think it truly was left out on purpose. Also, prior reviewers state that the sound quality is HIGH on the announcements and LOW on the playbacks. I haven't experienced any problems with it AT ALL. However, it is slightly louder than I would have expected; maybe I've just got good hearing, but even at volume level 1 (the lowest setting), I can hear everything just fine. --Neat feature worth it's weight in gold: There's a button, right on the front of the answering machine to turn off the anwering machine. Phones still work fine; you just don't have an answering machine. Several times my wife needed to turn off our old Nortel and it had to be accomplished via a series of menu options. VERY sweet of AT&T to put it right on the top and easily accessed. It even talks to you, saying "Machine OFF". Nice touch. --There's a big NEON blue indicator that flashes whenever someone else is on the phone or using a dial-up Internet connection. Our old Nortel had this too, and once you get used to seeing that light, you'll wonder how you lived without it. --Neon BLUE. Let me say right here, you'll love or hate the NEON blue color of the: menus, ring around the earpiece, IN USE indicator and several other places. One thing is for certain: Someone at AT&T didn't want you to miss these indicators. Personally, I think they are cool personified; but your individual tastes may vary. --Intercom. Very handy feature. You can literally use the phones as an internal phone set or intercom. It allows paging between any number of handsets and the base, plus a global page option. This feature alone is worth the price of the phone, to us, as it eliminated the need for a separate intercom system, which we were considering for our teenager who suffers from 'selective hearing'. --Range and sound quality. Even though this isn't technically a true 5.8 Ghz phone (base to handset is 5.8, but handset to base is 2.4 Ghz) the range is OUTSTANDING. I can go all over our yard (1/3 acre) and down the street two houses and only when I get to the third house, do I start to get static. Also, how's this for neat? You can select a menu option that will have the phone TELL you when you're starting to get out of range! And sound quality is SUPERB. I can't think of any other way to describe it; it's awesome. About 10 notches above our old Panasonic 2.4 Ghz and the GEs, well they're not even in the same universe. Also, each handset is a full-duplex speakerphone and everyone I have spoken with on them say, 'You're on a speakerphone? Gee, doesn't sound like it'. You will be impressed with the sound quality. --Pros: Extremely good sound quality, ease of use and setup. Great speakerphones, good answering machine, digital recording. Cool looking if you like 'high tech'. Robust. --Cons: I miss my Panasonic's call timer; the AT&T doesn't time calls for you. I wish it were a true 5.8 Ghz; while it probably doesn't matter, I feel AT&T should have at least put a disclaimer on the box or something. I only found it out when I read the specifications and then when I came to Amazon and read some reviews. That said, I can absolutely recommend the AT&T 5840 without any reservations. I'd have given it 5 stars, but felt one thing preventing me from doing so. It will have to prove itself a LONG, LONG time to beat our old Nortel. So, I'm withholding a star for it's unproven track record. But as it stands, I love it, it works superbly and I have no issues with it at all.
Rating:
Summary: Nice phone but volume problems
Review: I bought this phone because I wanted the expandable qualities. It has nice features but there were several disappointments. One was that the battery did not last as long as I was hoping. The most serious problem though for me was the volume. I had problems hearing distinctly on some calls where I never had these problems with my previous phone. The phone has all kind of controls for bass, treble, etc as well as volume control - nothing seemed to help. I also struggled to hear the answering machine calls. I would turn up the volume and the announcer would blare loudy, but the calls were soft. In the end I had to return the phone because of the volume problems. I don't know if it was just my particular phone - although I did read where someone else had problems with their answering maching volume as well. One thing that I did like about this phone was that you could buy different colors and styles in the additional handsets. This makes it easy to distinguish which handset goes where.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Pleased with the AT&T 5840
Review: Despite using this review site and reading a few more negative comments than positive, I decided to give it a try. I must say that I am pleasantly surprised at how well the phone system performs. I purchased the base set and three additional handsets which are dispersed throughout my three story (includes finished basement) home footprint. The reception and sound quality is first rate. I even tried going outside and got as far as approximately 300 feet away before even the slightest hint of scratch in reception quality. I have no LAN or abnormaly complex comm systems installed in my home.
The features seem very straightforward and easy to use. I would highly recommend this unit to anyone looking for a new 5.8GHZ system with lots of flexibility and room for expansion.
Rating:
Summary: It's not a real 5.8 GH
Review: I have long experience with phone, but that's was the first time I buy AT&T phone after checking all customers reviews about all phones(almost).
Con.
1- My Siemens 2.4GH has much better range than this 5.8, that is far behind the Siemens quality and range.
(Try to stand 50 feet away from the base and this 5.8GH is completely dead.) 2-Speaker phone will cut in and out during use well within range of the base. (I returned the first one I got, and exchanged it by another one, but it look that all are alike). Pro.
1-nice design, and many features that other phones do not have.
2-Wide digital screen, let you see clearly the caller ID name and full phone number in the same time (something I hate about Siemens that has small screen). After all, this AT&T is not bad but is not the one that I was expecting from a 5.8GH phone.
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