[Asterisk-Users] Phones

[Rich Adamson]

> What VOIP Phones is everyone using and why? Is the a common phone that 
> seems the work the best? Just wondering.
> 

The quality and features implemented in each of the voip phones varies
rather dramatically from one manufacturer to another. What works fine
in one account (with their expectations) may not be considered acceptable
at another account, etc.

In _very_ general terms the more expensive the phone, the more time
the manufacturer spends doing real life research and regression testing 
of their pre-release firmware. Likewise, the cheaper the phone the higher
the chances that you will be the one doing testing on behalf of the
manufacturer. Averages: Grandstream and Snom release firmware versions 
almost weekly, most of which have one problem or another. Cisco & Polycom 
are closer to quarterly, and although you may find a specific problem or
two that might impact an account, the production releases of their firmware 
tend to be better tested with fewer issues and higher stability.

Also, which phones tend to be acceptable to a small group of technical users
is usually very different ftom a large group of non-technical business
users. Technical folks frequently know where the holes are in their specific
implementations and quickly adapt to stepping around those holes in day to
day use. Non-technical business users will complain when the transfer key
(as an example) does not function the way they think it should.

If the phone users are expected to contend with home firewalls/nat boxes
(as an example), certain phones will work very well while others fail
misserably. Some phones hands-free speaker-phone function very well while
others are barely usable. Some offer large displays with directory lookup
functions while others don't. Some phones have been designed for large scale
deployments with centralized management (eg, firmware upgrades, diagnosing
problems) while others require a physical phone visit to accomplish the same.
Some have alpha display for callerid while others only have numerical 
displays. One can actually see/read some displays while setting at your 
desk while others almost require the user to stand up to see it. Some 
phone sets are so light-weight they drag across the desk when the handset 
cord is stretched a little, while others feel and work like analog phones.

There are some reviews at www.voip-info.org, however keep in mind that a
lot of the phone data is dated and the manufacturer has probably fixed at
least some of the negatives shown for specific phones.