Near the range limit of any cordless phone, slight movements and changes in position can make a big difference in performance. Dense vegetation limits range, and wet leaves are worse than dry leaves. If you can get the base up high, you will probably get more range. Answering machines are no longer machines, and they don t use cassette tapes anymore. Today, answering is just one more feature built into a phone, and adds a fraction of the price that a separate answerer used to cost.
Performance is better, too, with no belts or tapes to stretch or break, and no motor noise.
There are new features, too, like the ability to selectively erase and delete messages. Recording time for digital answerers is typically 15 minutes. While this is less than older tape-based answering machines provided, it is usually enough, because the average incoming message is just 20 seconds long. Some phones can also transfer Caller ID information to your beeper. Two-line models may also tell you which line the call cam in on, useful if you have separate home and business lines, for example.