which is the Best IP Phone.

Use a soft phone if your agents have PC's, you will save a ton on money opposed to buying hard phones.

Hi,

We use a lot of the Aastra phones, especially the 9133i. They have good voice quality (running ulaw/alaw) and are sturdy enough for high usage.

Graham

Hi,

We installed a small call centre for a client using soft phones and USB headsets. Everything worked fine until the PCs got busy then the voice started to break up. Adding extra RAM to the machines fixed the problem but it is something to keep in mind when using soft phones.

Graham

Hi

Sorry but never heard about usb headset, can u give me some link where i can check it. or how it works?

Nischal..

Any major electronics retailer should have them. Search for USB Headset. I just checked Radio Shack and Best Buy and both list several in the $30 - 60 range. These would be fine for testing. For production use you may want to go with a GN, Jabra or Plantronics, available at places like hellodirect.com etc. Assuming you are using a Windows 2000 or XP client machine, there is usually no installation at all. You plug 'em in and they show up as a new sound device. I use one all the time on idefisk (IAX softphone) and they work well.

Cheers,
Mike
www.doddstech.com
478-314-4119 - ENUM enabled

I refuse to use Polycom because of their support policies. Trying to get firmware is like trying to pull teeth. Tell them you are using Asterisk and they refuse to talk further to you. Basically your at the mercy of your reseller/distributor and they BETTER have a good legit relationship with Polycom.

IMHO you cannot go wrong with Aastra. They will support you directly and are VERY supportive of the Asterisk community. After using their phones in a production install I realized that good manufacturer support is almost as important as a good quality phone.

You can easily get them for $85 each including shipping, taxes. Bought eight of them with no trouble whatsoever.

4 lines, perfect quality, robust keys, very configurable, beautiful, perfect.

I wouldn't buy anything else.

The GXV-3000s on the other hand, by the same company, Grandstream, are not that hot -- the keys are flimsy and there aren't enough programmable keys, etc. I'd wait for a revision on those phones.

The newer GXP-2020s also are something I would avoid until the price comes way down.

All other phones I researched give you less for more money compared to the GXP-2000s

I believe the question was "which is the best ip phone" not "what is a cheap medicore entry-level phone".

Grandstream simply owns the market on the low-end. Their phones work and are inexpensive but can certainly not be considered equal to a Polycom and they don't position them that way. To say a GXP-2000 has "perfect sound quality" pretty much shows you have not done a side by side comparison. I am not saying to not buy Grandstream phones, but they are simpy not "the best" but in many cases they are "good enough".

Snom is the next step up the ladder and might have edged up even more except my personal experience with them actually puts them below Grandstream because of the vast number of problems I have had with them.

Linksys moves the bar up a notch. The SPA-9xx phones are rock solid, easy to configure, sound good, are priced decent. However, they are pretty basic on functions that even the cheaper Grandstream phones have. Overall though, one of my favorite phones.

Aastra phones have really grown on my lately. I had a 480i CT on my desk for a long time and have replaced it with a 57i CT. The XML services are second to none and the new phone works great and looks terrific.

Polycom phones are by far the best sounding phones available today. That is the main thing they are known for. They can be a real pain to get the setup working the way you want, but once you have it, its pretty easy to replicate. With trixbox 2.2, we will have support in the Endpoint Manager for Polycoms making them really simple to setup.

While the other points are mostly valid points about other phones, there is just no comparison to the quality and performance of a Polycom. If they are out of your budget, then you just start moving down to other vendors but you should be fully aware of what you are getting in to.

A Cisco, Polycom and Snom. All are mid-range and support the same basic functions. The Cisco has a huge screen comparatively and a nice MWI. Voice quality is damn good. Other than that is very hard to install and maintain... again comparatively.

The Snom is really very nice, a little cheap feeling, but is holding up. Very easy to set up.

The Polycom is truly sweet. A little harder to set up then the Snom and a few fewer features for the price point. As geeky as I may be, I still buy phones for one real reason... How well does the unit sound. The Polycom [in my environment] sounds the best. Provisioning is supported. For production it is what I specify for now. Subject to change of course.

Kerry,
You really should take another look at the Snom line. The first one I bought was horrible with interface problems and putting a call on hold was about like playing russian roulette. However.... With the latest firmware installed:

Kernel Version: snom320 linux 3.25
Application-Version: snom320-SIP 6.5.8
Rootfs-Version: snom320 jffs2 v3.36

My snom 320 has become my favorite phone, with some of the best audio quality I have heard to date.

The Grandstream GXP2000 on the otherhand, while MUCH improved over what it was a year ago still has audio issues. The function of the phone is great, the audio sucks. It works fine for occasional use, but would drive a call center operator nuts after a while (I am running the latest beta firmware) They are getting closer, but have not hit the mark yet.

Greg Keys

I have installed the Polycom IP501 and the Uniden. I think the Polycom Phones sound Very Very Good. The Mic reception for speaker phone is great and the volume does not cut out during a conversation. Would recommend.

I have got my myself connected with a phone manucfacture. No i have our own phones and i am using them without any issue . also i use them at client place.
www.r-mad.com for the models

I have good quality IP phone range for 50 to 80 USD.

I think the fact that Polycom is actively involved in this forum now should raise their "value" considerably. Polycom is all that we use (15 now, 14 more in next 2 months).

AASTRA Phones work great because they have a headphone port already on the phone. I connected Plantronics Office headsets right into the RJ-11 port , worked fine

*********************
Astawerks
www.astawerks.com
Trixbox and Asterisk Consulting and Sales
AASTRA 53i Now $142.10!!
***********************

I like the Polycom 500/501 phones, personally. They look nice, have a solid feel, and are very user-friendly to the end-user. The ability to add a logo to the display is a nice touch, especially for the phones in public areas like reception and conference rooms.

Sound quality is fantastic, and I do not kid you there. When I first started exploring a softpbx solution for our office, I was very concerned with sound and call quality--I was afraid it would not be up to par and would prevent deployment, despite its flexibility. My first test phone was a used Polycom 500, connected to the PSTN with a Rhino R4FXO card. It SOUNDED BETTER than our existing, traditional Panasonic phone system. Speaker phone sound quality is also superb, again better than our existing Panasonics.

Before committing to Polycoms for our phones, I tried a Grandstream GXP-2000. The price point for that phone was attractive, but the phone wasn't. Sound quality was okay, but the look and feel of the telephone itself came across as cheap. Since we're a professional firm, I couldn't deploy a phone like that anywhere, except maybe a break room or storage room.

I will echo the sentiment that Polycom phones are a pain to provision--I spent a couple of days playing with my first one before I finally figured it all out. Needless to say, I'm thrilled to hear that Polycom is now working with the Asterisk community, and more thrilled to hear that a Polycom Endpoint Manager has been completed (now get TB2.2 out of beta!). Once you get them figured out, it's not so bad, but I still wouldn't look forward to deploying any significant number of them.

@Roadkill:
Why?
Health concerns could be a legitimate reason...
DECT is famous for its strong microwave radiation!

I have tried Polycom phones (hands down best, in my opinion, but very expensive) and several Grandstream phones, and the Grandstream phones were just adequate until the GXP-2020 was released. It has very good sound quality and features, is much heavier and more professional looking than the GXP-2000. Firmware updates are plentiful and it is the easiest phone to integrate with open source trixbox/asterisk/freepbx. However, if you need more line appearances, Grandstream has yet to release an expansion module for the 2020, and the 2000 expansion module will not work with the 2000.

I have 12 phones and one expansion module on an open source (FreePBX) system. All except 4 of the phones are GXP-2000; the four are GXP-2020. I paid a mere 124 (free shipping, no tax) for the GXP-2020 phones. They accomodate standard 2.5mm jacked headsets.

I have also experimented with softphones (I even paid for a pro version!), and have to agree with the previous posts re: voice quality on a USB headset.

I have used Linksys, Aastra, Cisco and Grandstream.

I let my clients try them out and they usually choose Aastra.

Cisco: Too expensive and difficult to setup for SIP
Grandstream: Too cheap and with that goes the quality (For personal home use or really small business with budget issue may get by with them)

Then both Linksys and Aastra attracts most of the people due to their price range and quality. Linksys phones are actually made by Sipura and if you have used Sipura ATA devices you'll know. On the other hand, Aastra used to supply Nortel with phones which were then branded by Nortel.

Sound quality: both of them are great but for feature sets for the same price range Aastra 9133i usually wins over SPA942.

I am installing one cllient with 60 Aastra phones, 1 with 19 and another one with 5 - All Aastra phones. Over $3000 in savings just not going for Polycom.

I've never tried Polycom's IP phones as well as SNOM. I can see a lot of good remarks on Polycom but when I give the clients options to choose, they all go for Aastra for the price-quality ratio and I agree that for the money they save, maybe not having the 'Polycom' audio quality, is still worth the investment. I do usually tell all clients that Cisco is the leader in the IP world and in the $400 range, Polycom is the leader for teleconference sets and best audio quality in $200 range and Aastra or Linksys in sub $150 range.

I can only see Polycom getting into lot of these small/medium business only if they bring their price down to close to Aastra or Linksys. I am sure for a few bucks more most people would then turn to Polycom. Until then I think Aastra will continue to win business based on perceived 'voice quality/price = value' ratio

Just my 2 cents.

i use and recommend snom, absolutley easy to set up , and packed with features

I have Trixbox 2.4.2 running on a mini-ITX fanless computer behind a Linksys wireless router (DD-WRT Linux O.S.) and that's behind a Comcast cable modem (Surfboard 5120). I have two ITSP accounts. One is with Callcentric.com and the other is with Broadvoice.com. The Three IP phones on my network are the Grandstream GXP-2000, Aastra 480i CT and the Polycom 650 IP. I first bought and used the GXP-2000 about a year ago and thought "Wow, this thing is great and has tons of features and lines". I was satisfied but it would lock up every now and again and I had to pull power to get it to right itself. It was a little light and cheap feeling too. Then, I wanted another IP phone but with cordless capability so I opted to get an Aastra 480i CT and I was blown away by the improvement. I was impressed with the quality, dense feeling of the handset and loved the way it would answer a call as soon as you grabbed it out of the cradle without having to hit the talk button. The base unit is equally nice with a great look and sound quality and the XML is impressive. You can hit the buttons you have programmed to get area code information, stock quotes, "This Day" information, ESPN or CNN news headlines and the list goes on and on. It sounds great too and I was glad I got an upgrade instead of another GXP product. To round out the low to high end examples of phones for my customer demonstration system I have for prospective IP PBX users/customers, I found a great buy on a week old Polycom 650 IP from Craig's List and jumped on it for $200. I always used to roll my eyes when I'd read how great they sounded. But when I got it on my system and started making and receiving calls, I was and still am blown away at how awesome it sounds, feels and looks and hence all this writing. I've demo'd my "setup" to two clients so far and they all want the 650 or the 550. The setup isn't as easy as the others but it's not hard at all. Oh, the Polycom admin login is "Polycom" and password is "456" by the way for you serchers. The ring tones are super smooth and "professional" sounding. The HD codec, which I think is just G.722 sounds WAY better than the same codec on my Grandstream so Polycom must be doing something different. When I demonstrate the above equipment at a customer site, they'll make calls on the two ITSPs using the GXP 2000, then on the Aastra 480i CT and finally on the Polycom 650 IP and after they hear the quality of the 650 they always get this big smile on their faces and always vote this phone as the best. Polycom is the best and the 650 is their top of the line product at this time. Thanks for reading. Matt, mattcero@gmail.com

Grandstream GXP2000, running 25 or so for a year now. I also purchased some snom 320's at the same time, The snom phones definetly takes the prize and user preference in our office environment, they are worth the extra $$. However for home only use the the Grandstream would be adequate. (they just doesnt stand up to heavy use) I havent had any experience with the other models suggested above. Grandstream failure rate 1 in 10 units, I havent had any failures with the snom phones.

We have about 15 or so Polycom 500 SIP, and I am completely fed up with the ongoing configuration issues.

Yes, the sound quality is good, and yes, they are robust - compared in my case with some Grandstream budget phones, but ... the configuration is too much of a pain.

I guess the replacement is Aastra?

Miamiman - What type of configuration issues are you having with your 500's?

Perhaps you want to start another thread on the issue.

$95.00 for the 6731i's ? Scott, where are you getting this deal from? The 6730i can be had for this price range, but they don't have two network ports or support PoE. I'm a fan of the 6731i's and would love to find them at this price...

I have heard the phrase "Walmart phone" in relation to Grandscream phones and I have to agree. While these phones are a low cost alternative, they just don't hold up in a business or heavy use environment. Case in point: A customer I now support purchased 30 of these phones when they transitioned to a Trixbox PBX about a year ago. During that time almost half of the Grandscream 2000's deployed have failed. The majority of failures are related to the cheesy power supply losing regulation which as expected drives the phone insane. Other failures have been related to the network interface on the phone failing, buttons that stop working, and the handset switch failing which causes random on/off hook indications. I would say that over 70% of the trouble calls I've had with this customer have been related to Grandscream phone problems. While this does serve to generate income, it doesn't make for a reliable system, or a happy customer... I'm just thankful that I didn't make the recommendation to go with Grandscream.

As the Grandscream phones bite the dust we are transitioning to Polycom 330's (customer choice due to price point). These phones have proven to be acceptable though not without some issues arising. The web interface is devoid of many settings options, the Polycom phones seem to be designed with a focus on managing them via the TFTP/FTP methodology. Translation, if you want to make these phones "dance", plan on a learning curve to get there... The 330's deployed have a RJ11N (narrow) headset jack as opposed to a 2.5mm jack. Polycom does not provide a converter (according to their CS department), and my investigations indicate that a simple RJ11N to 2.5mm converter will not work, at least from the standpoint of supporting a standard low cost (

There have been no complaints from the customer related to sound quality with the Polycom 330's, though the usual "It's different" whining does result. I have found Polycom support "sterile" using their web interface, in the sense that though my questions have been answered, they don't extend themselves as far as being helpful beyond providing a link to documentation, or 'Yes/No' level answers. None the less I have been able to address issues that have arisen, though I had to spend hours lost in "learning curve land" learning how to manage these phones via configuration files, despite a understanding of TFTP/FTP issues.

I'd have to say that I would NOT recommend Grandscream phones, they're just not a reliable option. As is usually the case the phrase "You get what you pay for (or don't)." truly applies...

I've owned a few ip phones now. Most of mine are not even sold anymore because they are a couple of years old.

However, recently I wanted to see what phones would be the best to use for an Oncology clinic that I was hoping to sell a trixbox server to, so I bought some newer phones...

I have one of each:

Polycom IP 500 sip
snom 300
grandstream gxp2000
aastra 9133i sip
cisco 7912
cisco 7940, that was converted to sip

The polycom has great sound on both the receiver and the speaker phone, but the old thing is slow to boot. I don't think it came with a way to wall mount it, but its nice that I can find firmware updates online.

Both cisco phones have equal or better sound quality than the polycom, they have nice features, and they look and feel very professional. Also, they are quick to boot and can be wall-mounted. What sucks about cisco is their licensing and pay-for support to get firmware updates. The cost is low, but I still cant find out how to buy it on their website. Cisco just isn't good at dealing with us average blokes.

The snom was a close 3rd in terms of sound quality and features, and the look and feel. Not only are their firmware updates free, but you can find and install them using the phone's web gui. It's a little slower to boot, but not too bad. And can be wall-mounted.

I just did not like the aastra or the grandstream. The aastra has a nice look, can be wall-mounted, but not a great sound.

Like the aastra, the grandstream has a nice look and can be wall-mounted. But of all the phones, the grandstream was the worst sound quality.

Hopefully, things have improved with their newer offerings...