[Asterisk-Users] What business IP phone to use

[Douglas Garstang]

Polycom does support Asterisk, Asterisk Business Edition.

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Graves [mailto:mgraves at mstvp.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 23, 2006 6:00 PM
To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
Subject: RE: [Asterisk-Users] What business IP phone to use


On Wed, 22 Feb 2006 18:02:27 -0800, mustardman29 wrote:
>Just the person I have been looking for.  If you don't mind, would it be
>possible to get your opinion on feature for feature comparisons between the
>501 and 480i CT(not including cordless phone).
>
>Things like programmable buttons, display, dialing button quality, and most
>importantly, handset and speakerphone quality.
>
>Any info would be greatly appreciated.

I used the IP600 for about a year on my desk, and several IP500s
elsewhere around the place. It's a home office but I work from home
full time so it's a real working office environment.

I found that the physical quality of the Polycom phones was absolutely
top notch. They're a joy to use. Completely professional and very
reliable. But they're not perfect. They're a little harder to
provision. They're very configurable but that also adds to the
complexity. I had mine TFTP loading firmware and a common speed dial
directory from an XML file on my Astlinux server. The phones take a
fair amount of time to boot and force a reboot when you change many of
their settings. You can spend an afternoon repeatedly rebooting the
phone as you manually work out its initial configuration. Of course
Polycom doesn't support Asterisk, but others seem to fill this void
well enough.

The IP600 and IP500 are very similar but the differences are
considerable. The IP600 supports 6 line buttons and has a much better
LCD. Higher resolution, but still not backlit. Once you've used the 600
it'll be hard to go
back to the 500 just because the display is not as nice. The IP500
provides only 3 line buttons. Both phones support multiple
registrations.

The Aastra 480 is the only thing that I've seen that comes close to the
Polycom's. Physically it's just about as solid. Not quite as hefty in
the hand, but very nice. The LCD display is backlit. This is a major
advantage if you ever work in dim lighting. All other
manufacturers...LISTEN UP...this is a really big deal! I can't believe
how long its taken for someone to realise this fact.

Aastra configuration was a LOT easier both manually on the phone and
remotely. The on-phone menus are very easy to navigate and I almost
didn't bother setting up the central provisioning. With only a few
phones I could get by without it. Firmware and configs can be loaded
via tftp, ftp or http.

The on-phone directory and call logs are comparable on all three the I
have used. Actually, I prefer the way SNOM phones handle this as they
require fewer button presses. The Aastra phone makes it especially easy
to delete an entire call log with only a couple of button presses.

The 480 supports up to 9 lines with any 4 active at on time, or so I'm
told. I have mine registered for four lines so that incomming PSTN,
FWD, Gizmo and Skype calls each ring a different line. The latest
firmware supposedly support BLF indications but I've not used this.
It's really easy to assign speed dials to the six programmable keys on
the LCD. In fact, almost all of the buttons can be reassigned to new
functions. Also you can write XML applications that put the LCD to work
as an interactive menu.

Mostly I live and die by speakerphone quality. I think that the
Polycom's have a little edge on the Aastra phone, but not by much. If I
need to rework my entire system I'll probably migrate to all Aastra
phones.

Audio quality using the handset is excellent on all of them. Even on
the cordless handset with the 480i CT.

They all support POE...which I use to keep the phone system up during
power failures. I had to buy the injectors separately for the Aastra &
IP600 phones. The IP500s came with injector cables. 

The big dissappointment in my SIP phone testing was the Zultys 4x5. It
just feels cheap and many functions are too counterintuitive. I really
like the idea of the local FXO but they were never able to tell me how
to get the FXO port forwarded to the PBX for VM. Zultys provides no end
user support except through dealers and the dealers I dealt with didn't
know much about the specifics of the Zultys firmware.

Also, I'm curious about the newest SNOM phones. Some time ago I used a
SNOM 200 and like the way the web based I/F was integrated into the use
of the phone beyond simply configuration. You could access the speed
dials and place a call from the web I/F. You could also dial the phone
from a link or shortcut to a url pointed at the phone. That's a fair
substitute for desktop TAPI. If they've taken this any further it could
be very good.

I've not tried any of the lesser phones like Grandstream or Linksys.
Life's too short to use a cheap phone....at least if your budget
permits better.

Michael Graves

--
Michael Graves                           mgraves at pixelpower.com
Sr. Product Specialist                          www.pixelpower.com
Pixel Power Inc.                                 mgraves at mstvp.com

o713-861-4005
o800-905-6412
c713-201-1262
fwd 54245





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