Panasonic KX-TG8231B DECT 6.0 Cordlesss phone System with an All Digital Answering System | 
| Brand: Panasonic
List Price: $69.95
Buy New: $51.57
You Save: $18.38 (26%)
New (37) Refurbished (3) from $38.99
Rating:  35 reviews
Color: Black
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: Yes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.6
Dimensions (in): 6.5 x 6.9 x 6.5
Warranty: Manufacturer Warranty included
MPN: KX-TG8231B
Model: KX-TG8231B
UPC: 037988478453
EAN: 0037988478453
ASIN: B000WOGAQM
Availability: Usually ships in 2-3 business days
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| Features:
| • | All-Digital Answering System - A micro chip handles all messages. And with no tapes to fuss with, operation is simple, efficient and virtually silent. 16 Minutes (flash memory) of total recording time. | | • | Color Caller ID Choose an LCD Color to link to your phonebook data. The LCD will flash a color of your choosing for each phonebook name and number when the corresponding Caller ID information is received from an incoming call. | | • | Call Waiting Caller ID **--See the name and phone number of incoming calls even while talking on another call. | | • | Handset Speakerphone--Digital circuitry helps reduce the echo and dropout commonly found in speakerphones and allows more natural sounding conversations. | | • | Expandable up to 6 Handsets and up to 17 Hours of Talktime |
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Product Description
KX-TG8231B is an expandable digital cordless DECT 6.0 phone system.Panasonic's DECT 6.0 (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications) technology lets you move freely around your home with long range and amazingly clear sound. It also assures greater protection against eavesdropping for all your calls. Operating in the 1.9GHz frequency range, your phone will not conflict with other wireless devices such as computer routers, wireless keyboards, microwave ovens and other common household devices.You can put handsets all over your house - in your kids' rooms or even in the garage - without all the messy wiring or complicated setup. With Panasonic's DECT 6.0 expandable phone systems, you don't need a phone jack for each additional handset, just one for the base unit. So start expanding and forget about all your wiring worries.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 30 more reviews...
Great phone January 2, 2008
Roberto Garcia Martell (McAllen, TX USA)
15 out of 16 found this review helpful
Pros:
- Great range. Much better than the 5.8Ghz uniden it replaced.
- Very good clarity of voices during a call. No interference at all.
- Great battery life. First charge lasted 5 days of use before returning it to charge in base (home use, not office).
- Flexibility of batteries. It uses two standard AAA size Ni-Mh rechargeable batteries, which you can replace later for another brand or ones with even more capacity. Or you can have another set ready for use.
- You can group people in the directory and set an specific ring tone and display color for each group.
- Caller ID links the number calling to your phonebook names and displays both number and name calling. The uniden was suppossed to do this but never did.
- Good looking piano finish.
- Compact handset and base.
- Great looking color screen.
Cons:
- Very low customization. You can only select between 3 wallpapers. You can't add new ones. Few color options for setting the menu's colors. Those were a strong feature of the uniden.
- Only 50 number phonebook memory.
- Could add another volume bar. Volume is not low, but could have another bar for people that likes very high volume calls like me. Volume on speaker mode is great.
- ID caller takes like two rings before it displays the name calling.
- Only 18 min record time for answering system.
This is a great phone overall. It exceeds all the basic functions you expect for the dect frequency and panasonic (range, clarity, battery life). But I would rate it 5 stars if you can really customize it by adding your own wallpapers and ring tones. Also it would not hurt to have more memory for the answering machine and the phonebook.
 a phone that does a lot December 31, 2007
benjasmine (Los Angeles, CA)
12 out of 13 found this review helpful
I have been using this Panasonic cordless phone system (KX-TG8231B, with NO extra handset) for home use for about a few months, and I'm happy with this product. It does everything I need, plus a lot more. The phone is easy to set up, and it recommends 7 hours of charge before initial use. The phone displays "Charge Completed" each time when the battery is full. The design is stylish, and it has a lot of features of a cell phone, such as color screen, caller ID, phone book, speaker, ringtones, wallpaper, etc. The phone supports both English and Spanish. You can even set the answering message to English or Spanish, if you don't wish to record your own greeting message. Missed calls and voice messages are easy to check.
Now, I will go into the details of the features I have used so far (Pros and Cons). It's kind of long, but I tried my best to make it as easy to read as possible. I hope the information below is not overwhelming to you.
***********PROS:
- Wi-Fi/Bluetooth friendly: this phone comes with DECT 6.0 technology with 1.9 GHz range. I have found NO interfere with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and cell phone.
- Long battery life: the phone comes with 2 AAA size Ni-MH rechargeable batteries. Each battery has 550 mAh. The battery life is a little bit "insane" for me. According to Panasonic, the battery provides up to 17 hours of talk time with 1 full charge, which is good anyway...
** Panasonic says on the instruction that leaving the handset on the base station will not hurt the batteries. Charging will be stopped when the battery is full.
- Great sound clarity: the sound clarity on this phone is without question. It also has a great speaker, which is very useful. The handset also has a headphone jack, which might be useful to some people.
** Some said that you can't hold this phone between your head and shoulder, due to the odd shape. I have tried it myself, and I can easily hold the phone between my head and shoulder tightly. Personally, I don't find it to be a problem at all.
- Caller ID: You will have Caller ID as long as you are subscribe this feature to your phone company. It works great. When you check missed calls, both caller ID and phone numbers are displayed. If you want to save a number to phone book, it will automatically use the caller ID as the name, or you can edit it and type in other name by yourself.
- Comfort, small & lightweight: both handset and base station are light. The handset feels comfortable in hand. The base station takes little space.
- Mute button & Flash button: The mute button can be useful in some situations. Once you press it, the other side can no longer hear any anything from your side. Press again to unmute, and the call continues.
The flash button provides Call Waiting feature.
- Handset expandability: the phone network can be expanded up to 6 handsets, and you can make internal (intercom) calls between between handsets.
** Right now, I only have one handset, thus I don't know how well the intercom works.
- Answering machine: Total record time is 18 minutes. You can listen to voice messages directly from the handset, not just from the base station. You can limit the recording time to either 1 or 3 minute in the menu. By default, each voice message can be no longer than 3 minutes. Like other answering machines, you can record your own greeting message for the answering machine, or you can use the original greeting messages that comes with the phone, English or Spanish.
*UPDATE: It's up to you whether to erase a voice message or not, the system will not erase it. When you have low remaining record time, it will alter you. However, I'm not sure what will happen if you run out of record time completely.
- Customization: There are 3 wall papers and 15 ringtones to choose. You can also change the background color and contrast. Language can be set to English or Spanish.
- Other features: backlit (light) on keypad, alarm clock, phone book with 50 entries.
***********CONS:
- The phone has a glossy surface, which looks nice. However, it's pretty vulnerable to scratches. Instruction recommends using a damp microfiber cloth to clean the surface. The surface also attracts oil and fingerprint easily.
- The answering machine has a 18-minute record time. 18 minutes might be a little bit short for some people. However, it will alter you when the remaining record time is low. I guess this won't help much to people who want longer record time.
- The phone has limited customization, which makes the color screen not very useful. There are only 3 wallpapers you can choose from.
Thankfully, there are 15 ringtones to choose.
- The screen has 2 brightness level, high and low. The LCD screen backlit light is always on low level when the handset is plug-in on base station, even when it is idle. I believe the reason for that is to help you locate the handset easily in darkness. I'm not sure if this will affect its overall lifespan. But since the phone has an "insane" battery life, sometimes I avoid plugging the phone into base station.
Overall, this is a great phone, at least for home use. I enjoy using this phone very much. Panasonic have never disappointed me. I wish it had built-in VOIP feature. Though, I can't complain about it for this price.
You can't find a better phone . . . . . February 27, 2008
K. Jaynes (Bonham, Texas)
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
This phone does it all. Like most people my age (50ish) I have owned many many phones. I am not normally a "brand" man; I usually buy my tools and equipment according to the features, user ratings I find online, and what I perceive as best bang for the buck.
One thing I have noticed over the years though about Panasonic products in general - they are usually superior to the competition, so I do find myself always looking to Panasonic first for many of our appliances, tools, and electronics because they are just plain better. This phone is no exception - it is a sterling example of Panasonics engineering, design prowess, and their commitment to R & D before throwing a product on the shelves like many other companies obviously do. Panasonic does TONS of research and market testing to get the features and user-friendliness that the future users will want, before releasing a product.
I read in several places, here at Amazon and elsewhere, that this phone's only weakness was the confusing menu, but I have not experienced that at all. And like most cordless Panasonic products the battery life is FAR superior to any other phone I have ever owned. Thier battery technology is always ahead of the pack not only in their phones but all of their cordless products.
Last month my shop got struck by lightning and zapped my older model Panasonic phone (which I also loved) and my wife ran down to Wally World and brought back a 5.8ghz GE. It was a POJ! I won't waste time describing how bad it was as this review is meant to help you decide that the Panasonic KX-TG8231B DECT 6.0 Cordlesss phone System is HANDS DOWN the best phone out there, unless you want to look at the other Panasonic DECT 6 phones, because they are their only competition.
This phone is small and does not have an external antenna - something I like because I run a sawmill and woodshop and always have my hands busy, so when I would get a phone call on my old Panasonic I would shut the sawmill/machinery off and hold the phone in my mouth by the antenna and use the speaker phone as I continued to work. This phone does not have an external antenna so I bought the Panasonic KX-TCA60 Headset. It is also true to Panasonic form - comfortable on the head and ear and unobtrusive. No batteries needed as it gets it's power from the phone.
The phone is sleek, small, powerful, and the clarity and range are so superior to anything else out there that it's no contest.
I realize this glowing review sounds like I own Panasonic stock (maybe I should buy some), but it's just that I am SO picky about my phones, and everytime I buy a new Panasonic model I am pleasantly suprised to see they have improved on the older models even more.
There are too many functions and features for me to list on this phone - they have been covered by the other reviewers collectively. My aim was to give some more general information that the detailed reviews did not cover. One thing I have heard a few times about Panasonic customer service is, that it is bad. I cannot say either way though because although I have owned at least a dozen Panasonic products over the years, I have never had a problem with any of them so I have never had to use their customer service.
This is a no-brainer people - buy the KX-TG8231B and don't look back......life is too short to hassle with crappy phones.
Another Excellent Cordless from Panasonic April 12, 2008
CeeTee (Flushing, NY USA)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I bought this phone as a replacement for my Panasonic TG776 which went dead after only 30 days! I didn't lose faith in Panasonic's cordless line due to the fact that I had 10 years of excellent service from their TGM240. I was drawn to the TG8231 by its sleek, modern appearance and the great user reviews it has received. Not only is this model beautiful to look at but it has many of the features that today's cordless users are looking for including a color screen and DECT 6.0 capability. The phone itself is tiny compared to my old M240 but the quality of the calls that I make and receive are even better than that great, old phone was capable of.
Voices come through loud and clear. Speaker phone mode is also nice and loud. Battery life can only be described as amazing! This phone can easily maintain its charge for the better part of a week. The only major gripe I have is that the color screen is not customizable. Because of the small size of the receiver it takes some time to learn how to hold the phone between your head and shoulder. Also for some reason the phone tells you that you "missed a call" even after you have answered the phone! My former TG776 had the same problem. Unfortunately, you must load all phone-book information by hand into the receiver rather that through desktop software like I could with the TG776. This makes adding new numbers to the phone very time consuming. In the end I think Panasonic has introduced what will be considered a "classic" design to the cordless phone market. I highly recommend this product.
 Very Disappointed April 28, 2008
Lewis Walden (San Francisco,Ca)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
I have been looking forward to trying out the new DECT technology for awile.
After looking at all the models available and reading the reviews here on Amazon, I decided this was the phone for me.
First off, let me say, my 5 previous phones were all Panasonic. I have been very satisfied with most of them. THIS WAS NOT ONE OF THEM.
The phone is small and light and feels cheap. I don't think it would survive a couple falls to the floor.
Some of the buttons on the top of the phone are tiny, too close together and recessed slightly, making them difficult to press correctly.
My biggest complaint is the overall volume from this phone is pretty weak. Both the ringer volume and the recorded message playback were both difficult for me to hear. I could here my other panasonic phones ring from any room in the house. When using the handset without the speaker phone the conversation was very clear and audible.
The ring tones are nothing special. They range from dull to ridiculously annoying. My last panasonic let me input any sound or song I wanted.
It has already been said this phone only comes with 3 wallpapers that cannot be added to or changed. They have to be the ugliest/boring/stupid wallpapers I have ever seen. Just horrible.
Last, but not least, this is one of those phones that plays your outgoing message out loud why the caller is listening to it. I screen my calls when I don't know the number and I don't need to hear my outgoing message every time someone call me. VERY ANNOYING and a deal breaker for me.
Overall, I feel your getting a lot less of the features previously offered on Panasonic phones and not gaining anything, but perhaps less interference with any WiFi devices.
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