[Asterisk-Users] Best SIP PHones to buy ?

[Michael T Farnworth]

On Sat, 20 Dec 2003, Carlos Arnt wrote:

> I wanna buy a Sip Phone, but what is the best and cheap one ?
> 
> I see alot of messages about, grandstream , snow etc etc.

We have bought around 30 Grandstream phones, both BT101 and BT102.  In
general the phone is reasonable, but it does have limitations.  Notable
issues for users tend to be the lack of any sort of consultative transfer
or easy access to conference calling.  Also its 'call waiting' facility is
a rather annoying and loud normal ringing noise, rather than the usual
'beep beep' that people are probably used to and you can't disable the
call waiting feature.  Entering numbers also has problems as if you dial
too quickly you tend to lose digits, even if you heard the tones and saw
them appear on the display.

We just bought a Snom200 which is a lot more expensive, but you do get
what you pay for.  It has a better display which copes with caller name as
well as caller number, has consultative transfer, conference calling, no
problems with losing digits when dialling and a normal 'call waiting'
beep.  It also has a host of other features, but we haven't used it long
enough to find any problems as yet.

I don't know what the Snom105 is like, but if it is anywhere near as good 
as the Snom200 it may be a good alternative to the BT101/2.

> Can him be used behind a nat system etc ?

Both the Snom200 and BT101/2 have settings for use behind NAT.

Michael