Panasonic KX-TPA50 Cordless Handset

Great phone. I have had Panasonic phones for many, many years. This one is for our office internet phone system. We have three of these. They all work great. Very good sound quality. Easy to use menu system. I do wish there was a dedicated line button, but that is a use case kind of thing. The charge lasts long, but mine is mostly on the charger. The ability to assign a different ring for contacts is useful. Buttons are easy to press and feel solid. The joystick in the middle works well for making selections. It allows vertical and horizontal movement and presses to select. The phone has a very premium feel to it. The display is easy to read and lights when you pick it up or press a button. A light on top blinks amber when you have a voice mail or missed call. You can custom name the phone so it shows on the display. For example my phone says James. Nice feature to have in an office with several of these phones. The speaker phone works well. Not too tinny sounding.

I purchased a phone from here 2 years ago that stopped working after 2 months. I should have known not to try my luck again. This time I spent 3 hours I will never get back with Nextiva trying to pair this with the base station - which should be a simple 2 step process. After firmware upgrades and troubleshooting Nextiva determined the phone was bad and it needed to go back.

[Note: I have read the 1-star review and it's a shame this person had such a negative experience. It wouldn't surprise me that there would be a particular unit that didn't function very well. My experience with Panasonic support was just great and I'm thinking they would take care of this person. I had a problem upgrading the firmware and was in communication with Panasonic Support. They offered multiple suggestions and ways to diagnose what the problem was. My base unit just wouldn't take when I performed the update on my network. However, since I lived near the vendor I took it back and they updated the firmware in a few minutes without any gymnastics. It was a problem on my side, somehow.] This is not a device for the weak-kneed. It's a little formidable what the device is capable of. Being a VoIP novice at the outset, this was a little daunting. But I needed to get up to speed and not rely on the good graces of some turn-key VoIP system. However, after getting used to the unit for a while and practicing with the configuration, it is not as intimidating as it started out. Thanks to the folks over at dslreports.com for all their assistance in correcting configuration errors. Also note that this is NOT an ATA device. This does not convert the digital signal over the internet into a signal that runs over your copper, in-house phone wiring. This is a 100% digital unit that converts the signal to/from analog on the handset speaker/mic only. The TGP550 and TGP551 are essentially the same as this unit except the base unit is an actual phone with a corded handset attached. All the extension handsets are identical for these systems. All the base units have a web interface that must be started from the hand set before it can be accessed. Now to the review itself. Really love the feel of the handset. The feel of the buttons is just outstanding. I'm a button lover in an increasingly buttonless world. Woe is me. I love the device's ergonomics and even though I'm right handed, I love that it doesn't have a lefty or righty feel to it. The handset also as a unit feels solid and durable. No questionable creaks or groans when squeezing it or torquing it slightly. Not sure how it handles a drop as it hasn't happened yet =) The battery life on the handset seems to be fantastic. I had Unidens with a dedicated lion battery pack and it always seemed to be on the edge if out of the charger for a few hours. Just as a test I have left a handset off the device for a few days, and there were still a couple of blips on the battery. Nice. The base unit also feels strong and seems nicely constructed. See below for other comments about it. There is one button on it that will register handsets in range and can be used to restart the device. Only one light on it to indicate that it's restarting (red), initializing software or registration error (flashing amber) or all systems go (green). Basically a good product. As I have not compared other VoIP devices to this one, I cannot indicate how well it performs in relation to others. Reading reviews on dslreports.com seems to show there is consensus for the all-digital VoIP devices: the KX-TGP500, 550, 551 are a breed apart from other consumer-level devices. With any product, there is usually always some room for improvement. 1. Changing registration configuration This has come up in the past few days and especially today. I have had to tweak the registration over the past few days, and it appears to be working fine. However, today I had to change the Authentication ID and Line ID for one line. The ID and password were exactly correct, but just clicking 'save' started the device blinking amber. However from maintenance when I restarted the device, it successfully went green. Request: 'Save' on the VoIP config pages would do everything necessary to successfully re-register. If it means a restart, so be it. For now, lesson learned: Any config change to the VoIP settings just restart the device. 2. Handset headphone jack This is located exactly where the phone might be held in your hand making it a little awkward to hold and use with a headset. The headphone jack could be either on the top or the bottom and the problem would be solved. Or on the side near the top of the device. 3. Handset joystick Would greatly prefer a 4-position 'rocker' button for up-down-left-right navigation and a click push in the middle. There seems to be enough real-estate for it and it might take up less space inside the handset itself. The buttons on the handset truly rock. I love them and they feel solid and durable, whereas the joystick does not give me the same impression. 4. Base unit design Personally not a big fan of devices that use non-functional shapes. It would fit nicer in my device stack (vertically oriented) if it were a simple black box, rather than what it is right now. I have several vertical and several horizontal devices. It would be nice if there were some kind of industry standard for device shapes of this type. They all have to co-locate, so it would be nice to have them all fit into the same kind of footprint. This is a comment on the industry at large. Panasonic is just part and parcel to this mystifying array of disjointed and unmatchable devices that constitute our LANs. 5. Phone display It would be nice to have better display on the handset for incoming calls. I have 4 lines assigned and it would be nice if it were a little more clear which line and number. For example the incoming call number/name in 'bold' and the line id and number in 'light' or something. I'm sorta used to the way it is, but it would be nice.. 6. Ringer tones Would be nice to have more options. Downloadable? =) They offer user-customizable tones for the calls themselves (dial tone, ringing, busy, etc). How about the handset ring tone as well? 7. Web interface This is one of my areas of expertise. This one looks old-fashioned and needs some features: a. on the Telephone Multi Number Settings, it would be nice to set some some things globally, like the default line for a handset, which phones use which lines, etc. b. the ability to load profiles for either specific lines or the entire VoIP configuration. When I'm testing things, I have to manually change every niggling detail every time. It would be nice to have a CallCentric profile that I could assign to Line 3 and it just gets set to my CallCentric configuration automatically. Or just to save a golden profile for the entire set and reload it if things get too out of whack. c. Copy configs from one line to another d. Name lines so I don't have to remember who is on which line every time I change something. e. Status page shows *all* the status: there just isn't that much to show, why click so many links for the whole status? f. Context-sensitive help icons - a question mark icon that can be hovered or clicked on every field with full details as to what it really means and how it's used. g. Configuration wizard (or basic/advanced pages) h. Web server should be able to be set to always run, and not have to always restart it after some interval.

Phone part itself works good. When using the speaker phone part, it is very bad. Hardly anyone on the other side can understand you. Switch over to normal talk, issues go away. Bout to toss in garbage for i like to be on speaker phone and if my conversations arent clear, phone is useless

The phones are excellent as far as call quality goes. However, the headset jack is defective. We have 5 phones in our office and 3 have had the headset jack fail. We have contacted Panasonic and they refuse to honor their 2 year warrantee. They want to charge me $75 plus the cost of shipping both ways plus an extra handling charge to repair the phones. So, to fix the phones will cost more than it cost to purchase them in the first place. I should also mention that the address they have on their warrantee sheet that came with the phones is wrong - I sent the phones to that address and they came back as undeliverable. I think Panasonic makes some good stuff, but it is extremely poorly supported here in the United States. I'll bet Panasonic treats their Japanese customers much better. The folks I spoke really didn't care. So, a few things to consider: 1. If you get the phone and intend to use the headphone jack expect to toss the phone after around 10 months of daily use. 2. If you can get an extended warrantee, get one. That way, you can avoid dealing with the American company responsible for supporting Panasonic phones in USA

If you're looking for a DECT VOIP phone system, there are a number of choices out there, and they're tough to decide between based on the ads alone. We'd been using Snom M3s, and while they worked, they felt like cheap, flimsy toys. Based on positive experiences with Panasonic telephone products in the past, we purchased a base station plus two additional handset, and have been very happy with the result. The units are solid, fit your hand well, and the audio is excellent. Though the screen is monochrome (unlike the color screen on the Snoms), its bigger, clearer, and visible over a wider viewing angle, making for a more positive experience. Configuration went quickly and smoothly. All in all, the experience was positive enough that we'll probably be adding a few more handsets to the system pretty soon.

Pros: Great HD Sound. Supports Codec G722 HD and G711 Build quality is great, it has good range and good battery life for standby and talk time It supports Codec G722, which is HD Voice, if your VoIP provider supports it. It is a 100% digital unit. I replaced Panasonic HHR-65AAABU AAA 2 Pack Rechargeable Batteries (600mAh), which came with the phone with: BK-4HCCA4BA eneloop Pro AAA New High Capacity Ni-MH Rechargeable Batteries (950mAh), for more talk time Cons: Battery gauge needs calibration with firmware update. It displays 25% charge even when it’s fully charged It would also be nice if the 2.5mm headset jack could be moved to the top of the phone. Panasonic should add Talking Caller ID