Home phone News

Is this the device to mark the home phone comeback?

Tuesday 20 December, 2011

By Helen Thomas

Android-based smartphone to make home phones a must-have...again.

The poor old home phone has been on a downward spiral ever since Don Johnson’s Sonny Crockett rolled up his blazer sleeves and pulled out an admittedly chunky, but totally wire-free telephone, and made a call. Outside, people! A-MA-ZING.

It was truly a defining moment of our generation, right up there with Hasselhoff bringing down the Berlin Wall with his singing.

The start of the mobile phone revolution had arrived, and the home phone retreated into the loft with the cassette player to reminisce about the good old days.

However, a comeback may be on the cards. According to Archos, the electronics company responsible for the first Android powered tablet on the market, its latest product - the Archos 35 Smart Home Phone - will make owning a home phone popular again.

Hot on the heels of the first touchscreen home phone, released by Gigaset in November, Archos’ Android-based, digital enhanced cordless telecommunications (DECT) phone, brings smartphone functionality into your home.

The device comes with all the usual features of a traditional digital cordless phone, such as name and number memory and caller ID, but also gives access to the best smartphone features: web, email and social networks. Perfect if you want to quickly check your email or the footy results without waiting for your PC to boot up.

Music and video applications allow for smooth browsing through album covers and easy access to your favourite media. It will work with your current DECT handsets and allow you to easily transfer contacts to it from your Android mobile phone.

Plus, it looks good too. Sleek and stylish, it boasts a 3.5in touch screen allowing space for plenty of your favourite apps.

It has a separate charging dock and wireless receiver so you won’t have to leave the beefy dock out on your coffee table letting the side down, stylistically speaking.

The Archos 35 is available now alongside the Archos 35 Home Connect, an Android-based, touch screen, web radio. Both devices are available from all major retailers, each costing £119.99.

Along with the Gigaset home smartphone and Philips’ ThinkLink - a phone that links your mobile and landline handset together - unveiled in September, could the humble home phone be about to experience a renaissance?