AVM Fritzfon MT-F cordless Dect phone

Even some cheap mobile phones now include features such as email but it's still rare on home ‘landline' phones.

The Fritzfon MT-F is a cordless home phone that uses the Dect standard but is designed to work best with a Fritzbox routers (click here for our review of the AVM Fritzbox 7390) and has some clever features.

It's well made and the keypad is comfortable to use. It's a reasonable size and weight for a home phone, and it has a large colour screen, making it easy to get around the various menus and browse contacts.

Most of the options are actually set using the router's web browser-based setup page. It may sound strange but it's much easier than trying to set options on the phone's small keypad. When connected to a Fritzbox the router uses it for both landline and internet calls. The contacts list is stored on the router.

There are the standard customisations such as changeable wallpapers (including uploading your own) and different ringtones for different contacts. It is even possible to change the levels of the sound.

It doesn't stop there. The phone can be used to read email and RSS news feeds with alerts for new articles, and play internet radio and podcasts. It's a shame that it cannot stream audio from a computer over the home network, especially as the AVM routers can share audio themselves. The sound quality from the built-in speaker was good and there is a jack socket on the handset's side for connecting headphones.

The Fritzfon MT-F is a clever phone that makes email and internet radio easy to access without a computer or tablet, assuming you have a Fritz!box router. If you don't, it's still a well-made, good Dect phone.