[asterisk-users] IP phone recommendation

[Gordon Henderson]

On Thu, 4 Jun 2009, Rob Hillis wrote:

> Cary Fitch wrote:
>>
>> We have a bunch of SNOM 360ÿÿs we are not using.  I agree they are not
>> intuitive to the user.  They work ok in general. I would part with 15
>> or so at an attractive price, one or more,
>>
>> I like the Grandstream 2000 series. Easy to use, easy to set up, good
>> web page.  Priced nice on the wholesale market.
>
> Just don't /ever/ upgrade the firmware if you get one that is semi
> functional.  My experience with the first five GXP2000s I bought means
> that I will not ever consider Grandstream products again.  Maybe I got a
> bad batch, but they've been such a nightmare, I'll be happy to never see
> the things again.

I like Grandstreams, but yes, they have had issues in the past, and as you 
say, don't upgrade the firmware if you have one that does what you need it 
to do. New Grandstreams with the 1.6 series firmware have been very good 
indeed.

The issues I've had have been when upgrading new firmware onto old 
hardware. There have been several hardware revisions of the GXP2000 and 
older phones just don't work that well with newer firmware. I have one 
which I bought over 2 years ago with the latest & greatest on it - it 
works, but there are issues with audio quality occasionally (Once or twice 
during a call it buzzes for a few seconds! This doesn't happen with the 
same firmware on newer hardware platforms)

Still - you get what you pay for, and I've yet to find a phone with the 
same features as the GXP2000 for the same price. Most of my customers like 
them - I offer them the choice of Grandstream and Snom - and at nearly 
twice the price for a Snom 360 vs. a GXP2000, most of them go for the 
Grandstreams...

It's almost impossible to get to know every phone type really well - thats 
one disadvantage of an open standard (like Linux distributions!) but it's 
a small price to pay for compatability - I do have customers with Polycom, 
Linksys and ATL phones - all working for them though.

Grandstream, Siemens and Snom (but not Snom for DECT!!!) are the ones I've 
decided to learn the most about... If only I have more time (& money!) to 
play with others...

Gordon