[asterisk-users] Snom or Cisco Phones?

[Jessee J Holmes]

Writing this as a user of VoIP and not a reseller, (meaning off the  
record), we really love the Snom phones here as well, I wish the Snom  
300's had a bit more functionality (like the Grandstream), and the  
Snom 320's and 360's were a little less confusing with their buttons  
(aka too many buttons on the keypad for some non-tehcy end users).

But they have terrific functionality and great audio quality in most  
office environments, and are very easy to set up and install.  
Everyone seems to really love them.

The Cisco phones are nice as well, but IF you decide to go with  
Cisco, READ what you are buying and what you are getting before just  
blindly buying it (in fact, do this anyways, it's common sense to do  
this before buying any product, anywhere). Cisco products normally  
don't come with half of the items you need, and unfortunately most  
resellers (and Cisco) don't make this too easy to read and  
understand. DO NOT buy refurbished Cisco if you want support,  
especially since there has been some bogus Cisco voice equipment  
shipping lately from some of the certified Cisco resellers/ 
distributors. Network World had an article on this recently: http:// 
www.networkworld.com/news/2006/102306counterfeit.html

Cisco may have a great look to their phones and have the design very  
well thought out (not to mention the big Cisco name - which is good  
enough for some), but they are normally harder to install and  
configure and are VERY proprietary. If you buy Cisco, Cisco wants you  
to ONLY buy Cisco (for support and marketing reasons).

Snom 320's are a great choice just because these phones mainly  
support everything the Snom 360's support (i.e. sidecars) Only main  
differences between these two models is that the Snom 360 has the  
larger LCD screen as well as newly added XML support.

We have about 50 stations here, some management, some support, some  
sales and have pretty much decided as a company to completely use  
Snom phones for all of our employees.

Keep in mind, each phone out there will have their specific pro's and  
con's, as well as quarks ... seems there is no real "perfect phone"  
out there yet. But Snom in my mind, is pretty dang close.

This all of course is just personal opinion from past experience.

Jessee Holmes
Atacomm / Ataractic Corporation
www.atacomm.com
V: 1-877-700-VOIP
jholmes at atacomm.com

Looking for voice over IP products?  Visit our VoIP store at http:// 
voipstore.atacomm.com/


On Nov 1, 2006, at 8:35 AM, Tom Vile wrote:

> I love the Snom phones as well.  The function keys are great and  
> easy to use.
>
> On 10/31/06, mitcheloc <mitcheloc at gmail.com > wrote:
> My vote is definitely for Snom, I've worked with Cisco phones for
> years, but the Snom is much better integrated, and the feature buttons
> can be retooled for any environment, making custom installs very easy.
>
> On 10/31/06, Conrad Wood <asterisk-users at conradwood.net> wrote:
> > On Tue, 2006-10-31 at 13:29 -0600, Joe Dennick wrote:
> > > Comparing Snom to Cisco phones is sort of like comparing  
> Mercedes to Kia
> > > cars....
> >
> > Not really. Both are very good phones.
> >
> > * My Clients prefer cisco because it looks more business-like. -  
> The new
> > snom phones do look better though and the side car rules.
> > * The Cisco phone 'feels' very good in your hand, and the  
> voicequality
> > is superb. (I'd say slightly better than that of the snom 360)
> >
> > * Technically, I find the snom phone more advanced and I can do more
> > cool stuff with it - Cisco doesn't seem to like giving features  
> away in
> > SIP.
> > * Snom phones, for example, have freely programmable buttons that  
> can
> > park/retrieve/transfer calls, show line status etc. I can't get  
> that to
> > work with Cisco phones at all.
> > * Putting custom ringtones (and choosing which ones to use) is a
> > no-brainer with snoms and real trouble with ciscos.
> > * On ciscos, I find the "upgrade" path from sccp to sip a totally
> > unnecessary annoyance.
> >
> >
> >
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>
> --
> ________________
> Mitchel Constantin
> Snap - A desktop user interface for Asterisk
> www.snapanumber.com
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>
>
> -- 
> Tom Vile
> Baldwin Technology Solutions, Inc
> Consulting - Web Design - VoIP Telephony
> www.baldwintechsolutions.com
> Phone: 518-631-2855 x205
> Fax:     518-631-2856
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