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Opinions about Hardphones

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telis

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The following phones are listed on the 3CX site as tested with 3CX. Three of them are marked as recommended.

SNOM 360-SNOM 320 (Recommended)
GrandStream GXP-2000 (Recommended)
Polycom SoundPoint IP 301, 401, 501
Linksys SPA-921 (Recommended)
X-Lite 3.0
CISCO 7940
GrandStream HandyTone 386
GrandStream HandyTone 286
Aastra 9133i SIP and Aastra 480i
SJ phone
3CX Phone
D-Link DPH-140S

Does anyone have any comments of the ease of use, features, build quality, performance etc. of these handsets when partnered with 3CX or in general?
 
We use SPA-922 (identical to 921, except with an additional pass-through RJ-45 at 10/100MB) here, and have about 30 of them.
Pros: Very configurable. VERY configurable. You have a variety of configuration options at your disposal. It's allowed me to do a lot of things with these phones that are not configurable with other phones.

Cons: Out of the box, mine had version 4.x firmware that was ancient. I upgraded to the 5.1.10 firmware, and now to the 5.1.15a firmware. Maked SURE you run firmware upgrades on these phones, or they'll have a lot of problems. You also have to go 4.x to 5.1.10, then upgrade again to 5.1.15a, which was kind of annoying. But the newer firmware gives you features like echo cancellation, VIA options, etc.
Fun random problem: When the MWI light is on on the SPA922, Business Contact Manager in Outlook 2007 fails to work on the computer plugged into the phone. Check your messages, and Outloook is happy (that was a serious WTF problem, by the way).
We've had one hardware problem with one of the phones-- the PC Ethernet port was being intermittent, and eventually failed completely. Out of 30 phones, that was the only problem.
If you do attended transfer on these phones and the transferee doesn't pick up, it's kind of difficult to get the first person back (you have to physically hang up the phone). SPA 94x and 96x are much better in this regard.
 
Linksys SPA942

It's also a matter of taste but...

PROs:-

Seems to work OK and be reliable.
Handset is tilted upward for ease of use and ergonomics quite good in general.
Good full duplex speaker phone with lit up indicator.
Separate (i.e. non soft key) volume control. Also Remembers Handset and Speaker phone volume separately. Very Good.
Big well labelled buttons for hold, VM, mic mute, menu and headset answer.
Headset socket.
4 lines keys with lamps.
Large red indicator at top of phone for call alerting and VM.

CONS:-

Screen is dot matrix but not as big as I would like, or maybe it's the design having softkeys at the bottom options like "lcr", "missed", "cfwd" are a bit cryptic for users. (the 962 has a bigger screen apparently).
When you transfer a call there is an extra xfer step at the end (which some people may like I guess)
Connecting to non-linksys systems is not properly supported (linksys make the own hardware SIP PBX).
The default ring tones are horrible, you can upload your own, but it's not as simple as choosing a wav file and uploading it by pressing a browse button on the units web page
 
:)

:)

Fun random problem: When the MWI light is on on the SPA922, Business Contact Manager in Outlook 2007 fails to work on the computer plugged into the phone. Check your messages, and Outloook is happy (that was a serious WTF problem, by the way).

That must have taken some time to figure out!
 
Re: :)

Telis said:
:)

Fun random problem: When the MWI light is on on the SPA922, Business Contact Manager in Outlook 2007 fails to work on the computer plugged into the phone. Check your messages, and Outloook is happy (that was a serious WTF problem, by the way).

That must have taken some time to figure out!

Yeah, about an hour. Plugged computer into the wall (no phone between), and it worked.
Plug the computer into my testbed phone, which was an identically configured SPA922, and it worked.
Plugged it into this employee's phone, doesn't work.
He finally says "Hey, I need to check my messages." Checks his messages. Afterwards, BCM works.
I called his phone, left messages, just so I could replicate the problem. Yup, its' the MWI.
Thankfully, we're replacing BCM with a SugarCRM in two weeks, and then I can turn the MWI back on for everyone.
We're also planning on creating a CTI program so that we can pull up contact info from Sugar based on the caller ID when someone calls in.
 
Cheap and cheerful

Does anyone know of a very very basic IP hardphone (with RJ45 passthru) that will withstand a hostile environment - factory floor, dusty and dirty!

Thanks
 
Re: Cheap and cheerful

BendyMetal said:
Does anyone know of a very very basic IP hardphone (with RJ45 passthru) that will withstand a hostile environment - factory floor, dusty and dirty!

Thanks

I used to have a NetComm V85 phone, very basic, not many features. This should be ok for your situation.
 
Cheers for the recommendation. I have recently taken delivery of a Linksys SPA901. This, i feel, defines basic! :D (competent phone as well!)
 
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