Casio Phonemate TA140 Digital Answering Machine

I got one over 20 years ago...it lasted almost 10? years.My present one has lasted over 10 years.I only want something that records messages.I dont want the bells and whistles.

After my old ten dollar (...) answering machine, I wanted something that did not drop messages, had good sound quality and wasn't too expensive. This is it. I read a lot of reviews saying the voice was tinny but I bought it anyway thinking that was a small compromise for all the features. You know what, the voice isn't tinny. It has timestamps which are good, remote access [...], the option to play messages back faster or slower than normal (which is great for when people leave their phone numbers and you have to hear the whole message again). I haven't used the caller id or switchable answering machine message features. The speakerphone works well and I use it often since I still have my college phone whose battery can't seem to stay charged for more than a few hours--but that's another story. Even shows you the day of the week. Just one thing - if you're erasing the last message, press erase before the message has completed or else it will delete all your messages.

I purchased this plus an inexpensive cordless to replace my VTech-2960 because, two years after purchase, the VTech turned out to be a costly piece of junk! My kids had this Casio model and were really pleased with all of it's features and its dependability so I decided to get one also. It's great - it has more features than you expect with an answering machine (e.g. Caller ID, remote access, ringer, speakerphone, two outgoing message capability and more) plus it's really easy to program, which is nice for a change! The thing that I like the best though, is the fact that you can program this machine to send the unavailable numbers on incoming calls right to the message center - hasta la vista telemarketeers! No more dashes to answer the phone and then wonder why you bothered. That alone is worthwhile, as far as I'm concerned, but overall I'm very pleased with everything about this answering machine.

The TA-140 is a nice little answering machine. There is a weird flaw in its operational design, which I will describe below, but this is compensated by at least one unique feature that I think is indispensible.

First, the flaw. Although the messages and caller ID log are linked together when you check your messages at home, they otherwise seem to be totally disconnected from each other. Examples: (1) caller ID info has to be deleted separately from the messages; (2) caller ID information can't be accessed when accessing messages remotely; (3) the machine does not even take advantage of the time-and-date info from caller ID to automatically synchronize the clock for the voice time stamps. The caller ID features really could have been better integrated.

But having said that, I must now turn around and point out another caller-ID-related feature that alone is worth the price of the whole machine. Anyone who's used caller ID for any stretch of time will know how telemarketers love to get around anonymous-call-blocking by using phone lines that don't send caller ID information--since the data is "unavailable," the calls are not treated like anonymous calls, so they get through. The TA-140 can be set to answer after the very first ring if it doesn't get a positive caller ID--thus catching both anonymous calls and calls with "unavailable" info, and allowing you to screen them. To me, this feature is an absolute godsend.

As far as all of the usual features one would come to expect from an answering machine, I have no complaints. Calls are picked up reliably, sound quality is good to excellent, and hang-ups rarely if ever cause a blank message to be stored.

Overall, I think this is a good value. More expensive machines might have more logical controls and a less tinny synthesized voice, but it more than adequately does the job.

(Added July 14, 2001: Do not believe the review about lack of remote access. You CAN call in and pick up your messages from this machine remotely, like most modern answering machines.)

Without remote access, a longer message recording time (why not a half hour?), and provision for more than one local area code, this seems rather limited and old-fashioned.