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Motorola MD681 5.8 GHz Digital Expandable Cordless Speakerphone with Answering System and Caller ID (Silver)

Motorola MD681 5.8 GHz Digital Expandable Cordless Speakerphone with Answering System and Caller ID (Silver)

List Price: $199.99
Your Price: $109.24
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Limited reception range, battery life, intercom capability.
Review: I bought this phone after reading the glowing reviews in this section. This is a well designed, solidly built phone that generally works well. I bought it for frequency, intercom, and range considerations. The 5.8 GHz band interferes negligibly with my wi-fi network, which is great. However, the phone has its disappointments. The intercom rings the target handset instead of just buzzing and allowing speakerphone communication like a regular intercom system. The reception range is about half of my 7-year-old Panasonic 2.4 GHz phone; I have many dead areas in my (admittedly large) house. Finally, contrary to the experience of others in this section, the battery last little more than a day whith the phone out of the cradle, even with minimal use. This said, I have not yet found a significantly better 5.8 GHz phone.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: dissapointed
Review: i bought this unit and was very pleased until i had a problem.<br />my dog broke the power pack and motorola said i cant get a replacement part. i thought why cant i buy another power pack. motorola said they do not sell replacement parts so my phone is no good now.<br />i bought a uniden cheaper and it actually sounds better then the motorola. it was 1/3 the price

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Excellent but has its own flaws
Review: I have been using this phone system for last 2 weeks and should say am totally impressed by the simplicity and quality of the product. Voice quality on handset, handset speakerphone, base phone on normal phone calls as well as intercom is just too good. Before this Phone I had Sony cordless phone followed by a Panasonic 900 MHz and I must say this phone is far superior then the others.
Some annoying features as mentioned by other reviewers also:
a) Phone book has to be entered in each handset, base phone separately.
b) If you pick up a call on one handset, the other handset and base phones show as new calls.
c) Deleting a message from voice mail is a bit tricky and you can end up deleting all messages instead of a selected one.

If you are ok with the above limitations then this phone is great.



Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I love this phone.....
Review: I have had this phone with an extra handset for about 2 months now and I could not be happier.

I'm using this phone with my Vonage service and the call clarity is excellent. I can't speak too much for range since I live in a Townhouse, but the extra handset works fine on a different level of the house.

I've been particularly happy with the speakerphone capability on the handsets. It sounds great and people can actually hear you when you are using it.

The only thing that might bother people is that the buttons are softer than I'm used to on phones. I found myself thinking I had pushed the button several times when it was new, when in fact I had not. I have gotten used to this and it does not bother me anymore, but I wanted to mention in case this kind of thing bothers you.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Nice cordless digital
Review: I installed a WiFi system after I had already purchased a 2.4 GHz Uniden. Obviously, every time we used the phone, our network computer connection would totally cut out. I decided to try the Motorola (the 5.8 GHz AT&T received on the 2.4 GHz channel and the Panasonic was too tall for the main unit's location).

I'm pleased to say the Motorola works great, without interference. The phone has great battery life, very attractive blue lighting, and has the solid feel of a well-built machine and is very comfortable to hold.

It has many standard bells and whistles. The sound is very clear throughout the house, and the extra battery (same as the AT&T) is a great plus for backup power. The answering machine and speaker phone sound quality is also very good, and the ringer can be heard anywhere in the house.

One thing I miss from the Uniden I had was the ability to assign distinctive rings to various callers/numbers to identify them by sound. The types of rings are more limited than on the Uniden. There is also no way to access the stored numbers in the phone's memory, so even with caller ID, there is often just a generic identification or phone number even when the information is stored in memory. One last minus, the phone is driven entirely via menu system, just like their cell phones. While you can access lots of settings, Some may like this system, but I preferred the simplicity of the Uniden in setting up.

Overall, the Motorola does what I needed it to do, and is a well-made, attractive unit. If it had the ring settings and caller ID storage access, I would've rated it a 5.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good buy
Review: I like this phone. I have not had any complaints with it at all. I have been using it for some time now and it has been working great. I like the speakerphone capapbility fron the handset. Plus, it has a hook on the back to latch it to your belt. With 2 kids, that helps a lot. We are always running around this house! I like that it can be set to vibrate when I am rocking the baby. Yeah, you can't share phone numbers from phone to phone or listen to messages from the handset, but I have never had a phone that did this, nor have I seen one that can! Overall, a very good buy for me.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: So far, so good, Motorola...
Review: I purchased this phone 11/11/2003 from Circuit City. I was replacing a very troublesome Siemens Gigaset 2420 (2.4 GHz), used for about 2 years. The Siemens handsets just went spastic at random,experienced repetitive choppy,wavy sounding and dropped calls. I knew some of this was interference but a Panasonic 2.4 GHz I owned had far less problems with interference. I decided to move to 5.8 GHz which solved the interference problems from microwave, garage door opener, computers, wireless hubs and routers, etc..

Pro's on the Motorola MD681:
Nice slim handset with the rubber grips, very nice blue backlights, sounds great using base or handset speaker phone, headsets, or handset mike. Mute available on all modes. These DO NOT have NiMh batteries, has NiCad. I will have some battery packs made me by a local vendor and use my NiMh from my Siemens handsets. Very easy menus and buttons are crisp with good contact, should last a long time.

Cons- When receiving a call, MD681 DOES NOT check it's phonebook from the caller id, it displays CID from call. It CANNOT transfer a phonebook or entry from one handset or base to another handset. These are minor issues and the other features, fit and finish more than make up for them.

In the 5.8GHz category, I would recommend this Motorola unit as well as the Panasonic KX-TG5110M 5.8 GHz DSS Expandable Cordless Phone with Answering System and Dual Handsets. I picked the Motorola because of the form and design of the base and handsets.

I would not recommend Siemens...

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not Really 5.8 MHz!
Review: I read the reviews of this phone here and also looked at the product information on the Motorola site. I have recently begun phone company voice mail and wanted a phone that could indicate voice mail was waiting.

The Motorola site lists this phone's features, including "Phone Company Voice Mail Indicator." I ordered this phone from Amazon.

When it arrived I saw no light that could serve this purpose, and voice mail indication wasn't mentioned in the manual. I called Motorola and spoke to a very nice lady whose English was marginal. When I asked a question she always said the same thing, 'I will put you on hold while I review some reference material...' What I think really happened is that I was put on hold and she asked somebody what the heck voice mail was. She knew nothing about the phone. After consulting 'reference material' about five times I was told the phone had no voice mail indicator. Strike One.

I charged the phone. One reason I bought in this frequency is that I have a 2.4 GHz transmission system that sends music and satellite TV images to receivers in the house. Unfortunately, it turns out that the Motorola sends on 5.8GHz and recieves on 2.4 GHz (or is it vice versa?) Either way, when the handset is taken off the cradle the TV becomes a blurred image with loud static. I would think this phone would have significant interference with a wireless 2.4 GHz LAN. Srike Two.

No strike three, but I did return the phone. I bought the Uniden TRU5865-2 and am very happy with it.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Very good phone but...
Review: I recently purchased the Motorola MD681 but returned it and purchased the MD671 instead. The pro's and con's of the MD681 have already been listed by other reviewers. I originally purchased the MD681 because I wanted all the bells and whistles (i.e. Answering System). Personally, I do not need an answering machine since I subscribe to Verizon's voicemail service. The reason why I decided to return the MD681 and get the MD671 instead was because the MD671 has a visible alert (LED on the base station blinks) when there are new messages. This function is not included in the MD681 (even with the answering machine turned off). So if you don't really need the answering system... the MD671 is a great choice. The NiMh battery is good for approximately 3 days without a charge (under normal usage).

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Well made, but subpar sound.
Review: I wanted to purchase a 5.8 GHz phone to avoid interference with my WiFi setup. After reading reviews here and elsewhere, the Motorola MD681 seemed to have the features I needed. I've been using it for a couple of days, and I'm sorry to say that I'll be returning it. The sound quality, both in receive and transmit, is subpar. The receive sound has an unacceptable amount of background noise, while the transmit sound is muffled. Since sound quality is high on my list of priorities for a phone, this is not a good thing. On the plus side, the phone is very solidly built, the earpiece volume is plenty loud at the highest setting, the ringer options are great, the backlight is terrific and I like the hidden antenna. But the poor sound quality is a deal breaker.


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