AT&T CL4940 Corded Standard Phone with Answering System and Backlit Display, White

liked the new corded standard phone because it has the big numbers to read and clarity to use it. the battery will last for a long time. the phone is compatible and functionality. it is good weight and has a great cord length.,.

My 80 something parents loved their Christmas gift. They have the same white phone without caller ID screen (probably from the 1980s or 1990s) and were getting too many sales calls. My dad was very frustrated and waiting for the answering machine to pick up calls. My mom says the buttons are easy to use, the display is nice and big and easy to read. My dad loves it's a real AT&T landline where he can screen out all unwanted calls plus the call quality is better and very clear. Easy setup with nice answering machine. Buy one, you'll love it!

I purchased AT&T phone with answering machine over a year ago. Overall the answering machine is working fine, but it has two annoying behaviors. We have more than one phone in the house. When a call is answered on another phone the answering machine shows these calls as "missed calls". The second annoyance that it seems not be able to handle day light savings time. Even when I correct the time manually it resets itself to the wrong time. So for half of the year the phone calls are shown as 1 hour off. I read the manual trying to find how to change this and could not find it. If someone who is reading this review knows how make it responsive to Day Light Savings time I would really appreciate a tip on how to do it. On the positive side, the display is large and clear. The screen has a back light (note that the dial buttons do not have back light). The back light is turned on when a phone call is coming in or when you press any button. The voice that comes in on the phone is loud and sounds good. This is also true when you use the speaker phone. I am told that I sound crisp and clear even when I am using the speaker phone. When there is a message waiting there is a button that blinks to indicate a waiting message. The manual states that you can also configure a beep to indicate a waiting message, but we do not use this option. The answering machine is easy to turn on and off (a button that glows when answering machine is turned on). I have caller id, so when a new phone call comes in I can see the phone number and name displayed on the screen (it is not announced by voice, just displayed). I am using this phone as a wall phone. I like how the attachment bracket is designed - it is easy to hang and the phone is lifted a little away from the wall. The handset has a special catch to make it work well as a wall phone. The messages and greeting announcements are digitally recorded in the internal media. Recording my own greeting was easy. This phone comes with AC adapter but it is actually possible to make calls during power failure. The power comes from the phone line itself, so it is limited to making and receiving calls. Other functionality is not available unless you have power. After the power outage I have to reset time, but my pre-programmed quick dial numbers are NOT lost. Other than the two negatives I mentioned at the start of the review the phone has many good features that I like. Ali Julia review

Bought the AT&T CL4940 Corded Standard Phone. This phone is our second of this model purchased to replace another phone. We liked the first so much we purchased the second one. We wanted to have the same model on both floors of the house. One is used as an answering machine and the other can serve as a backup if needed. The lettering on the keyboard is large and easy to see. The arrangement of the controls is good. The menu system is clear and easy to use due to the good labeling on the keyboard. Speaker phone words well. The price was good.

Excellent value, easy setup, great voice and sound quality which can be instantly boosted with audio assist button. Very easy to hang up on side of cabinet by doorway so it is in a central area. I really like that it is a corded phone that will stil able to send and receive calls during a power outage (though some features would not be available). I did a lot of research to find this phone that ticks all the boxes for hard of hearing and lower vision family members. Although it has a relatively short handset cord, longer ones can be ordered on Amazon. It also has a great speakerphone feature so the user is not tied to the phone during a call. This phone was purchased to replace an old AT&T cordless phone set, but we realized we can use that system simultaneously if we turn off that system's answering machine and either plug it into a different phone jack or use a splitter. That way we can have handsets throughout the house without having to buy a new cordless system with multiple handsets. So, we saved a lot of money and couldn't be happier. Thank you, AT&T and Amazon!

I bought this phone for my mother, who isn't very good with technology, is a bit hard of hearing, and doesn't see very well. I specifically bought the phone for the large LCD display with the orange background, because of its high contrast, and the hearing assist feature. The ringer can be turned up nice and loud, and the hearing assist feature amplifies the caller enough that mom can easily hear the person on the other end. She can also read the caller ID display, so this phone has met my expectations. It's also pretty easy to use. When viewing the caller ID list, if she wants to call someone back, all she needs to do is pick up the handset and the phone will dial the number. So she can use this phone even though she's not very technologically savvy. There are a few things that I don't like about the phone. - Limited Directory listings. You can only store 25 numbers into memory. These days when you may have a home phone, plus two or three mobile numbers for a family member, 25 numbers just isn't adequate. Especially if you need to take into account: Children (and spouses) grandchildren, friends, etc... 50 would be a better limitation, while 100 numbers would probably be ideal. - Directory isn't alphabetical! I can't figure this one out, as it would seem that alphabetizing your phone list would be basic functionality. However, this phone doesn't seem to think so. What this means, is that it makes it difficult to find individual phone numbers using the directory. The directory has a feature (most phones do this) that you can enter the directory, then press one of the number keys to go directly to a letter of the alphabet. In theory, this makes it easy to locate a number. Calling a name starting with a "J"? Press the 5 button and start scrolling through the "J's". With this phone though, the numbers are in the directory in the order you've added them... So, you can press the 5 button to get to the J's, but scrolling down may go J, S, B, etc... This just doesn't make any sense to me... The manual says the entries will be sorted alphabetically if you go to a letter and scroll down, but this isn't the case. No matter how I try to scroll through the directory, it isn't sorted properly. - Abridged manual. For some reason, the manual included with this phone is the abridged version. If you want the full manual, you'll need to download the .PDF from AT&T's support site. The abridged manual doesn't describe some functionality that I would consider necessary information. For example, the abridged manual tells you how to add your home area code, as well as four alternate local area codes. What it doesn't explain is what this area code is used for. In my area, the area code is required on local calls, so the phone should display 10 numbers. Thinking that adding the area code would enable this functionality, I added it as my home area code. Then I was trying to figure out why the caller ID was only showing 7 numbers. So if you tried to call a number back using the caller ID information, the call wouldn't go through because it won't dial the area code first. After trying to figure out what was going on, I noticed that the manual said it was the abridged version... What? So I went to AT&T's website and downloaded the full manual. The full manual describes that the function of adding the area code is the opposite of what I would expect. Adding your home area code to the phone will cause the caller ID data to NOT show the area code! If you need the area code to make local calls, don't add your area code... The full manual also explains how to change this data on the fly using the pound key. If a number comes through as showing only 7 digits and you need 10, you can press the pound key to add the area code to the number. Why isn't this in the abridged manual? - Audio assist is per call. You can't tell the phone to always use audio assist. You must press the audio assist button each time you are on a call. I can see how this would make sense if multiple users are going to be using the phone, but if only a single person will be using it and they are hard of hearing, it would be nice to have a way to always enable the audio assist.

My Dad has been using this exact phone for 20 years or more and it died. I found this it was the last one, this is a good phone and he is happy! One of the best old school landline phones out there!!

Easy to use and install, pretty good sound quality on both phone calls and answering machine. This is definitely "old school," but if that's all you need it's fine.