AT&T 1722. Style Over Substance.

The AT&T 1722 is one of the latest stand-alone telephone answering machines to be added to the AT&T consumer telephone roster. It appears to be aimed at people who don't get many messages and have no need for multiple mailboxes.

The 1722 is a single line, single mailbox answering machine that offers 19 total minutes of recording time. The 19 minutes includes both greetings and messages. All messages and greetings are saved during power outages. The 1722 can store up to 100 messages. A message can be up to 3 minutes in length. If a message goes beyond 3 minutes, or the calling party does not speak for 7 continuous seconds, the answering machine will terminate the call.

The machine itself is 2-toned with the majority of the face's color being black and the balance being silver. The machine sports 9 buttons, a small red LED over the "PLAY/STOP" button and a somewhat larger round red numeric LED. The "PLAY/STOP" button is reddish in color which makes it stand out from the other silver/gray buttons. Unlike older AT&T branded answering machines, the 1722's dimensions make it appear to be wide and shallow as opposed to narrow and deep.

The rear of the 1722 includes a jack to connect an optional single line telephone, a jack for the included power supply and a hard-wired telephone cable to plug into a telephone jack. The cable is approx 6' long. The power supply is fairly small. It takes 120V @ 60Hz in and outputs 6V AC @ 350 mA.

The round red LED display provides 7 segments to allow any single digit between 0 and 9, or one of a few letters such as "C" or "F". A flashing "C" indicates that the machine's internal time clock needs to be checked and possibly reset. The "C" will flash after a power outage. A flashing "F" indicates that the memory is full and cannot accept any more messages. If there are more than 9 messages in memory, the LED display will flash 2 numbers. (Say there are 10 messages total. The machine will alternate a "1" and "0".).

The 1722 allows the user to select the number of rings before the machine answers. The choices are between 2 and 7, along with 2 toll-saver modes, 2/4 and 4/6. In the case of 2/4, the machine will answer an incoming call in 2 rings if there are new messages waiting for review. If there is nothing new, the machine will answer in 4 rings. This is a handy feature if you check messages from a payphone, or someone else's private line and do not want to incur any possible toll charges if there are no new messages to review.

In order to check messages or change options remotely, you will need a remote access code. The manual lists the default code and the steps needed to change it to another code of your own choosing.

Announcement Monitor: allows you to heard your greeting being played when the machine answers a call. If you don't wish to hear the greeting, the feature can be shut off.

Audible Message Alert: will cause the machine to beep once every 15 seconds when there is are new messages for review.

Number Announce, Store Number and Accept Blocked Calls are features that require a subscription to Caller ID from your local telephone provider. Store Number will play back the telephone number of the caller just before the message is played. Accept Blocked Calls will allow callers who block their telephone number from being displayed, to leave messages. If this feature is turned off, the machine will play an announcement stating that blocked calls to this number cannot be accepted and then drops the call.

The buttons on the face of the 1722 are labeled set-up, clock, on/off, memo/repeat, play stop, annc/skip, delete and 2 for the volume control.

The set-up button is used to access the programming menu. The clock button will cause the machine to announce the current time and date. The clock is set manually during the initial set-up and, if you subscribe to Caller ID, the machine will automatically adjust itself based on the time stamp sent with the Caller ID record.

The on/off button turns the machine on & off.

The Play/Stop button will cause the machine to play new announcements, old announcements or stop playback all-together. New messages are played first. The small red LED just above this button will flash if there are new messages waiting for review, and glow constantly if there are only old messages in memory.

If the annc/skip button is pressed and held while the machine is idled, you can record your greeting. If you press the button during playback of messages, the current message will be skipped and the next one played.

The delete button is used to delete announcements and/or messages.

The 2 volume buttons raise and lower playback volume of messages and/or announcements.

Anyone familiar with programming the AT&T 1718 and 1719 answering machines will have no trouble programming the 1722 as the menus are pretty much alike. First time users will want to have the owner's manual near-by for reference and have the wallet reference card handy for remote access as the programming menu structure can be somewhat daunting.

For all of the features it offers, the 1722, (like all the other answering machine systems made by VTech since 2000 when VTech took over the AT&T brand name from Lucent Technologies), the stock greetings and prompts are clean and clear. Recorded messages and greetings are much less so.

Those tend to sound mushy and muted. In order to get a good sounding greeting, I had to flip the machine over and speak almost directly into the downward pointing microphone. In addition, I had to over emphasize my words to have the greeting come out reasonably understandable. After 5 model years, VTech should be able to create a good answering machine, but, for whatever reason, they continue to turn out low quality recording devices and only make cosmetic changes to the machines.

The audible message alert beep is too quiet to be heard in all but the quietest of rooms. A beep with multiple loudness settings would be a big help here.

Accessing the machine remotely may take a little practice to make the task smooth. Once that's been done a few times, I had no problems with the access.

The telephone cable on my unit has a strong smell to it. It makes me think that a skunk got loose in the factory and sprayed all the cables. At some point the smell of the plastic should dissipate.

All told, the 1722 has much to offer, except the ability to record messages and announcements cleanly. The number of stand-alone answering machines on the market continues to shrink as many people opt for cordless telephones with built in answering devices. Also some people are dropping land lines and using cell phones 100% of the time. Others use VOIP service with built in answering services and others use the local telephone company's voicemail service.

Given the shrinking number of these machines on the market, I am recommending this machine, but do so with the understanding that recorded messages, especially those from people calling from cell phones, may not be as clear as one hoped they can be.

One a quick side note, I was looking over VTech's 2005 annual results. VTech's chairman, Allan Wong admitted that VTech's telephone products did not compete well on price and design levels during the fiscal year 2005 in North America. If I could speak to Mr. Wong, I would advise him to work on improving the over-all quality and reliability of VTech & AT&T branded products quickly. Other high end brands such as Panasonic & Uniden have made strides in improving their products and their market shares are most likely increasing at the expense of VTech, a company that seems to be stuck in a rut.