LOL! Don't expect any kind of extreme smart phone as I don't do cell phones.

My main phone is working fine but, after at least 10 years, the buttons are messing up to where I really have to mash some to get them to function especially the receive call button but others too. I tried to pop the back to see if I could clean the contacts for the buttons to fix. Opened the battery cover to pull the batteries and saw two screws and thought this is going to be easy. Removed the screws and still could not get the back off due to what look like clips that I could not get to do anything.

Decided trying to open was going to take too much time than it was worth so just ordered a new phone for $20.00... well $24.00 as I included a 3 year extended warranty as it is coming from Walmart and I really don't trust them as to product quality. I normally don't do extended warranties on electronics but did in this case. In the mean time I'm just using my bedroom phone until the new one arrives, should be here 1/25/24. It is just a pretty basic wireless landline phone but has all I need.

The phone that has the problem buttons also only cost me ~$20.00 and lasted at least 10 years so I got my money's worth and then some. If I get the same kind of service life from the new one I'll be happy.

Here is what I got.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Vtech-Cs6619-Cordless-Phone-System-CS6619/20658216

I'm hoping to get as lucky as I was with the old phone as to batteries but doubt that it will happen. Most phones use a battery pack that average about 300mAh but the old phone used regular AAA rechargeable batteries. I replaced the 300mAh batteries with 800mAh batteries and could talk pretty much all day on a charge.

If I like the phone I may replace my bedroom phone with a satellite as I could then get rid of the phone wire going from my living room to the bedroom. Actually I should just remove the ground wire from the existing phone jacks and just use the plug in the bedroom. With the grounds connected (actually I don't think they are actual grounds) you can't use the jacks without dedicated phone service like AT&T or the like. Remove the 'ground' and the wiring becomes basically a wired network and the jacks work fine. Did this with the house I rented in Florida and it worked just fine. LOL! I probably should have re-connected the ground for that house but didn't think of it when I left. I wonder how long it took them to figure out why normal phones would not work...

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Just did the same thing with my ancient phone setup. Bought similar to yours except AT&T phones. I have a base that is an answering machine/speaker phone and 7 satellites that are all cordless so no wires. have a phone in each bedroom and a rest downstairs. They can act as intercoms too. Had an old Uniden system, same setup wired base and a bunch of satellites, one was even water resistant for outside by the pool.

We've had the AT&T DECT 6.0 phones for our landline for years now. I replaced all of the handset batteries last year as some would only last a short time off of the charger and my wife has the occasional long conversation which meant swapping handsets throughout!
The only issue we ran into here is that the base station is connected to the cable modem at one end of the house, so signal was a problem at the other end. I managed to move the base station about 10 feet into the house on a longer cord and that has resolved the handset signal issues.

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stephen boots
Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020
"Life's always an adventure with computers!"

I just have 2 phones but in a 1 bedroom apartment any more would just be overkill. If I end up liking the new phone I will get a satellite (it will handle 5) for the bedroom just to get rid of another wire. I'll either keep the current bedroom phone as a spare or give it away if I do get the satellite.

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New phone arrived and I have my directory entered. Deciding whether to enter a couple in speed dial. Had a bit of trouble at first with entering names in the directory as the instructions don't really explain how to get the letters you want since all the buttons have multiple letters. It was that you just can't pause when you hit a button, you have to keep pressing right away. Right now it is charging and it is taking forever... but it IS charging. The phone has an "ECO" setting which I'll have to play with. It is supposed to make a battery charge last longer but I'll need to see if it affects voice quality and/or range.

The phone and base is taller than the old phone which MAY be a slight problem as the phone sits right under the left edge of my larger TV and comes up to right at the edge of the screen. If it ends up being distracting I'll just move it to the other side of the entertainment center but will need to do a bit of re-arranging. Actually I just re-arranged and like it more.

Decided to do a range test before sending this and it is excellent. On the back side of the apartments is a patio area that is like 3 units from my apartment and I'm on the third floor. Reception on the patio was fine and the thing even worked inside of the elevator. I was really surprised that it worked in the elevator.

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