Ticking all the business phone boxes, the Cisco 7841 is an affordable and reliable companion for any desk, suitable for organisations with wide-ranging needs.

It offers wideband audio (high-definition sound), high-resolution displays, a built-in speakerphone, and dedicated shortcut fixed keys, enabling you to seamlessly switch to speakerphone, the directory, messaging, and other functions.

This phone is our top pick for offices because it provides quality and cost-effectiveness in equal measure, giving all the features your team should need for a very reasonable price.

Ready to start dialing right out the box, Poly’s (formerly Polycom) VVX 300 takes plug-and-play readiness to the next level. This means fast-growing call centers won’t need to waste time on complicated installations.

This six-line handset is suitable for handling a low to moderate number of calls, offering some great features – including HD voice quality, POE (power over ethernet) capability, and an intuitive user interface. The importance of ease of use can’t be underestimated in a fast-paced call centre setting. However, the downside is that it doesn’t have a colour screen. If you’re looking for a phone that does, we’d recommend looking at Avaya. 

Frill seekers be warned: this office phone ticks all the basic boxes but nothing more. That’s why we’ve earmarked it as the best phone for small businesses and startups on today’s list; because it provides the call management features small, office-based teams need, without overwhelming them with functions and features that they don’t.

Of course, like all Cisco phones, this model does deliver excellent voice quality and connectivity, so your calls with customers should be crystal clear, and shouldn’t drop. After all, for a small business that’s working to gain traction, giving your customers a good impression over the phone is crucial. The downside is that its warranty life cycle is relatively short. As a small business, you probably want a system that has better insurance so you don’t have to invest more money later down the line in new phones. If you’re looking for a longer warranty, we’d recommend looking at Poly VVX.

The Grandstream GXP1630 is a compact and affordable option – in fact, it’s the cheapest office phone in our top 10. Its low price is reflected in the fact that it can only support three lines, which means it’s best suited for small to medium offices.

That said, when it comes to technical features, the GXP1630 packs a solid punch for its price tag. It offers HD audio, a high-quality speakerphone, and a customizable screen, all for under £67.90 apiece on average. That’s very good value for money by our high standards.

Suitable for office meeting rooms with up to six participants, the SoundStation IP 5000 comes with the patented Poly Acoustic Clarity technology, which makes conference calls feel like face-to-face chats.

On top of that, this office conference phone comes with a 360-degree microphone with voice detection – a function that automatically adjusts the microphone’s sensitivity to ensure anyone within the room can talk normally, and be heard from up to two meters away. This conference phone’s intelligent tech makes it a reliable choice for the majority of office meeting rooms. 

However, it’s not the best option if you have a tight budget. For a more affordable but still highly functional option we’d recommend looking at Poly VVX.

In true Samsung style, the SMT-I3105 is incredibly easy to use, while also offering a range of useful features like call logging, text messages, and video calling. With such a well-respected brand you’re also guaranteed smooth audio quality, ideal for video calls via Skype or Google Hangouts. With many businesses now moving towards hybrid working, the ability to reliably video chat with your team across multiple locations is an important thing to get in place.

This phone also comes with 100 programmable soft keys (virtual buttons on your display), which let you quickly access things like speed dialling and call forwarding. Like other phones on this list, however, Samsung doesn’t have a colour screen, which make the phone feel slightly old-school. Therefore, if you’re looking for something with a more modern feel, we’d recommend going for Avaya. 

This intuitive and high-quality RCA office phone boasts unbelievable sound quality and a full-duplex speakerphone. This means the phone calls you take and make from your office – whether they’re going to customers, partners, investors, or anyone else – will always sound crystal clear, giving your business a professional image, and ensuring no information is lost.

Better yet, the RCA Unison U1100 combines this high sound quality with convenience. It’s simple to set up, and you can connect up to ten cordless handsets to the RCA’s base station, giving your team excellent mobility. It’s also the second-cheapest office phone on this list.

Along with its high-quality sound, this phone comes with an easy-to-use touchscreen that provides quick access to your business’s web apps, calendars, and other productivity tools. This makes it really easy for office cubicle workers to use independently, accessing shared company information and documents from their own desk.

With low power consumption, advanced functionality, and high bandwidth (meaning the phone system can support plenty of crystal-clear calls), this model aims to make the lives of cubicle workers much easier, meaning they can take a high volume of phone calls in one day.

It may be a mouthful to say, but the Alcatel-Lucent 8068s BT is definitely not a handful to use. It certainly has a high price point at £399.20 apiece, but that’s justified by a variety of premium features that you just wouldn’t get with cheaper office phones.

For example, this office phone has an ergonomic display touchscreen that you can adjust to suit your posture – which can really help with those long calls from your office chair. Meanwhile, the attached alphabetical keyboard comes with call-by-name functions, and the phone has a whopping 72 programmable soft keys to help you personalize your everyday calling experience.

The downside is that Alcatel is on the pricier end of the spectrum. If you’re on the hunt for a more affordable, yet still functional, option, we’d recommend looking at Grandstream.

Snom’s D785 desk phone – of the company’s D7XX Series – should fit comfortably on any desk in your home, and comes complete with two integrated displays: a high-resolution colour screen, and a second screen for dynamic contact management. In combination, these interfaces make it super easy to independently manage applications, group calls, speed dialling, and more, with 24 self-labelling one-touch keys that can be customized to make your home office working day easier.

These phones also boast HD audio quality, integrated bluetooth connectivity, and a USB port, as well as all the call features you’d expect.