Good alternative to AT&T 4-line phone

The selection of 4-line corded phones is rapidly diminishing as wireless phones become more popular. Only the AT&T series and this series from GE seem to be widely available. We selected the GE series and have installed four of them. We like the styling, the larger number buttons are easy to use. The construction quality also appears to be higher with the GE phones. The shortcoming noted above in the *Con* section are more than balanced out by a generally well designed telephone.

Installation was a breeze because of the well thought out and easily visible menu choices. Each line can be programmed with a different ring tone, or made silent. The sixteen preprogrammed dial buttons are easy to use. We found the physical styling of the phone very pleasant to look at, businesslike but not sterile.

Some downsides include an LCD display that can be hard to view from some angles, but it does have a back-light that turns on automatically when the phone us used. The telephone receiver volume seemed low for some users, but can be adjusted upwards with the volume control buttons.

It is unclear what non-GE headsets are compatible with this phone, and the GE parts department was out of stock with the one recommended headset. It appears that any generally available headset with a 2.5mm plug will work, but we have not tested this.

Installation of the phones was a breeze, they automatically program themselves when first plugged in. After that only minor changes to the options were required for our tastes, such as the ring tone, and line priority.

The line priority selects which line gets selected by default when the handset is lifted for an outbound call. Very handy when we want most of our outbound calls to use line #3.