[asterisk-users] Snom vs Polycom

[cb]

On Jan 24, 2010, at 12:22 PM, Karl Fife wrote:

> --I can adjust the volume easily without looking AND without fat- 
> fingering
> some DTMF tones--very good haptics.  With the Snom you have to look  
> and
> guide your fingers to the volume buttons or you'll inadvertently  
> beep some
> DTMF's.  Dumb.  So too the MUTE button.


I use the Snom 370 all day long at work. I have never had a problem  
adjusting the volume. I change it multiple times a day as I keep my  
handset on one volume and my headset on another, so I'm always going  
up and down and I've never accidentally pressed any other key.

I will however agree with you on the Mute button, any time I want to  
mute a call, I have to stop and look at the buttons and figure out  
which one of the tiny ones is mute. Maybe that is because I don't mute  
very often, but it is still a very small button mixed in with other  
small buttons. However, there is probably nothing stopping me from  
programming one of the 12 programmable buttons as a Mute button giving  
me a larger more convenient target. I've never tried as like I said, I  
don't use mute very often.

> --With the Snom it's very easy to leave DND ON accidentally.  The  
> indicator
> is tiny.  Imaging leaving yoru phone on DND all morning :-).

I have done this several times. I've found the DND, being as it is on  
the bottom corner of a row of buttons, is easy to accidentally hit if  
your hand hits the phone when reaching for something else or when  
going to hit another button. And like you said, it is a tiny symbol on  
the display and not easy to notice. Usually I figure it out when I  
someone specifically tells me they are transferring a call to me and  
then it doesn't come thru. I  average probably about one a month that  
I do this. I know others have done it as well as they call me when  
their phone isn't receiving any inbound calls and when I check sure  
enough, they too have turned on DND.

Again, the Snom allows pretty liberal programming so it would likely  
be possibly to disable that button from doing DND and change to  
something else less likely to accidentally be hit. However that won't  
resolve the issue of the display icon being so small allowing you to  
easily forget you turned it on in the first place.

> --Another DUMB charactaristic of the Snom is that you can't 'hang  
> up' NOR
> change SIP registrations without actually placing the receiver back  
> in the
> cradle.  WTF?

I've never tried to change registrations with the handset off hook,  
but I do hang up the phone all the time without putting the handset  
back. Press the X button, it will hang up the phone regardless of  
handset hook state. When you are ready to make another call, the Check  
button will take the phone back off hook (or in the case of how mine  
are set up, I just dial the next number and when it matches my dial  
plan it goes off hook automatically and dials).

This is also how I take the phone and and off hook for my headset or  
for speaker phone. I leave the handset on hook and use the Check and X  
buttons to toggle the hook state to answer and hang up calls.

> Furthermore if you
> 'end call' it will play dial tone again immediately, and there's no  
> way to
> shut it up without replacing the handset.

I'm guessing you are talking about using the X button here. Weird that  
yours plays the dial tone again right away as mine does not. If I  
press X with the handset off hook it hangs up the phone and leaves it  
hung up until I either press Check or manually depress and release the  
handset hook switch (or dial something matching my dial plan or  
anything else that should specifically trigger the phone going off  
hook).

I wonder if this could be a difference in firmware versions. I believe  
I am currently running 7.3.24 although I could be wrong (but it should  
be one around there).


One thing that does drive me nuts about my Snom, if I am on a call,  
and have another ringing, I can't change to a different talk method  
(handset/headset/speaker) until the ringing call on call waiting  
stops. If I try, it will automatically put the first call on hold and  
answer the 2nd call. I've had this happen several times as I change  
from handset to headset mid call and find myself suddenly talking to a  
different caller.

-chris
<www.mythtech.net>