Arrived on time, works well and no problems.

The AT&T 1740 I purchased was an Amazon store return, which saved me $4 (total cost under $11, Oct 2022). The unit I received looks new, but clearly had been out of the box. Apparently the previous purchaser was not happy with it, but I found that this answering machine works great.

The machine is tiny, so fits just about anywhere that has a nearby phone jack and power outlet. Audio quality is good, installation/setup wasn't difficult, and daily operation is a breeze. But I'm a techie person, so devices like this do not freak me out. It comes with instructions and my best advice is to carefully read them.

It has all the features a typical home or small business landline user may need. It can record up to 60 minutes of incoming messages (variable length, recordings end when caller hangs up). While on the road remote control operation is possible using any touch tone phone (landline, cell phone, etc.). You can record a personal announcement (greeting) or use the built-in default announcement provided by AT&T. You can set the number of rings before answering and can listen to the caller live, in case you want to pick up the phone. You can even silence the outgoing message when it answers so you do not have to hear it with each incoming call (but caller still hears it).

There's more this machine can do and I think the available features are well thought out. Best of all, you can can change the various features either locally (front panel buttons) or remotely (touch tone commands).

The best way to record announcements and memos is to speak directly into the little recessed hole that is on the front left corner; See photo. This hole is the microphone and audio quality will improve if your mouth is close to it (about six inches distance).

And here's a tip. I found that my personalized outgoing announcement was too quiet. So I used the remote control feature and recorded the announcement from my cell phone. It was much louder and audio quality was good.

Another tip is to use the Toll Saver feature if you will be listening to messages while on the road. This feature will cause the machine to answer on the second ring if callers have recorded a message, otherwise it will answer on the forth ring. So call the machine and if it doesn't answer by the second or third ring you can hang up since there are no messages. Otherwise let it answer, enter your two digit pass code, and press 1 to hear the messages. This feature saves time and money.

Pros: Low cost, small size, decent audio quality and features.
Cons: Nothing to report, I like the machine.

I bough this last year. Expected it to last longer. Started Squealing and making messages unintelligible. Had to disconnect.

I purchased two more expensive answering machines that were too complicated to set up and did much more than I needed. I then purchased a much simpler and less expensive Sony answering machine, and that didn't work well. Finally, on this fourth try the AT&T answering machine works perfectly for my needs, and I'd recommended highly if you want a simple system.

This machine is perfect for screening my calls. Setup took about 5 minutes and anyone who's ever had an answering machine in the past will know how to use this one. I find the sound quality of most all-in-one phones with answering machines to be poor and use a high quality wireless headset and dialpad instead of a phone.