VTech IS8121-3 Long Range Cordless Phone, 3 Handsets

My house has a big footprint, having been added to over the years, with brick walls in between some of the additions. I recently switched to voice over internet protocol from a landline. Because my internet router is located in a storage room with no phone jack, the old style phone jacks in my house would no longer support plug in phones. I was already using 3 different cordless phone systems plugged into the old phone jacks to handle the zones in my home. The range was limited, so you couldn’t use the handsets outside of the zone for that system. This one plugs into the router, and reaches every room in my house…a first! You can order additional handsets too. Great product and reasonably priced. I am much happier now than with AT&T, which has the absolute worst customer service and maintenance. I see why landlines are no longer in use.

We had a Panasonic which did not carry far enough. This Vtech really does allow you to stray very far from the base. It has a call-filtering menu to handle unknown callers. The Bluetooth allowed me to download my cellphone contacts easily. Menus and features are voice-prompted. Sound is great at both ends of the line. Worth every penny.

Overall, I'm satisfied. I've had the phone for about a month. Here's the vote so far. PRO: Large light-up buttons, easier data entry than previous phone, *excellent* range (even thru plaster/lath or stucco walls), date/time feature (previous phone had only Day of Week), good quickstart guide, configuring settings is mostly clear and easy, bluetooth is tricky but not impossible, simple 1 touch voicemail retrieval (Thanks!), full duplex (hooray!), answering machine (it's faster & easier to use than voice mail), CON: Obtuse/incomplete/confusing user manual; 15 ft bluetooth range is way too tiny & linked to base, not handsets; handset's 5 day standby mode @ 24 hrs, not 5 days (could this perhaps be due to old/semi-dead batteries, even tho the phone's right out of the box??? vTech, what have you got to say about this?). 15 Character Name field is way too small--make the field scrollable, instead of fixed length. UNUSED FEATURES: Smart Call blocking (already subscribe to a call blocking service--vTech's feature is too complicated-SEE ABOVE), voice assistants (yuck! irrelevant), intercom/find my phone (It was easier to press 1 button than it is to scroll thru a menu.) WISH IT HAD...an audio jack for a headset. Bluetooth's 15 foot range is way too constrained. An audio jack would let anyone talk, hands free, via any handset from anywhere in the house a)without the speakerphone picking up background noises b) with a bit more privacy/less disruption when the phone rings & others are around and c) other than just holding the darned phone, let the user do something with their hands while talking (like take notes or follow instructions being given by the caller; sort mail/e-Mail, make a sandwich...) Overall, I'm satisfied. The phone has more features that are easier to use than my 20+year old vTech system. And its predecessor lasted 2 decades; I'm confident this phone will be durable too.

Easy to set up. I linked a Cell Phone and then downloaded the phonebook. Impressive features. The 5 handsets allow me to have one all around the house even in the garage.

Seems to be a nice phone but user instructions are very, very poor. Still haven't had the time to utilize some of the features because instructions are far from clear. A minor problem was that one of the batteries wasn't functional, completely dead. Of course it was the first handset I put together so I wasted some time trying to figure out why the handset was not working. Only figured it out after putting the second handset together and switching batteries back and forth to verify. At least the batteries are reasonably priced. I had ordered this model specifically for its five handsets. We only need four but it is nice to have one in reserve. Had some trouble getting the base handset to sit properly in the base. Had to jiggle it around to get the charge connection.

I was replacing my ancient Panasonic phone, which started to fail. Since I was happy with it, I initially purchased another Panasonic phone, but the range was terrible; it would quit when I walked into another room 30 feet from the base. I returned it. The VTech arrived a few days ago. I was immediately impressed with the sound quality & volume - very important for me due to my substantial hearing loss. The pairing with my cell phone & the fast copying of my contacts list are great features. At first, I charged the handsets only until the three bars on the indicators showed that they were fully charged. Then, the first bar went blank after less than one day, so I thought the batteries didn't hold a charge for very long. Then, I reviewed the instructions which said to charge the batteries for 12 hours. After I did that, the three bars are still lit after more than 24 hours. I think the complaints about the batteries not holding a charge are because people are doing what I did - charging only until they see three bars on the handsets. The directions should stress the importance of charging for 12 hours, at least for the first charge. The batteries in this phone are probably the type that need to be "conditioned" before they'll hold a charge.

Very disappointed with these phones. Transmitting/outgoing voice quality is very poor, and no matter how you hold the phone, all the handsets behave the same - your voice sounds faint & choppy & cuts out often, and it doesn't matter if you are using the base unit phone or any other. We have an AT&T similar set of phones that work well. 2nd point - while these phones support 2 celluar lines, only 1 line can be in use at the same time, and let's say line 1 is in use & a call comes in on line 2, there is no indication that you are receiving another call. So, you will need 2 sets of such phones (incl. the AT&T brand) if you want to have both lines in use at the same time. In other words, if line 1 is in use on the base unit, & you want to use one of the extension phones to call out on line 2, it is NOT POSSIBLE. A 2nd set of these type of bluetooth phones solves that problem, although be prepared because both sets of phones will ring on any incoming call - in our case, 8 phones ring at once when a call comes in.

These are great phones with a lot of distance between base and handset. Having multiple handsets lets me leave these in various buildings on the farm and be able to find a phone for outgoing or incoming calls. I've also taken to carrying one around in my pocket as I go about farm chores if I'm expecting a delivery or a friend. They have worked flawlessly. They do have trouble getting a signal when I'm in a metal building with no base unit - understandable. The sound is good on the speaker phone function, I can stand them up or lay them down to talk while I am cleaning, weaving, crafting, whatever. I have bought these annually for 2 or 3 years now. We have a problem with lightning!! Since the lightning destroys the base unit, I buy another set and then call vtech and have them walk me through manually resetting the extra handsets to use on the new base. From now on, I've got to commit to unplugging both power and phone cord whenever a storm's in the forecast.

Muy bien el teléfono.

The other 4 components can’t be charged except the main set, Please find me a replacement urgently. Thanks. Power is not applicable in UAE it’s 220/240 volts Need only to upgrade the the chargers from 110/120 to 220/240

سييء لا يعمل على كهرباء 240 فولت

Funciona muy bien. Se debe de cargar los auriculares por 12 horas según el instructivo, pero con 8 horas se cargaron las pilas por completo. Tiene opción para dejar mensaje propio, yo no lo active, pero esta la opción y puede almacenar hasta 1000 números según el instructivo. Tiene altavoz y según leí se puede conectar por Bluetooth al celular, pero todavía no lo pruebo. Se puede cambiar el idioma en el menú a español, pero el instructivo esta en ingles. También tiene bloqueador de llamadas.

Very good coverage for my unit just under 2000 sq ft. Very good sound quality.