Buying a home phone can be tricky indeed. There is an abundance of choice. You can buy them almost everywhere – in John Lewis, Dixons, liGo, Currys, Tesco and even some cheeky petrol stations. So how do you know which to go for. Which are the best home cordless phones. Not just ok, but BEST. Best for sound, best for build, best for ease of use, best looks even etc. We’ve all done it – you buy a new home phone, only for it to break 2 months later. Then you wish you could go back, do a bit more research and buy a good cordless phone – hec maybe even the best home phone available. They are not always necessarily the most expensive ones.

Home phones are now being updated a bit more regularly (although still no where near the rate of mobiles) so we’ve committed to reviewing our top 10 best home phones list every 3-6months. Here you can find the latest top 10 home phones – a must read before making a purchase.

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TOP 10 – Best home phones

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01 Siemens Gigaset S685 £55

Super duper. Is that too cheesy? Where did the Siemens S685 come from – seemed to have taken us by surprise. If you’re looking for the best home phone, then look no further. You’re not going to find an all rounder that can beat the Gigaset S685. Why? For a start it has excellent sound quality both on the handset and speaker (useful some might say). Its packed with all the features you might (or in some cases might not) need so you won’t need to change this phone in a rush. It has a 40 minute digital answering machine, SIM card reader, 250 name and number directory, its wall mountable, has lots of useful features, even has bluetooth so you can talk completely hands free using a bluetooth headset. The list is endless. (its also quite sexy in real life). Now the best or surprising part, is the price. Being one of Siemens’ latest phones, we expected a price tag of over £100. But incredibly the twin is only £80! The best home cordless phone money can buy right now.

Available here.

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02 Siemens Gigaset SL565 £80

Possibly one of the nicest looking homes phones on the market. Its a terrific phone and had it not been for its premium price tag, it would surely be the number 1 home phone. Great performance and cram packed with features. You’d be forgiven for mistaking it for a mobile phone. Which? magazine have now added this to their list of top 10 best buys since our last review was published. If you’re into your mobiles and want a top quality home phone with similar styling and features, then the Siemens SL565 is a sure fire winner.

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03 Siemens Gigaset C475 £50

Siemens again – they seem to be dominating proceedings this year. A Which? magazine best buy, the C475 has moved up one position in our top 10 list. A toned down version of the number one S685. A very good phone which has been a best seller for the last month. If you want one, best not to hang around – there isn’t too many of these available on the market right now.

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04 Panasonic KXTG 8321 £55

Panasonic’s top model and still a best seller. You can’t go wrong with this. Sensibly priced and has all the nice features you’d expect. But it is missing a SIM card reader. When will Panasonic finally introduce this on their phones. Rumours are though that Panasonic will be updating this model in March 2009. So perhaps better to hang on or buy one of the top Siemens models which wont be updated for another year or two (and on balance, are better phones).

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Recently released cordless phone from Panasonic that moves up a couple of places. It replaces their best selling KXTCD 240 model. In testing and user feedback, its proved to a very good phone indeed. A no nonsense phone which is aimed more at the ‘substance’ rather than ‘style’ buyer, the Panasonic 7341 has a host of useful features including a full numeric keypad and speaker on the base.

Available here.

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Another that drops down a place. If you really want to get this phone, we’d recommend buying the slightly higher spec 7341 instead. The keypad and the additional buttons on the base make it well worth the slightly higher price tag. The 7321 replaced the somewhat lackluster 7220 (still available on the market but we say avoid it).

Available here.

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BT’s days of making good phones, are long (long) gone. 4 years ago, BT ruled the roost. But that was primarily down to the fact that Siemens manufactured all their phones (ceased in 2004). Since then, BT have gained a bit of reputation for producing poor quality phones that seem to break easily (and conveniently just after the guarantee runs out). But credit where its due – the Reveal is actually a pretty good phone. The handset sits slightly unusually in the cradle but has a host of nice features, good sound quality and with the new lower price, its made it into our top 10.

Available here.

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There’s not a lot of white phones on the market anymore. Black seems to have taken over. This Panasonic 8220 is an excellent phone and some may argue it should feature higher up in our list. Its sound quality is deserving of a top 3 position (especially on the speaker which we found to be loud and almost as good as the handset). It has all the features you’d expect including a nice colour display. A very good phone indeed. Available here.

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iDECT is a little known phone producer. The brand behind iDECT is in fact Binatone. This may scare some users away (rightly so). But this model seems to be a bit of a revelation. Its great to use, nice sized (quite large) buttons, slim, good features (if not exactly packed with them) and a good price. Sound quality was good in our testing. Its very new so we cant as yet judge its reliability, but all in all seems to be a nice (albeit surprising) package from iDECT. Available here.

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How times have changed. Only 3 months ago this shot up to the top our table. An excellent phone but a substantial increase in price and lack of availability make this a poor choice I’m afraid. Poor stock availability is set to continue well into the new year and ultimately, this phone may be phased out. Come on Siemens, whats going on. Available here.

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There you have it. The list of the top 10 best home cordless phones currently on the market. So now there is no excuse for making the wrong purchase and wasting your money! If you own any of the above phones or have an opinion on the subject in general, we’d love to hear from you. Please do so by replying below.