Rating: Summary: Great cordless solution Review: Few cordless phones I've owned have been as well designed and manufactured as the AT&T 2230 dual handset. I'm a little obsessive when it comes to the "touch" of consumer products, and if something doesn't feel quite right, or cheap, I don't buy it. In the world of cordless phones, you truly get what you pay for. There may be cheaper 2.4ghz phones available, but none that I found were as well made as these two beauties.The 2230s are a pleasant surprise. Lightweight, solid craftmanship, with a nice arc in the back that fits comfortably in your hand. The face is just slightly concave, with sturdy, tight numerical buttons. The buttons are actually my favorite part. They're solid, don't slide around in their holes, and your fingers don't rub up against the other buttons while pressing them. In other words, the user interface gets an A+. The phone feels like it was designed for the natural curves of your hand and fingers. The outside casing feels very sturdy and tight around the edges, which leads me to believe they'd easily survive a fall. The description reads as being "champagne" in color, and I never really noticed the color before. They're more metallic than cream, and very nice looking. The ear piece is also slightly concave and smooth, and fits your ear quite nicely. To top it all off, the display is a wonderful backlit green light that's bright with easy to read LCD. The menu interface is very easy to figure out; allowing you to program in numbers, check your caller ID, and even change the name of the phones (mine are named Harold and Maude). In case the "dual" part isn't clear, one of the sets plugs in to a power outlet and a phone jack. The other just plugs into an electrical jack anywhere in your house -- no phone line required. This was the deal maker for me, for I needed a phone in an office that didn't have an easy to reach phone jack. All in all I'm very pleased with the set. The previous review talking about volume / sound quality could be because they didn't turn up the receiver volume on the phone, which is quite easy to do and gets as loud as you could possibly need. I guess "quality" is a personal thing, but for me they blew my old 900mhz phones out of the water. If I needed another set for an office or second home, I wouldn't hesitate buying another pair.
Rating: Summary: Good All-Round Cordless Review: This cordless phone had all of the features I was looking for. Good points include: Spread Sprectrum Technology, Belt Clip, Caller ID, Call Waiting ID, Intercom between handsets, True Speed Dialing, Mute (hold) feature, Volume control for both Ringer and Handpiece. Bad Points: Unit off base or charger, battery holds charge for ONLY 3 Days, Recharge takes 8 hours, talking distance from base is limited to 6 homes away, about 1 city block. I have owned an AT&T 900 MHz. Spread Spectrum that would stay charged for 7 or 8 days off of charge before requiring charge, had as clear or slightly clearer voice transmission AND had a 1/3 mile range. Considering that that phone is no longer in production, this is in my judgement the next best phone. I give it ****.
Rating: Summary: Great phone Review: I have had this phone for about two years. It has been remarkable. I would recommend this phone to anyone. I have had no problems what so ever.
Rating: Summary: Too Noisy for Me Review: The AT&T 2230 appears to be a good deal if you have one phone jack but need multiple extensions, and the phones feel good in your hand and look pretty cool. Noise is a subjective thing, and it's clear a few folks below are satisfied with the sound quality. However, when I charged these phones up, I noticed an immediate increase in background buzz over my 10-year old Sony cordless, which was indistinguishable from a corded phone when you were within 50 feet of the base. I tried following a previous reviewer's advice to just kick up the volume (the buzz doesn't get any louder) but at that level I was holding the phone 3 inches from my ear. I called my wife at work and she noticed the buzz too. And I had made sure I was observing all the standard warnings about proximity to other devices, etc. I ended up returning the AT&T and spending more money for the Sony Quadrastation. Still some hiss relative to my old phone, but quiet enough relative to the AT&T that I'll keep it.
Rating: Summary: One word - Unreliable Review: I bought the AT&T 2230 2.4 GHz Dual-Handset Cordless Phone set last summer for my small one bedroom apartment. It seemed like the perfect phone and it was for a while. I had absolutely no problems with it for the first 6 months. It had all the features I wanted plus a few more I did not use. The range was fine, I could take it all the way down to the laundry room and it still worked perfectly. I never had a problem with battery life, signal, or clarity. I thought I had purchased the last phone I would need for a very long time. When it came to move into my house I bought a second set with the answering machine thinking the convenience of all four phones being the same and being able to stick each handset in any charger was worth it. The pager system between handsets also sounded handy for getting a hold of someone say in the garage and whatnot. About two months after settling into my new home the phones started acting up. First the signal strength would go in and out. Calls would get disconnected and the battery life stinks. Then the phones just stopped working. When I get a call now the base unit rings but when I go to grab a receiver it shows "OUT OF SERVICE" on the display and will not work. I end up running around the house looking for one that will respond. I tend to miss most of my calls now because of this. The receivers go in and out, sometimes working, sometimes not. Less then a year after purchasing them I am already shopping for a new phone. In the beginning I figured I would spend a little extra and get a phone that would last, but it did not end that way. I would highly advise at looking elsewhere towards a different brand. Unless you like the idea of having to replace your phone every six months, this phone set is not for you.
Rating: Summary: Great cordless solution Review: Few cordless phones I've owned have been as well designed and manufactured as the AT&T 2230 dual handset. I'm a little obsessive when it comes to the "touch" of consumer products, and if something doesn't feel quite right, or cheap, I don't buy it. In the world of cordless phones, you truly get what you pay for. There may be cheaper 2.4ghz phones available, but none that I found were as well made as these two beauties. The 2230s are a pleasant surprise. Lightweight, solid craftmanship, with a nice arc in the back that fits comfortably in your hand. The face is just slightly concave, with sturdy, tight numerical buttons. The buttons are actually my favorite part. They're solid, don't slide around in their holes, and your fingers don't rub up against the other buttons while pressing them. In other words, the user interface gets an A+. The phone feels like it was designed for the natural curves of your hand and fingers. The outside casing feels very sturdy and tight around the edges, which leads me to believe they'd easily survive a fall. The description reads as being "champagne" in color, and I never really noticed the color before. They're more metallic than cream, and very nice looking. The ear piece is also slightly concave and smooth, and fits your ear quite nicely. To top it all off, the display is a wonderful backlit green light that's bright with easy to read LCD. The menu interface is very easy to figure out; allowing you to program in numbers, check your caller ID, and even change the name of the phones (mine are named Harold and Maude). In case the "dual" part isn't clear, one of the sets plugs in to a power outlet and a phone jack. The other just plugs into an electrical jack anywhere in your house -- no phone line required. This was the deal maker for me, for I needed a phone in an office that didn't have an easy to reach phone jack. All in all I'm very pleased with the set. The previous review talking about volume / sound quality could be because they didn't turn up the receiver volume on the phone, which is quite easy to do and gets as loud as you could possibly need. I guess "quality" is a personal thing, but for me they blew my old 900mhz phones out of the water. If I needed another set for an office or second home, I wouldn't hesitate buying another pair.
Rating: Summary: Disappointing Review: Thinking the AT&T company name was reliable, and liking the price for a dual handset model, I bought this set. I put one handset in my home office, and the other downstairs in the family recroom. Initially things seemed to work well, although the sound volume was a bit low even at the highest setting. As the months passed, reception got worse, and there were strange beeps in the background at times (almost as though a fax machine was on the line, although there was no fax activity). After about 8 months they started going out intermittently, and the range droppped terribly. I also own a Panasonic cordless phone, which has been in my kitchen for several years, and which has worked flawlessly for all this time. I'm replacing these AT&T phones with another Panasonic.
Rating: Summary: These are good phones Review: I have this set, and I like them a lot. The fact that you can put one in a room where there is no phone jack is great. The sound quality is good, and the phone feels good in your hand. I have not had any battery problems as described in other reviews - I've had my phones well over a year.
Rating: Summary: More AT&T junk Review: You think after having 2 other AT&T phones that ended up being junk I would have learned. I definitely will not buy another AT&T product again after this. My wife and I purchased this phone set about a year ago and have been very disappointed with them. There are two big problems with these phones: 1. They don't have a big battery so they need to be placed back in the charger after every phone call, and 2. no one we talk to can hear us unless we shout into the phones. On any of our other phones in the house people can hear us just fine, but we constantly get complaints from friends and family when we talk to them on these two phones. Since it happens on these two phones and not on any other phone in the house I can only conclude these phones are the problem. As I said above, the batteries are small and contantly need to be charged. If you talk to someone for about an hour and get another phone call shortly thereafter you better have another phone ready since the AT&T is destined to die early in the second call. We are constantly having them go dead if we forget to put them in the chargers before we go to bed. We just had friends visit from out of town, and when they saw we had these phones they asked us how we liked them. When we told them about the problems we were having they said they had the same set and were having the exact same problems. Lastly, the LED display for the caller ID started having pixels go out on it right after it was out of warranty. We've now had these phones a little over a year and the pixels are dying so fast you can hardly read the caller ID anymore. These are a complete waste of money. After similar experiences with two previous AT&T phones they've had 3 strikes with me. I won't waste money on another AT&T product ever again.
Rating: Summary: Constant buzzing! Review: We were thrilled to buy this phone, thinking it would be a wonderful thing, but no matter WHERE in the house we plug the base in, we get a low buzzing on the phone - VERY ANNOYING. The manual and support line folks can recommend nothing but moving it to areas "away from appliances", etc, but we've tried that - to the farthest corners of our house where it's the only thing in the room - but to no avail. I would not recommend this phone.
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