Uniden EXA3955 900 MHz DSS Cordless Phone with Digital Answering System, Dual Keypad with Speakerphone (Pearl White)

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Phone, Crummy Answering Machine
Review: If you've looked for a 900 MHz cordless phone recently because of interference between your 2400 MHz cordless phone, 802.11b/g wireless network, and microwave oven, you may have noticed that nobody sells 900 MHz cordless phones with DSS or even plain-jane digital voice anymore. Digital technology such as DSS and digital voice transmission are essential for cordless phone security and privacy. Without it, anybody with a scanner from Radio Shack can listen in. People with special equipment--or even good ears--can pick out credit card and bank account numbers when they're entered on a telephone keypad.

I bought my DSS Uniden EXA3955 a little over a year ago from a third-party Amazon seller. It's not available through Amazon at the moment; however, it is still available refurbished for $40 to $50 from other online vendors.

This phone is a basic one-line 900 MHz DSS model with great range--even through walls and floors. The handset is comfortable to use, and easy to hold on your shoulder. The sound quality is fine--probably not exceptional, but definitely not bad, with an adjustable volume control that goes high enough to hurt sensitive ears. It also has a standard-size headset jack that works well. The biggest disadvantage to me is the inability to turn off the ringer on the handset (it does have high and low ring volume with two different ring-tones). Other disadvantages for others may be the lack of caller-ID display (doesn't matter to me--I refuse to pay $7 per month for it on top of the $23/mo for basic phone service) and possibly ease-of-use issues for programming speed-dial (however, I don't use speed-dial on my home phone, so I'm hardly qualified to give a strong opinion).

The base has a speakerphone that works OK--about what you can expect from a consumer-quality speakerphone.

The answering machine in the base is all-digital, but the sound quality is poor, and it's not very easy to use. It can be turned off though, which is what I have done; I continue to use my $20 stand-alone GE 2-9868A answering machine because it's intuitive in its operation, and its sound quality is significantly better.

If you've come to realize that 2.4 GHz phones are all about hype and marketing (it's true--2.4 GHz signals are more easily blocked by walls and floors than 900 MHz signals, they don't use higher power levels to transmit, they're prone to interference from microwave ovens, and they're competing with wireless networks for 2.4 GHz spectrum; therefore 2.4 GHz is an inferior technology for cordless phone applications) and you're looking for a basic 900 MHz cordless phone with DSS that just plain works well, this is a good choice for the money if you don't use caller ID, and you're willing to put up with the crummy answering machine or use a different one.

Rating:
Summary: Unidens seem to be a hit or miss thing
Review: Our old phone is a uniden. The first one we had bought back then didn't do well for us. The second was wonderful. We had it for about 5 years and abused it quite badly. It still works but we needed a new one. So we bought another uniden. I probably won't buy another one. I bought this one because it was more money than others. My thoughts- more money spent the better the phone. I have static the whole time. Changing channels does not work. Troubleshooting says it could be appliances and we do keep it in the kitchen. But we kept our other one in the kitchen and had no problems. I would suggest to buy one in a store- quicker exchange if it doesn't work for you. Cordlesses are touchy.
Otherwise, I thought the features were great. I picked this one also because it has the functions we needed and not unneccessary ones. We don't use caller id. One thing I liked about the more expensive uniden (with caller id) we did not buy is that you can program a distinct ring for different callers. I think since this phone does not have caller id this function would have been great.

Rating:
Summary: Pros and Cons
Review: Received this item for Christmas, and am pleased with some features, and not others. Recording my own message for the answering machine part was not successful. It came out all muffled and unacceptable. Handset ring is not same as base ring. Confusing to use memory features. Does it's job for the price.

Rating:
Summary: Pros and Cons
Review: Received this item for Christmas, and am pleased with some features, and not others. Recording my own message for the answering machine part was not successful. It came out all muffled and unacceptable. Handset ring is not same as base ring. Confusing to use memory features. Does it's job for the price.