CapTel 840i Captioned Telephone, Hearing Impaired Phones,Volume Control with up to 40dB Amplification Gain, Conventional Button Menu Navigation,Wi-Fi Capable, Answering Machine & Speakerphone

I have an 86 year old mother who is hard of hearing. Having her read the words on the screen is the only way you can have a phone conversation with her. While it takes a few seconds for my words to appear on the screen, it does work quite well. Note: You should try to speak cautiously - a little slower than normal and annunciate properly. There is a person listening to what you say and trying to type it on the screen. When she forgets what I said, she can reread the words on the screen. This phone was easy to set up wirelessly, has no monthly expense and is the only way I or anyone else can communicate with my mom over the telephone. You can also hard wire with a network cable for an internet connection. There are very few extra buttons on the phone. Most notable are a yes and no button. The setup process will ask a question or give a detailed instruction of what to do when setting up the phone. The captioning service communicates over the internet and requires a separate internet connection (ie: Verizon or Comcast). The phone itself uses a normal telephone line.The phone isn't completely full-proof. It does require my mom or someone else to push the "captions" button each time a call is made or received. FCC rules require this. You should also be aware that if your internet connection goes down, you may need to reconnect the phone to the internet. In my case, it could also be my mom pushing buttons she shouldn't be pushing. I have one of those mothers that sometimes can figure out how to turn the volume all the way down, but can't figure out how to turn it up again. If you have one of those moms, you know what I'm talking about! The phone volume can be adjusted. However, the volume when using the captions feature can be programmed to automatically adjust to the level you want. This keeps my mom from messing at least that part up.Thank you for coming up with such a wonderful devise! I can't tell you how much good is does for my mom, actually being able to communicate with the people she loves.

Great phone! The volume is great...better than other amplified phones we have used, so far. The captioning works well....if you miss what is said, you can read it, and (despite a slight lag) it is usually quite accurate. You can also review what was said after the call is over...the conversation is stored and can be reread indefinitely, unless you decide to delete the conversation. The phone is very user-friendly. There are only 2 negative issues about his phone that I can think of. If you intend to use the captioning, the call must start on this phone...meaning, if a call is picked up (or made) on another phone in the house, and then this phone is used later, during the same call, the captioning will not work. Also, the captioning doesn't work for calls made to numbers outside of the United States. Overall, this was a smart purchase for us!

This phone has been helpful for my two-hearing-aid mother. Her comprehension of conversations is better using the captions than without them. The black-on-white screen is easy to read and the font size is adjustable. The volume on the phone handset gets much louder than a typical phone so she can hear better even without the captions. It is also surprisingly intuitive to use and easy to set up. On the downside, it lacks an obvious indicator to tell you that there is a message since the screen goes black after a time of no activity. There is no speakerphone. Sometimes it takes a while to get captions and the captions lag the conversation by 5-10 seconds or more, which makes it difficult for her to participate in the conversation. And the phone does not link the phone book with caller ID, so known callers are not easily identified. I also wish the handset were cordless. Overall, though, the phone is a good improvement over everyday phones for her.Update 10/16/14 --- The assisted living home where my mother lives upgraded their wireless network. In the process, it seems they added some repeaters. At least, this is my guess. The phone appears to be picking up the weak signal from a repeater, not the strong signal from the router, and captions have not worked for a couple of months :-( The phone works fine at my one-router home. Captel customer service has been courteous and helpful, but we have not managed to officially diagnose the problem, to say nothing about resolving it. I have requested an IT contact from the home to work with Captel, but since they may have to pay a consultant (they have no regular IT staff) I'm not sure if we will get this fixed.

We bought this phone for my 87 year old Mom who's hard of hearing. The phone's features all sound good in theory with the captioned words, big buttons, etc., but it fails in reality. Here's why:1) First, the captioning is on a considerable delay. It was just too difficult for my Mom to have conversations where there are these long silent lapses. Very unnatural and she just couldn't help but say "What" 3 times before the captioning showed up and then the caller started talking over the delayed captioning and it was just a mess and confusing. She just didn't want to have to manage that.2) The phone's audio quality is ironically really bad. They may have volume, but as most old people hard of hearing will tell you, it's not about the volume, it's about the clarity. They can hear it; they just cannot distinguish the words. This phone has a very tinny sound on its normal setting and the tone options are really impractical. The 'High" tone setting is even tinnier, and the "Low" tone setting is this muffled sound. So my Mom thought it always sounded like someone was talking through a barrel. Not even close in audio quality to her regular phone.3) It seems ridiculous in a world of cordless phones, that they have to go backwards in technology with a tethered handset, ala 1970's. My Mom really disliked the cord after years of freedom; she didn't want to go backwards.Unfortunately, no redeeming qualities to this phone. So we sent it back. We'll just look for a regular cordless phone with great clarity.