AT&T CL82 DECT 6.0 Cordless Phone (CL82401 / CL82301 / CL82201) Review

Review: 4/5
Very Nice, Decent Audio, No Headset Jack.

The phone system works very well. The phone and buttons have a very nice feel, enough ring tone selections, great feel to the buttons, and clear audio. What I miss most is a headset jack. But it seems few systems have headset jacks anymore. In its place is a press to talk option (on this system). In its place on more expensive models is bluetooth support (but not this one). The speakerphone works great which I use for my home office in lieu of a headset. The equalizer button is nice too.

The audio quality is at least as good as my previous phone system. I did think the audio by default seemed to have more treble by default which was perfectly okay, but sounded better if I switched it to "bass" mode by the equalizer button. The equalizer button is easier than I thought. It doesn't bring up a menu with sliders, but instead just cycles through a few choices (normal, treble 1, treble 2, and bass). While it doesn't remember the setting from the last call, it is sure easy to just press it a few times. Due to the more treble on neutral, I think the two treble settings are completely useless being too high. But neutral and bass sound good and great to me. However, what surprised me was the audio quality for the other end, who is talking to you. I called home to my wife from a work phone (land-line) and through that the audio quality of her voice was much clearer than the previous phone system. I was really surprised. I think "HD audio" is a gimmick, and nothing too special on the end using the phone, but from the other end calling in to someone on this phone, I noticed a difference compared to my previous system. So maybe it is "HD audio" for the other person.

Setting up and adjusting settings is very easy and done by any of the hand sets. The feel of the menu buttons and large button sizes especially around the answer/hang up are excellent. The keybad buttons are large enough and have a feel I prefer, but are a little bit squishy compared to the crisp click feel of the menu and answer/hangup buttons, but overall nicer than standard rubber buttons in my opinion.

I like that the phones can still stand up on one end, so when on speakerphone I can still stand it up. It is a narrow base, but it still stands. It would easily tip if you bump the table, but it works for me. The batteries are small, like 2 AAAAs in a combined 2-pack, smaller than the 2 AAs that my previous system took. Only time will tell how long the batteries last. My last system (Panasonic) didn't too long (2 years) before wouldn't hold a charge with use in a home office. This time I am going to keep all the phones off the bases until need to be charged again to try to stretch the battery life this time.

Product Title: AT&T CL82401 / CL82301 / CL82201 DECT 6.0 Cordless Phone, Silver/Grey, 4 / 3 / 2 Handsets