[asterisk-users] 7 points of comparison Polycom 430/501 and Aastra480i. Which one to choose ?

[Gary G. Hendershot]

I am going to weigh in on this one because is an issue near and dear to me
...  In my fleet, I have mostly Cisco 7960 phones ... We have a few of the
Polycom 501's and a few of the Aastra 480i phones ... 

My personal preference is the Aastra but not based on your priorities ...
Addressing your requirements in order of preference ...

Sound quality ...

1) Polycom/Cisco (toss up, they are roughly equal)
2) Aastra (its close, but no cigar)

Complete product line

1) Cisco (about every model you could ask for)
2) Polycom (missing the wireless model and have not seen a receptionist
model)
3) Aastra (good quality basic and executive phones only - wireless is
married to an executive phone and is NOT WiFi)

POE

1) Cisco, Polycom, Aastra (toss up, they are roughly equal)

Backlit LCD

1) Aastra (though its so dim its useless)
2) Polycom, Cisco (not available unless you go the new Cisco models)

Speaker phone

1) Polycom, Cisco (toss up, they are equal)
2) Aastra (close in quality but no cigar)

Dual LAN NIC

1) Cisco, Polycom, Aastra (toss up, they all have it)

As to my own requirements ... I place a very high priority on availability
of driver updates and support ... Go to the Cisco and Polycom web sites and
TRY to download their latest SIP firmware ... Once you are totally
frustrated, go to the Aastra site and do the same ... You will find that
user manuals and software updates are readily available for Aastra phones
without having to jump through ridiculous hoops ... CASE CLOSED ... From now
on I am buying Aastra ...

The Aastra phone is very nice ... I have figured out how to make ALL the
buttons work, it looks impressive and has much better sound quality than the
cheapies ... It is NOT as high quality in construction or sound as the Cisco
or Polycom but it is VERY close ... But with their superior support
offering, Aastra tips the scales ...

You will not go wrong if you choose any of the three I mention ... I have
been doing this now for about five years and have tried just about every new
phone model to hit the market at one point or another ... I dearly love the
Cisco phones and if it was not for their unfortunate support policies, that
is the only phone I would use ... When I went looking for a replacement, I
tried Polycom, liked them but was once again confronted with high handed
support policies ... So even though they were not my first choice, the boys
at Aastra have earned my business ...

G.Hendershot



-----Original Message-----
From: Vikas [mailto:topgun9 at gmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, January 22, 2007 5:12 AM
To: asterisk-users at lists.digium.com
Subject: [asterisk-users] 7 points of comparison Polycom 430/501 and
Aastra480i. Which one to choose ?

I need to provide a 80 people office with VOIP.

I want to commit to one vendor Polycom or Aastra. Price of the phones is not
a factor in the decision. The quality of the phones is the factor.

Some of the features that I am evaluating on are: (arranged in order of
priority) 1. Sound quality 2. complete product line with conference phone
and receptionist phone (not on Aastra) 3. cordless (not on 501/430) 4.
backlit LCD (not on 501/430) 5. Inbuilt POE (not on 501) 6. speaker phone 7.
2 network ports.

Which one will you choose ?

Vikas