The cordless home phone has long been the Cinderella of the technology world. While its glamorous cousin, the mobile, has evolved to include a swish colour screen and other fancy features, the humble home phone has lagged behind. However, times are changing fast. Today most cordless handsets boast functions you’d expect to find on a mobile, such as snazzy ringtones and smart-looking screensavers.

All the models reviewed here feature a built-in speakerphone, which is surprisingly handy if you are kept on hold or need to take notes. Apart from those from BT and Panasonic, all have colour screens too.

The Siemens and BT models can even send or receive SMS texts for a small additional charge by your phone-service supplier. These handsets also have a slot that can read details stored on your mobile’s sim card once it is inserted. This makes it far easier to transfer contacts to the phone.

The innovative Philips and Netgear models even offer the choice of making regular landline calls or using Skype, the largely free internet-based phone service. Better still, you don’t need a computer to access Skype, although a broadband connection and basic router are essential.

With mobile phones so ubiquitous, it’s tempting to consider the cordless home phone redundant. However, calls are generally cheaper if made from a landline, and better in quality too (some broadband providers offer free calls at evenings and weekends). The latest cordless handsets offer functions that mobile phones can’t, by and large, such as the ability to act as an intercom and, in some cases, a sophisticated baby monitor or security alarm.

The microphone in the Siemens and Magic Box handsets can be set to monitor any sound within a room. If this exceeds a level predetermined by you, the phone will dial a number of your choosing. Leaving a baby unattended is, of course, unwise, but on test the feature worked well.

Nearly all current cordless home phones use the digital standard known as Dect. This provides sharper call quality than analogue models. Most Dect phones have a neat feature called Gap, which simplifies adding extra handsets. These need not be the same model, although mixing brands involved entering fiddly codes, so it’s wiser to buy a multipack of handsets.

If you are attracted by a “hybrid” model — such as the Netgear or Philips — that can also make internet-based calls (generically known as Voip), remember that you can alternatively buy a Voip adaptor that works with most Dect phones. However, the adaptors for Skype, which is the most popular branded Voip service, generally require your computer to be kept switched on, whereas the two hybrid handsets reviewed do not. Also note that to make cheap, or even free, internet calls with these handsets, you must first register with the Skype service from a computer (which doesn’t have to be your home computer).

If you also intend to call anyone who does not subscribe to Skype using the internet service on your hybrid Dect phone, you must prepay for some call credits, although this remains cheaper than most landline tariffs. The quality of these Skype calls proved surprisingly acceptable, if more akin to a mobile phone than a landline.

These advanced features have genuine merits, although for the purposes of our tests we placed a high premium on ease of use. Keypads and basic navigation were carefully scrutinised — with greatly varying results. All the phones reviewed had clear menus and there was little difference between them in terms of call quality. Each maintained a clear signal throughout a large two-storey house and most had a range of 150 yards, although the simple Panasonic went slightly further and the fancy Siemens model lasted over a full 200 yards. Impressive.

Finally, bear in mind that if your home’s electricity supply fails, so will your Dect phones, so you’d be wise to keep a mobile to hand, or a corded handset, just in case.

Reviews by David Phelan

Prices include Vat and delivery

JARGON BUSTER

Dect (Digital enhanced cordless telecommunication) Standard for cordless digital home phones that superseded analogue

Gap Feature that enables different brands of Dect phones and base stations to work together

Ethernet Digital networking standard that gives extremely fast transfer of information. Commonly connects computers and routers

Skype The most popular Voip service (see below) for making cheap, and often free, internet-based phone calls

Sim-card reader Feature on some Dect handsets that enables easier transfer of stored phone numbers from a mobile

Voip (Voice over internet protocol) Method of making voice calls over the internet. There are several competing variants

EARLY ADOPTER’S TREAT

Five stars

Philips VOIP841 phone – typically £130 or £121 from www.home-phones.co.uk

Stylish and easy to operate, plus cutting-edge features

This smart-looking Dect phone offers the option to make free calls using Skype, the internet-based service. It also gets the basics right. The colour screen proved highly legible, the menus straightforward and the keys well designed. There’s a particularly effective speakerphone too. Setup was simple, although making Skype calls means the phone’s base station must be connected to a broadband router by an Ethernet cable. Nevertheless, the phone and its charging cradle can go anywhere in range. After dialling, the phone asked whether the caller wanted to make a regular or an internet call, and everything worked smoothly. Considering the price, the lack of SMS texting was irritating. Even so, very good over all.

MOBILE PRETENDER

Five stars

Siemens Gigaset E455 SIM — typically £80 or £76 from www.home-phones.co.uk

Excellent features and eminently practical

Owners of a Siemens mobile phone will recognise this handset’s menus and screensavers. It felt even more like a mobile once contacts had been transferred with the built-in sim card reader. The Gigaset was able to send and receive SMS texts and the handset acts as a useful contacts back-up, should you lose your mobile. Assembling this phone was unnecessarily complex, but the decent keypad made dialling straightforward and the answerphone had neat touches. The full-colour screen was the largest on test, yet the Gigaset, with the Panasonic, offered the longest battery life, and at a full 200 yards the range was the best of the group too. Despite a slightly plasticky feel, this is a desirable and well-priced handset with strong features.

TECHNOPHOBE’S FRIEND

Four stars

Panasonic KX-TG 7160 — typically £70 or £65 from www.cordless-phones.uk.com

Efficient phone that’s simple and effective

If you don’t care about a colour screen or fancy features, this phone is for you. The buttons are deliberately big for ease of dialling: in fact the keypad was the second best on test. Call quality was also good, even from two storeys away. Menu navigation proved fussy, partly because the “Select” button needed very decisive pressing. Decent design was let down by a slightly cheap plastic casing. The monochrome screen was at least bright and easy to read and the batteries lasted longer than those of the colour-screen phones. Panasonic sells a gadget to extend call range — to the bottom of the garden, perhaps. Despite few frills, the KX-TG 7160 is a sound choice for a simple life.

GEEK’S FOLLY

Three stars

Netgear SPH200D Dual-Mode Cordless Skype Phone — £105 from www.amazon.co.uk

Clever, if unattractive, Skype-ready handset

This Netgear is in many ways a sibling of the Philips phone — all menus and clever Skype features are identical, as are the jaunty ringtones and screen. But this isn’t an attractive handset and feels more like a computing accessory than a family phone. The casing is plasticky and the number keys spongy, which means you can accidentally enter the wrong number. As with the Philips, there are dedicated “Select” buttons to help you navigate through the menus, and you must choose whether to call by Skype or landline before being connected. All these features worked well, but, given that the Netgear is only marginally cheaper than the Philips, why plump for the ugly sister?

FASHIONISTA’S STILETTO

Three stars

BT Reveal — typically £130 or £124 from www.dabs.com

Suave yet impractical and seriously overpriced

The shiny black curves of the BT Reveal certainly make it look swanky, but it proved the least comfortable of the phones on test because the handset felt awkward against the ear. Curiously, it is flat on the back and convex on the front, oddly thrusting the microphone away from the face. Worse, the bouncy keys were awful for dialling. Nonetheless, the Reveal partially redeemed itself with good features. This is one of the first BT phones with a speakerphone built into the handset, and it offers a sim card slot and SMS texting. However, messages on the answerphone can be played back only on the handset (not the base station) and at this price, a colour screen should be de rigueur.

LOW-BUDGET ERROR

Two stars

Magic Box Touch 211150 — typically £50 or £40 from www.johnlewis.com

Bargain fashion phone that’s precious little fun

Kent-based Magic Box Products offers this cheap but stylish handset. Like LG’s Chocolate mobile phone, the Magic Box employs suave-looking lights as its main navigation controls. These respond to the touch of a finger, and to prevent accidental dialling the keys switch off as you put the handset to your ear. So, to end a call, you must “wake” the keypad before hanging up by pressing the “end” button twice. In practice this soon proved annoying. The keypad was the worst on test and the phone’s range was poor, with interference over longer distances, although it did eke out a signal to 150 yards. Features were also decidedly skimpy — there isn’t even an answering facility. All in all, the Magic Box was more of a Pandora’s Box.

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