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Strengths: Competitive price. Ample features for home or office use. Durable.
Weaknesses: No marketing and shallow support have caused mixed reviews
Summary: A companion phone, the AT&T 984 with an internal messaging system, is definitely the weak sister of the group. I own two 974s and one 984. They work very well except that the 984's internal messaging system is not well conceived for multiline use. As a result of failings in this feature, the 984 has received mixed reviews. Since the two phones are part of the same product group, a great deal of confusion exists as to quality. With both phones, AT&T placed four input jacks (or so it seemed) in a row at the back of the phones which the Buyer assumes are the inputs for the four lines. Actually, the back of the phone contains two input jacks which each support two lines and two additional jacks which are designed for output to other devices such as fax machines or computers. Support personnel don't seem to know much about the phone so this situation is easy to miss even with AT&T support. The 974 is really a very sophisticated phone which will handle both regular and DSL (only two DSL) filtered lines if the instructions are closely followed. The durability, auto dial, option input, intercom, line ring and memory features of the phone are truly outstanding. AT&T does not include any required two line adapters in the extensive phone package. They should have included at least one. The adapters are critical to four line usage. This mistake has made this phone's introduction a real mess. If you are going to use more than three lines you will have to find at least one of these two line adapters. If you need only three, you will need to cheat and put one line on the first input and put the second and third lines in the third and fourth jacks which were designed as output for fax and computer. Without a two line adapter, no line can be placed in the second jack and the phone can only support three lines. With all this said, I am going to give the phone a 5 star review because it without a doubt, the best and most durable mutiline phone that I have owned.
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