[Asterisk-Users] What business IP phone to use

[The VoIP Connection]

I have used every phone and talk to customers using different devices all
day long and I can tell you there is no single IP phone that is perfect for
everyone.  You will not find the answer on a newsgroup or a wiki, you need
to judge for yourself. For example, while I may love the decidedly "euro"
ergonomics of the snom, you may find it impossibly unconventional. 

We have lots of customers who are very happy with their GXP-2000's as well
as a number who are not.  It depends on how they are being used (especially
LAN or WAN) as well as the firmware version and networking environment.

We also have many customers who love their Polycoms and there is no doubt
that they build a quality product. They aren't cheap but they don't
disappoint. By the way, Polycom officially supports Asterisk through
certified resellers as of October 2005.

Snoms are great also but they seem to be having some trouble getting the
version 5.0 firmware stable.  If you can live with the features in V4.x for
a while, these phones are terrific.  Probably the best overall integration
with Asterisk of any IP phone currently available.

Aastra seems to be getting it together at last and also are worthy of
consideration. 

I sell phones for a living and here's what I recommend: First, select a
reliable and competent vendor who will work with you (shameless plug for The
VoIP Connection). Talk to them and narrow the field to a sampling of the
phones you think will work for your organization.  Set up a test scenario
that simulates the network environment you will have and learn how to set
the phones up with Asterisk (and vice-versa) so that they work the way they
should.  Learn how to use the features well enough to teach them (if you
can't explain the basic operation of the phone in 5 minutes forget it), and
then put them in front of a sampling of the people who will use them every
day. Pay special attention to your receptionist and office manager since
they will be the ones you will hear from the most. There really is no
shortcut if you want your users to be happy.

Michael Crown
Managing Partner
www.thevoipconnection.com
321.989.6728 ext. 611
sip:611 at voiceserver.thevoipconnection.com


> -----Original Message-----
> From: mustardman29 [mailto:mustardman29 at hotmail.com] 
> Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2006 12:58 PM
> To: asterisk-users at lists.digium.com
> Subject: [Asterisk-Users] What business IP phone to use
> 
>  
> 
> I have been struggling with this issue for about a year now.  
> There were just too many IP phones to choose from at all 
> sorts of price points and not enough information about any of 
> them.  Now I am looking at the situation again and if 
> anything it has gotten worse.  There are even more phones and 
> all sorts of opinions.  For every person that says phone x is 
> great there is someone else complaining about it.
> 
> I ended up buying a Grandstream GXP2000 and an Aastra 9133i 
> to test so I pretty much know what those two phones are 
> about.  Lot's of people talking about Polycom phones but they 
> still seem to have their problems and since they don't 
> officially support Asterisk I have my concerns.  I really 
> don't want to have to keep buying phones to find out for 
> myself as it get's expensive real fast.
> 
> Is there any unbiased comparison of various phones and 
> features anywhere.
> If someone wrote a book I'd buy it but it would probably be 
> obsolete before it was published with the rate of new IP 
> phone introductions and firmware revisons.  I hear some 
> people praising the GXP2000 phones and I gotta wonder what 
> they are smokin (regardless of firmware revison) so I just 
> don't know who to believe anymore.
> 
>