Landline phones need love too

Wednesday 21 October

B&O BeoCom 5: proof that innovation is still going on in the world of landline phones.

In our quest to bring you the lowdown on all things cutting edge, it’s all too easy to forget about the more traditional gadgets – the sort of gizmos that we’ve been using for years and years and have become very much “part of the furniture”.

Take the landline phone. Something almost all of us have been using our whole lives and most of us still use every day. But these humble communication tools tend to get left in the background due to the sheer amount of innovation happening in the world of mobile phones. And while it’s true that mobiles are leading the way in tech terms, we shouldn’t forget about their cable-bound cousins.

And when there are landline phones out there as stunning as the BeoCom 5, it’s hard not to sit up and take notice. Fresh from the drawing boards of Scando stylistas Bang & Olufsen, it’s an eye-wateringly gorgeous piece of design. Packing aluminium and a customisable colour screen, it’s a far cry from the plasticky touchtone blowers most of us still rely on.

It’s pretty nifty on the tech front too, by the sounds of it. B&O has poured some of its acoustic expertise into the speakerphone design, and claims that you can easily tell people apart through the speaker.

Of course, it’ll probably cost a king’s ransom, but that’s beside the point, which is that there is still innovation going on, even in areas of the tech world to which we pay little attention. So spare a thought for the landline phones, toasters, kettles and fridges that are slowly, steadily getting more advanced.