supplier's Full Review: Panasonic KX-TG2730 2.4 GHz 1-Line Cordless Phone
I found this review on my hard drive. I wrote it 9 months ago. Just want to add this particular model was one of the first where Panasonic introduced nanny-intercom and two-way radio. To make a decent range of the radio the power output was slightly increased and this shorten the battery life. But it’s not bad at all. After three years of using the whole system (5 receivers on total) I had to replace all batteries with Radio Shack’s ones and on the fully charged battery you have AT LEAST 2.5 – 3 hours of talks – it’s a lot! And should be fine for one evening: And now the old review:
I bought Panasonic KX TG2730S around two years ago or so (just after this system came out on the market). For the past 12 years I used only Panasonic cordless phones (good once of course) and was always happy. Don’t get me wrong, but Panasonic, as well as any other company, probably was trying to survive the bad markets and huge competition – so, naturally, they cut the corners as anyone did recently. But this phone, and the expendable system in total, came out very nice, based on all the latest technology Panasonic had to offer at the time. As a lot was written in the previous 14th epinions.com’s reviews on the phone’s features I’ll skip this part and will go directly to what wasn’t mentioned good or bad about the system and on what I couldn’t agree with other people.
I have: the base KX-TG3730S, bedroom alarm KX-TGA272S handset, KX-TGA271W and two KX-TGA271V. The features I love (and don’t have problems with, like some other people mentioned) sound quality – earpiece and speakerphone both are loud and clear without any noise. Because of the Frequency Hopping Digital Spread Spectrum technology (FHDSS) used in the system the quality of sound DOES NOT get affected by my working 1600Watt microwave (my base unit is located in the kitchen right next to a fridge and less than 7 feet away from the microwave). As mentioned by someone already in the reviews, due to the same FHDSS technology the system is Wi-Fi friendly. I can talk on the phone at my work desk one foot away from wireless AP and both – the phone and the internet – working flawlessly, oh, one more thing, I’m using Logitech wireless keyboard/mouse – they are working on the same 2.4 GHz frequency. I have no interference between any of the devices. I bet, if you would use analog 2.4GHz cordless phone you would loose the Internet connection and your mouse pointer would jump like crazy on the display.
I want to emphasize again the security and the unbelievable long range – I was able to talk from the receiver (using built-in booster mode) the whole block away from the base (I might be wrong without actually measuring the distance, but I would say average block length (between the avenues) in Brooklyn is about 650 – 800 feet. Not bad!
Another cool feature – is ability to share phone directory between the handsets from only one place (handset). It has three mailboxes, ability to check your messages from any handset (and remotely of course). Natively unit of this class has a duplex speakerphone (on base and on receiver), the intercom and handset locator. You can pickup incoming call and transfer (or conference someone in) to the base or another handset. One more important feature to me and it worked well when I needed it – you can use it as a baby monitor! (Or just as a room monitor).
Now about the bad stuff. Before going farther I admit there are too many right complaints on the battery life. Sorry folks, the economy is bad so part of the lost Panasonic put on us at this time. To be objective I have to admit that any telephone unit with spread spectrum hopping technology, expandable capability and this powerful range would consume more power and drain the battery more quickly than a single phone (not expandable). So here you comparing apples and ….. different apples. But I also convinced that Panasonic’s batteries are much lower quality than they could be, period!
The original battery died after 1 month. (This is what I meant by cutting corners in the beginning of my review). I contacted Panasonic and requested a replacement one. They had now problem with that, but I had, as they asked me to ship back the whole unit with the charger so they will diagnose the problem. On top of that they will ship back to me a remanufactured unit. So this time I let it go and pickup a new Panasonic battery in the store. Two years later I still using that Panasonic battery and the talk time I can get from a full charge is 65 minutes on a speakerphone. Maybe not great, but definitely is not bad for on old battery (and I’m sure it was much better with a new battery). It’s a totally different story with the additional smaller handsets (like KX-TGA271’s). They use smaller HHR-P103 batteries (650mAh) and they weren’t holding good. On average 20-30 minutes. Somehow all Panasonic HHR-P103 are low quality –maybe again cost cutting? I went to the Radio Shack and bought a radio shack’s replacement batteries for all my 4 phones. The replacement battery is much better quality and a bit higher capacity (700mAh). My talk time with new battery using speakerphone went up to 55 -60 minutes. You can buy the battery on line (Catalog #: 23-966) for $15 or in stores for $18.
By the way, one of the users mentioned that TGA2730 phone uses Ni-Cd battery with “memory effect” – he probably has a different phone, because this unit as well as all additional handsets is using Ni-MH battery without “memory effect”. After all said I rate the battery life as average. The phone has one more nice feature – 2-way radio, But because of the average battery life it is not really useful.
The answering machine has memory for 18 minutes of recorded messages, which is very sufficient for home use – it’s not a business telephone system anyway. If your in-laws like to leave you long messages you can limit recording time for each message to either 1 or 2 or 3 minutes. One improvement that I would like to see it’s a full functional display on the base itself (with caller-ID capability and more) and not a small LCD to display messages counter. Unfortunately the display can count till 30 only(!?), but if those messages are short and there is still available memory – the answering machine will operate normally and store more than 30 messages , but will display the number of messages as 30. As you will delete some messages and the total amount of them falls below 30 the counter will start show the right number of messages. One more thing I’m missing is what I had in older Panasonics – the new messages audible alert switchable off, if needed. I guess that all I was going to write about this model today. If something else comes to mind I’ll add that “something” to the review.
Just want to mention that in 2002 I wrote short complaint to Panasonic customer service that went without any answer to me. So I made a big deal from that and a senior officer from customer relations contacted me back with the apologies. My original two complaints were strictly technical (not even complains – they were small suggestions). One was that I’d like to see back audible alert for the new messages as Panasonic had in its older models and the time between the beeps should be increased to 10 -15 minutes (as Panasonic’s original 2 minutes interval between beeps was very-very annoying). My second complaint was about design of a bedroom alarm handset KX-TGA272S. Ergonomically it wasn’t good designed as well as laying down receiver took out good chunk of space on a night table. When I was answering the calls during the night I was knocking down everything on the table. Plus I was very unhappy that if the receiver was taken out the bedroom I have to look for my “alarm”. So I think the purchase of the additional bedroom handset KX-TGA272S was a waist of $99 I paid. So eventually Panasonic answer to me and assured that they will look into that problem with the handset design. A year later they discontinued TGA272s handset and came out with a totally new designed KX-TGA273S. Can’t say they did it because of my complaint, but certainly I’ve contributed to that.
Considering good quality, available features, way ahead of competitor’s models is the phone to buy IF YOU NEED AN EXPANDABLE SYSTEM. You might be much happier buying two-three cordless not expandable phones in each of your rooms. Recommend this system if you want/need “collaboration” of the phones.
Also let me express my opinion on Panasonic’s new similar 5.8GHz system – it’s probably the same advanced and reliable as the one I’m reviewing now but you should think twice if you want to get “twice” more radiation to your brain. I’ll stick to 2.4 GHz as long as it will work fine for me.
2.4 GHz frequency-hopping spread spectrum technology Caller ID/call waiting For use with Panasonic KX-TG2700S, KX-TG2720S, KX-TG2730S, or KX-TG2740S B...More at Amazon Marketplace
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