Casio Phonemate TA140 Digital Answering Machine

Rating:
Summary: Totally worth the price
Review: After my old ten dollar (...) answering machine, I wanted something that did not drop messages, had good sound quality and wasn't too expensive. This is it. I read a lot of reviews saying the voice was tinny but I bought it anyway thinking that was a small compromise for all the features. You know what, the voice isn't tinny. It has timestamps which are good, remote access [...], the option to play messages back faster or slower than normal (which is great for when people leave their phone numbers and you have to hear the whole message again). I haven't used the caller id or switchable answering machine message features. The speakerphone works well and I use it often since I still have my college phone whose battery can't seem to stay charged for more than a few hours--but that's another story. Even shows you the day of the week. Just one thing - if you're erasing the last message, press erase before the message has completed or else it will delete all your messages.

Rating:
Summary: Pleasantly Surprised
Review: I bought this answering maching without researching other models. I suppose in a way, I lucked out! I needed an answering machine, and this one does everything fairly well. The recordings of my greetings are relatively clear. The machine is very easy to use. I like the fact that it is digital and I don't have to mess with cassette tapes. It keeps the time and the date, and stamps it to every message. Another good feature is that it has a large caller id screen, which of course helps in screening calls!

I thought the price was very reasonable. Overall I am very satisfied with this product.

Rating:
Summary: Pleasantly Surprised
Review: I bought this answering maching without researching other models. I suppose in a way, I lucked out! I needed an answering machine, and this one does everything fairly well. The recordings of my greetings are relatively clear. The machine is very easy to use. I like the fact that it is digital and I don't have to mess with cassette tapes. It keeps the time and the date, and stamps it to every message. Another good feature is that it has a large caller id screen, which of course helps in screening calls!

I thought the price was very reasonable. Overall I am very satisfied with this product.

Rating:
Summary: Awesome Answering Machine
Review: I purchased this plus an inexpensive cordless to replace my VTech-2960 because, two years after purchase, the VTech turned out to be a costly piece of junk! My kids had this Casio model and were really pleased with all of it's features and its dependability so I decided to get one also. It's great - it has more features than you expect with an answering machine (e.g. Caller ID, remote access, ringer, speakerphone, two outgoing message capability and more) plus it's really easy to program, which is nice for a change! The thing that I like the best though, is the fact that you can program this machine to send the unavailable numbers on incoming calls right to the message center - hasta la vista telemarketeers! No more dashes to answer the phone and then wonder why you bothered. That alone is worthwhile, as far as I'm concerned, but overall I'm very pleased with everything about this answering machine.

Rating:
Summary: no remote access?
Review: I really like this answering machine. The main reason I bought it was because it has the caller ID / call waiting feature on it. I needed a caller ID box and an answering machine, but didn't want the clutter of having two things on my counter. This unit has it all in one and is half the price of other units that do the same thing. The speakerphone really comes in handy when you are dialing from the caller ID list. There is a check button that lets you check your greeting after you make it. It actually has two out going messages that you can store. It has a ringer on the unit that you can adjust. It also has a hold button. The sound quality was a typical digital sound that was pretty good but not excellent. The only thing that I didn't like was the manual did not come in book form. It came like a folded up map. So refolding it was a pain and finding functions that you wanted to do was also difficult. But that would not deter me from buying this product because it is truly a breeze to set up. Over all I'm really glad I bought this Casio answering machine and would highly recomend it. And the price is certainly very attractive.

Rating:
Summary: Everything you need in an answering machine and more...
Review: I really like this answering machine. The main reason I bought it was because it has the caller ID / call waiting feature on it. I needed a caller ID box and an answering machine, but didn't want the clutter of having two things on my counter. This unit has it all in one and is half the price of other units that do the same thing. The speakerphone really comes in handy when you are dialing from the caller ID list. There is a check button that lets you check your greeting after you make it. It actually has two out going messages that you can store. It has a ringer on the unit that you can adjust. It also has a hold button. The sound quality was a typical digital sound that was pretty good but not excellent. The only thing that I didn't like was the manual did not come in book form. It came like a folded up map. So refolding it was a pain and finding functions that you wanted to do was also difficult. But that would not deter me from buying this product because it is truly a breeze to set up. Over all I'm really glad I bought this Casio answering machine and would highly recomend it. And the price is certainly very attractive.

Rating:
Summary: Great value for an answering machine
Review: The TA-140 is a nice little answering machine. There is a weird flaw in its operational design, which I will describe below, but this is compensated by at least one unique feature that I think is indispensible.

First, the flaw. Although the messages and caller ID log are linked together when you check your messages at home, they otherwise seem to be totally disconnected from each other. Examples: (1) caller ID info has to be deleted separately from the messages; (2) caller ID information can't be accessed when accessing messages remotely; (3) the machine does not even take advantage of the time-and-date info from caller ID to automatically synchronize the clock for the voice time stamps. The caller ID features really could have been better integrated.

But having said that, I must now turn around and point out another caller-ID-related feature that alone is worth the price of the whole machine. Anyone who's used caller ID for any stretch of time will know how telemarketers love to get around anonymous-call-blocking by using phone lines that don't send caller ID information--since the data is "unavailable," the calls are not treated like anonymous calls, so they get through. The TA-140 can be set to answer after the very first ring if it doesn't get a positive caller ID--thus catching both anonymous calls and calls with "unavailable" info, and allowing you to screen them. To me, this feature is an absolute godsend.

As far as all of the usual features one would come to expect from an answering machine, I have no complaints. Calls are picked up reliably, sound quality is good to excellent, and hang-ups rarely if ever cause a blank message to be stored.

Overall, I think this is a good value. More expensive machines might have more logical controls and a less tinny synthesized voice, but it more than adequately does the job.

(Added July 14, 2001: Do not believe the review about lack of remote access. You CAN call in and pick up your messages from this machine remotely, like most modern answering machines.)

Rating:
Summary: Its a winner
Review: This machine, which is an exact duplication of the TA-145 except for case color, serves both as an full frills answering machine and a caller-id box. Plus both functions are integrated, so you can see the caller's phone number while playing back messages.

Voice quality is about as good as they come, though you get better greeting quality by calling in from a phone rather than recording with the built-in microphone.

In terms of features, I can't imagine what is missing. There is a feature to direct telemarketers (identified by their "unknown number" id) immediately to voice mail, another one that allows you to have different greetings based on distinctive ring, you can record conversations, record a memo, use it as a speakerphone, skip and replay messages, and a bunch more...

Rating:
Summary: no remote access?
Review: Without remote access, a longer message recording time (why not a half hour?), and provision for more than one local area code, this seems rather limited and old-fashioned.