What's the best phone (with answering machine) to buy?

Are you talking a wall phone or a cell phone?

i think the greatest headsets are made by plantronics. they have all kinds, they last forever, and have good fidelity. i have no clue about phones, though (i assume you're talking land phone). curious to reap the wisdom of the fluther.

this is very difficult to answer because the situation is in constant flux. best thing to do is check reviews of current phones at a few tech review sites and draw a conclusion. but, in my experience, panasonic are probably the most quality consistent, although i've had to return a couple of models that were awful. in both cases i bought other panasonic models to replace them.

the iPhone it fucking rocks!!wooo rock