AT&T 17939 Corded Phone, Black/Silver, 1 Handset

Almost 100 years ago, Thomas Riley Marshall, vice president of the U.S., said, "What this country needs is a good five cent cigar." Well, times have changed and what this country needs now is a good 2-line phone, with a built-in digital answering machine and caller ID. I'm in small business and have searched for years trying to find one. I've been stuck using my Lucent 1872 phone, which was fine, except it didn't have caller ID and had to use a separate Radio shack 2-line caller ID box which consumed eight AAA batteries. I've purchased several phones, all with no luck because of ridiculous and quirky features, and user un-friendly formatting and programming.

Here's the problem: The people who design these phones NEVER use them in real life. So how would they ever know how these things work sitting on your desk? They don't.

That being said, I have used this AT&T ML17939 for a couple of weeks. I think I'll keep it. Here are the pros and cons:...Read more

I'd been looking for a well-reviewed corded 2-line phone with answering machine, speakerphone, speed-dial buttons, and caller ID for a long time. Given up, actually. Then I happened upon this new model (no reviews), and took the chance. It's very good in all respects except: 1) no indication how many messages you have when the phone is idle (!), and 2) no way to rewind when listening to a message except rewinding to the beginning of the message (!!). If I got a lot of messages, that flaw would be enough for me to return it, but I'll probably just live with it. Sigh.

I'm also wondering why I can't find an answering machine that shows the caller ID name info for the currently playing message. Seems like such a no-brainer, but I've never seen it. At least this phone shows the date & time of the message as you listen to it.

I was looking for a phone for my home office that supports 2 lines. Needed it to have speakerphone, mute, answer machine with a decent display. The problem I have found with other phones is it either does not have a mute button or and the speakerphone quality is very poor. I really was hoping for a phone that also had an easy headset option and I found that with this phone. It pretty much had it all. And a real bonus is that I can switch from handset to speaker to headset without disconnecting from my call. Love that! It was a real problem with my last phone. The only thing I don't care for is the unnecessarily large number buttons. They're also a little hard to push, I'm hoping that it just needs to be broken in or something. Other than that, it's a great phone and I recommened it to anyone who wants it all.