I bought this one in 2006 for~ Rs 5000/- and it is still in market in 2009!
Panasonic KX-TG2338BX is a cordless phone with 2 speaker phones.One on the handset and one on the base set. It has a MUTE which stays on when pressed once.(very useful when you do conference calls).
In most phones, the mute needs to be kept pressed and it comes out as soon as you lift the finger. But no suchproblemon this one.
The speaker phone on the handset is very good and loud and is very useful.
It displays caller-id and is compatible with BSNL lines(DTMF). The caller ID shows up as names if it is already there on the phone book. Also there is a TALKING caller-id, where it speaks out the names(even though the pronunciation is not so great on Indian names)!
It works on Ni-MH battery which has no/less memory effect as NiCd.
Like many other cordless phones, it needs power all the time . I saw some models where the base set works even with out power as a basic phone, but not this one. It just keeps occupying a power outlet all the time and draining stand by power from the adapter. But that is how most cordless phones work, so you can’t fault this one in particular. Good news is, after a power failure, the handset stills syncs with the base satation without having the need to return it back on the base set. Well occasionaly it goes out of sync, but not too frequently.
The main drawback is that the time/clock is stored on the base station(although it is set from the handset) and if power fails, the time get reset. They could have easily stored the time/clock on the handset which has a battery backup!
The handset battery charging is very slow and takes 6 hours! Although they claim 10+ days of idle time, Idon’t thinkit lasts that long, may be a week at most.
It is a good product overall.
UPDATE: The batteries failed after 3 years and needed to be replaced(was not charging anymore).
The battery is Ni-MH 830mAh 3.6v, .The catch is that these are proprietary batteries(non standard) and hence should be purchased only from Panasonic at Rs 1100/- .
Ni-MH batteries are normally readily available in AA size and would give you 2000mA+ easily and would cost about Rs 400/- a pair. However, for this one they charge Rs 1100/-, The battery is non standard with wierd shape, preventing the use of normal rechargable NI-MH AA cells on this phone. Also note the very low mAh rating of 830mAh, which means it holds 3 times less charge and yet costs 3 times more!
There needs to be some law against these proprietary batteries as it is just a method of bypassing competition and enabling them to sell poor stuff at higher costs .