The Best Conference Phones for Your Business For 2020
As businesses adapt to hosting meetings and keeping in touch remotely, conference phones have become more important than ever.
If you’re like us here at FluentStream, you have some employees working in your main office, others working from home, and others still at a separate office. Quite understandably, organizing face-to-face meetings is often impossible. However, with a conference phone, you can host calls from the office and coordinate with remote employees easily and without leaving anyone out of the loop.
So then the question becomes... which conference phone should you choose? As with most things in life, there is no single answer.
It depends on the unique circumstances and needs of your business. We've tested and reviewed dozens of conference phones you can find on the market today, and you’ll find our official FluentStream-Approved recommendations below.
BEST PREMIUM CONFERENCE PHONE
Yealink CP960
If you’re looking for the very best performance and sound quality for medium-to-large conference rooms, look no further than the Yealink CP960. Its wide range and 1280x720 touchscreen lets you quickly set up calls and then makes sure everyone is easily heard. Quite simply, it’s the finest conference phone you can buy right now
BEST BUDGET CONFERENCE PHONE
Polycom Soundstation 2
With solid audio performance and a streamlined design, the Polycom Soundstation 2 is an excellent choice for bootstrapped businesses in need of a conference phone. Upgraded with 50% better microphone sensitivity over the first model, the Soundstation 2 provides up to 10 ft of conferencing power at an affordable price.
BEST CONFERENCE PHONE FOR REMOTE BUSINESSES
Yealink CP860
Everything about the Yealink CP860 is designed to bring people multiple locations together no matter the distance between them. Instead of just focusing on one conference room, the CP860 supports up to 5-way calls between remote employees. On top of that though, if most of your team is crammed into a single room, up to 16 of them can be heard individually with crystal-clear audio.
BEST CONFERENCE PHONE FOR VIDEO MEETINGS
Cisco Webex
Full Disclosure: we kind of cheated here. Cisco's Webex devices can’t technically be considered “phones.” However, they are an innovative suite of video conferencing devices such as interactive whiteboards that can address a whole conference room, desktop tablets that enable one-to-one video meetings, and full-blown room kits that include panoramic 4K video and directional audio.
Clearly, that blows any real conference phones out of the water when it comes to video conferencing. But the best part is you can ignore Webex’s line of products entirely and download their video conferencing app directly onto your smartphones, tablets, laptops, whatever.
BEST CONFERENCE PHONE FOR SMALL TEAMS
Polycom Soundstation IP 5000
If your team is too small to justify a premium purchase, but still large enough to need conferencing options, the Polycom Soundstation IP 5000 was built just for you. Despite being on the more affordable side of the spectrum, it’s a feature-rich device with good range and even better audio quality.
Need to upgrade your communications with more than just a conference phone? Check out our Best Desk Phones Guide.