Modern business telephones have come a long way from where they started, both technologically and esthetically speaking. Looking at some of the previous offerings from days gone by, I am reminded that the business world is one of form over function. In other words, business phones are engineered to simply to work reliably and for long periods of time, not to look pretty. Still, there is very little charm, even from a nostalgic point of view, in older business telephone systems. Thankfully, the phones have changed over the last several years. Business phones are still designed to work and work well, but many manufacturers are beginning to understand that esthetics can be used as a selling point. The modern phones of today have a functionally “smart” look to them, as though they were destined to meet the futuristic expectations placed on them by movies and television shows from the seventies, such as “Star Trek” and “Star Wars”. In fact, just about every business phone I’ve encountered lately seems to have had it’s design parameters pulled directly off of Darth Vader’s chest.
While these phones aren’t exactly...