Some workers today forgo the trusty desk phone in favor of using their smartphone for all business communications.
Does this mean the VoIP desk phone is obsolete? Absolutely not. There are many good reasons why many other workers continue to use their VoIP phone instead of relying on a VoIP smartphone app.
Professional communications systems need to meet standards beyond the platforms we use in our personal lives, especially when it comes to audio quality, cybersecurity, and manageability.
In many cases, the VoIP desk phone still outperforms a VoIP smartphone app in these three areas.
But it’s not a black-and-white scenario: having the two available and using each when it’s most appropriate is the best strategy.
In this blog, we explore scenarios when the VoIP desk phone is a better choice than using a VoIP app on your smartphone.
VoIP Desk Phones vs VoIP Softphone Apps
For some workers, taking their business calls or texts on their smartphone is non-negotiable: road warrior sales staff, HVAC technicians in the field, construction supervisors at the job site, rural veterinarians driving from ranch to farm to town — you get the idea.
But what happens when the vet gets back to her office after coming back from helping ranchers vaccinate livestock? In the office, it still pays for her to have a desk phone. Why?
Audio quality for VoIP phone calls is dependent on network connectivity. Bad connection, bad sound. And bad sound is really bad for projecting a professional image to clients and customers. Would you rely on a building engineer who you can only understand every fourth word of every time he calls? Would you want him to add a wing to your house?
One of the big problems with using a smartphone in the office for business calls is a bad network connection. How good is the cell signal in your office? It’s not unusual — even in 2025 — for the walls of office buildings or homes to block cell signals to the point that connectivity is spotty.
Is your Wi-Fi good enough to make business calls? If you have a good, stable Wi-Fi network, then you’re good to go for business communications, either with a VoIP smartphone app or a VoIP desk phone. But it’s still often the case that Wi-Fi network are less reliable than the wired Ethernet connection that’s the most common method of connecting a VoIP phone to the network.
Having a VoIP desk phone in the office that uses an ultra-reliable wired connection is still the best method to get professional audio quality, every time.
VoIP desk phone manufacturers know that hearing comprehension is one of the most important factors in business communications. That’s why, with professional VoIP phones, you get HD audio quality — or better — with extensive noise cancellation technologies. For example, Yealink offers a triple solution of sound-enhancing and noise-reducing technology with many of their phones: Yealink Optima HD, Yealink Smart Noise Filtering, and Yealink Acoustic Shield.
Optima HD means the phone provides rich, full, and natural sound quality for voices. Smart Noise Filtering means the phone gets rid of noises that you make while not speaking, like rustling papers or typing on the keyboard. Acoustic Shield uses microphones to judge how far away sound is coming from and gets rid of any sound beyond a certain distance, in effect creating a noise-eliminating “shield” around your conversation.
Cybersecurity and manageability go together as reasons that many people use VoIP phones in the office, including in the home office. We’re using manageability to refer to keeping business communications flowing through official, secure channels that your admin controls.
It’s often easier for the network manager to establish a controlled communications system using VoIP phones than it is to deal with VoIP cell phone apps.
VoIP softphone apps either have to work on both smartphone operating systems — Android and iOS — or you have to standardize on one. If you standardize, some workers will probably be annoyed, because we’re all used to our personal phones: some of us are Android users, some of us are iPhone users.
You’re also reliant on the VoIP smartphone app makers to keep the apps updated. Smartphones move much faster than desk phones: there’s a new version of Android and iOS every year. Smartphones go out of compatibility much faster than VoIP phones. And keeping up with new versions of the different OS’s isn’t always the strong suit of a lot of VoIP smartphone app providers.
VoIP desk phones — whether you use them with a cloud phone service, hosted VoIP provider, or on-premise VoIP phone system — go out-of-date much, much slower. In other words, you get excellent security for longer and you get to keep your device much longer. (And a professional VoIP phone is significantly less expensive than even a mid-range smartphone nowadays.)
Having up-to-date OS compatibility is essential for security and for manageability. Having a stable OS and management process makes it much easier to establish a secure, manageable system.
It can be a good idea to have distinct devices for specific purposes. Having a smartphone for both personal and professional communications can lead to accidental usage by workers of personal devices for calls, for example, that definitely should be secured within your professional communications system.
What About a Headset?
One option to improve audio quality while using a smartphone is to use a headset. There are many Bluetooth Headsets that can be used with your smartphone with features to improve their performance while away from the office.
Look for features like Active Noise Cancellation (ANC), ultra-lightweight earhook wearing style, carrying case that also charges the headset for extended battery life, directional microphone array to home in on your voice, weather- and sweat-proof construction, and so on.
Bluetooth headsets can also be used with many VoIP desk phones now. Look for a VoIP phone with either native Bluetooth support or with a USB port that supports a Bluetooth adapter.
For example, Yealink BH71 is an ultra-lightweight earhook headset. If you get the BH71 Pro Workstation, you get the BH71 Bluetooth headset that connects to smartphones and Bluetooth-compatible VoIP phones directly, plus a workstation that lets you use the headset with your computer and phone, plus a charging case to protect and charge the headset on the go, plus a wireless charging pad.
Now that’s a professional headset.