Buyer's Guide To Home Phones

Use it as a baby monitor, listen to music, browse the net, get traffic reports, send texts and talk for up to 15 hours on one charge: the latest home phones enhance the way we communicate. Get the low down here…

Why Update?

Despite mobile phones and Skype calling making it easier than ever for us to communicate with friends and family, the home phone remains an important feature. It has come a long way in terms of design and functionality in the last 10 years, largely influenced by the mobile phone industry.

Some of the latest home phones let you text message, remind you of important events and if you have more than one handset, they can double up as a baby monitor or let you talk on different home lines at the same time.

‘As well as supporting SMS texting, some phones already have plyphonic ringtones, screensavers and colour displays and it won’t be long before we see additional features such as touch screen as well,’ says Martina Homburg, Product Manager at Gigaset. ‘Service providers also frequently offer VoIP internet connections now, which gives way to even more mobile-phone like features. You can get RSS feeds on the screen with traffic reports, weather forecasts, e-bay bid statuses and email updates.’