I was impressed with this phone on unpacking, and liked the compact handset and functionality. I had purchased it for my mother who has dementia and is hearing impaired. She had been trying out one of the picture phones, but the sound was totally deficient considering these are made for the elderly (check this feature out carefully if you are buying one). I thought this Panasonic phone would be simple enough to use and provide the decibel level we were missing with the picture phone. The interesting thing I learned in trying to teach her how to use this phone is that we basically need to relearn how to use a cordless landline phone, as many of us haven’t used one in over 20 years now. Most elderly innately understand the original corded handset that you hold to your ear and replace in the base to disconnect. Where the cordless landline is more similar to a cell phone (which my mom had been using for the past 15 years or so), there are some key differences that are critical to the proper usage of this phone. Primarily, the phone line must be disconnected at the end of the call. That requires the user to tap the OFF button or replace the handset in the base. One party can disconnect a call on a cell phone, a landline requires both to disconnect. This can be dangerous for seniors who fail to end the call properly, and leave the line open. You can’t text them and tell them it’s off the hook either! Secondly, placing a call requires two steps as opposed to one. Even the “Favorites” button (which ideally would be labeled) covers ALL “favorites”, so requires multiple button presses to reach the desired party. I was the only Favorite designated on my mom’s phone, but it still required two taps to make the connection. As an aside, even though I advised my mom that there were essentially only three buttons she needed to know, the busy display and sheer number of buttons and labels was likely overwhelming to her. Our tests with the Boost feature didn’t seem to be too successful, as the only step we took that made the calls clear enough for her was using the speaker phone. I personally would have labeled the speaker phone “Speaker” rather than “Sp Phone”, as I think the former is more recognizable terminology. I also think the speaker should be a major button, not a minor one in terms of size as it is so commonly used. Likewise, I think “END” would be clearer than “OFF”, but these are just my opinions. Because I did not get to utilize many of the other features, I withheld a star from my rating, but that does not indicate any disappointment with the phone’s performance. If I had a landline, I would love this phone and even debated keeping it for myself. I think it is well-designed and while not necessarily configured intuitively, it still packs a lot of functionality into one compact phone. The ability to purchase it with multiple handsets is a big plus. In summary, my only issue with the phone was its potential unsuitability for a senior, particularly one with hearing or cognitive impairment. Otherwise, it’s a good phone for the money. Footnote - Panasonic gets extra points for including a diagram on the top flap of the outer box on how to repack the phone. This packaging was an engineering feat on its own, and repacking it in the same configuration would have been impossible without the diagram!
