Our 15 year old cassette-tape answering machine died. Our upstairs cordless phone was near death. Time to go phone shopping.  
 
I was attracted to idea of the new expandable cordless phone systems... the kind with a single base station and the ability to add several handsets. The many benefits of such systems include the ability to use the handset and base stations as intercoms and the ability to transfer calls from one handset to another.  
 
Those items are just the beginning of the long list of cool features of the Panasonic KX-TG5110M.  
 
There are two ways you can buy this phone system. The first is as a package with the base station and one handset (Model KX-TG5100M). This sells for around $200. You can also buy a package that contains the base station and TWO handsets (Model KX-TG5110M), which you can usually find for around $265. This is a good deal, because the individual handsets sell for $79-89 each. If you know you need more than one handset, definitely try to find the two-handset package, and save yourself a few bucks. When I was buying, neither Circuit City nor Best Buy carried the two-handset package. Sears and Amazon.com did. I bought mine from Amazon.com.  
 
THE TECHNICAL STUFF  
 
This phone system works in the new 5.8 GHz frequency range. The advantage of this over the more common 2.4 GHz phones is that the latter is more prone to interference from microwave ovens. Also, if you have an 802.11b wireless computer network in your house or building, that works on the 2.4 GHz frequency range, it could cause interference with that kind of phone system.  
 
This Panasonic system uses digital spread-spectrum technology, which constantly and automatically searches for the clearest channels in the band to give interference-free performance. In my experience, it works flawlessly... This phone really sounds exactly like a good corded phone.  
 
At my house, the range is about the same as what I got with my previous 900 MHz phone. I can go outside on the front porch, but if I venture about 30 feet down the driveway, the reception goes away quickly. Inside the house, there are no dead spots, and reception is flawless, both upstairs and downstairs.  
 
THE BASE STATION  
 
The base station is a sleek, attractive compact unit with a large LCD screen that displays its many functions. Unlike Panasonic's 2.4 GHz models, which come in gaudy shades of purple and silver, these phones have an attractive, businesslike platinum color.  
 
The LCD screen displays caller ID info, your phone book, which can store up to 50 numbers, the interface for the digital answering system, and the menus that you use to set up the phone's features. The display is backlit, large, with nice big readable text.  
 
There is a large circular, 4-way rocking navigation control which allows you to scroll through your phone book, caller ID list, as well as menus. It also acts as the base station's volume control.  
 
The base station can be used stand-alone as a speakerphone if there is no handset handy.  
 
HANDSETS  
 
The KX-TG5110M system can handle up to eight handsets. Each handset has a small LCD screen, with 3 soft key buttons that perform various functions, labeled on the screen. Even though the screen is smaller, and the handset contains fewer buttons, you can perform nearly all of the functions on the handset that you can on the base station. Most of the buttons on the handset are backlit, and light up when you touch any button. MINOR GRIPE #1: For some reason, Panasonic did not backlight the four most important buttons (Talk, Speakerphone, Off, and Hold).  
 
The handsets are solidly built, and feel good in your hand. They are a little larger than those on some of the competing phones, but I'm not bothered by that. The buttons have good feel, and a quiet beep gives you good feedback with each press.  
 
The center of the handset has a rocking joystick-like navigation control, which performs the same functions as the big one on the base station. In fact, the really nice thing about this system is that the handsets operate like minature versions of the base station.  
 
MINOR GRIPE #2: For some reason Panasonic labeled some of the buttons with slightly different names... for example on the base station there is a button labeled "Hold/Clear". There is an equivalent button on the handset, but it's called "Erase". They both do the same thing, but they have different names. Needless confusion.  
 
Handsets come with their own speakerphones. The speaker is in the back of the handset. It is not really loud, but it does work, and it beats holding the phone to your ear while you're on hold for 45 minutes. Headset fans can plug in to a jack on the side, and use the included belt clip.  
 
Each handset is an intercom that can call any or all of the other handsets or the base station. If you answer an outside call, and you want to transfer the call to another handset, it's really easy to do so. The base station has a handset locator button, so you can find that handset that got buried under the dirty laundry. It is possible to use up to 4 handsets and the base station simultaneously in a conference call. A handset can also be used as a baby monitor, but I would guess that that would eat up your battery pretty quickly.  
 
One really cool feature is that you can transfer an entire phone book list or an individual phone book entry from any handset or the base station to any other handset.  
 
MAJOR COMPLAINT #1: Panasonic decided to use NiCad handset batteries with this phone, instead of the much superior NiMH batteries. Many reviewers had complaints about poor battery life, and charging memory problems with Panasonic's 2.4GHz line, and this new model was an opportunity for them to fix that by using better batteries. I've seen reviews elsewhere that say that the batteries do work better on these phones, but time will tell.  
 
The handset also has a signal booster mode, which you can turn on when reception becomes iffy. It give you a little more range, but it also cuts down on your battery life.  
 
THE ANSWERING SYSTEM  
 
The base station contains a digital answering system that supports an outgoing message of up to 3 minutes, and 15 minutes of message recording time, all digitally recorded. The sound quality isn't as good as your CD player, but it's not bad.  
 
The system has three separate voice-mail boxes (which is perfect at our house, because there are three of us). You can use your outgoing message to instruct callers to hit pound-1 to talk to Dad, pound-2 to talk to Mom, etc.. If you don't need separate voicemail boxes, you are not forced to use them.  
 
Messages for any of the mailboxes can be retrieved at the base station or on any of the handsets. A flashing indicator on the LCD lets you know which mailboxes contain fresh messages. All messages have a time/date stamp. There is an option for slowing down the playback of messages. The system uses flash memory, so if the power goes out, you don't lose your messages.  
 
The answering system works just the way you'd expect it to, and it's very intuitive to use.  
 
CONCLUSIONS  
I thought long and hard before spending this kind of dough on a phone.  
But when you balance that high price against the long list of great features that you can use every day, along with excellent build quality, great sound, good looks, ease of use, the Panasonic KX-TG5110M becomes a solid choice. I compared it to the even more expensive Siemens systems, and found it to be a better choice. After using it for a few weeks, I don't regret the purchase at all. Now, I've just got to keep filling the swearing jar, so I can get a few more handsets for around the house.  
