On Dec 21, 2008, at 8:27 AM, Rob Hillis wrote:
Michael wrote:
My experience with Grandstream is that are one of the better
'cheap' ones, but
cheap non the less.
I am yet to run into a worse IP phone than the Grandstreams -
although having said that, I should say that I've always steered
clear of most of the Chinese "no-name" brand phones. They're
unstable, temperamental and upgrading the firmware is a crapshoot
half the time since you never know what new bugs will be introduced
and quite often you can't downgrade the firmware if you don't like
the newer firmware.
My suggestion would be to look at the Snom 300 (although they are
very simplistic phones), the Polycom IP330 (I have a feeling the
320s don't support PoE) or the Linksys phones. I noted an earlier
post saying that these phones were overpriced and designed to lock
you in to Linksys gear - my experience has been completely
different. The SPA-942 is quite cheap and integrates nicely with
Asterisk. The SPA-962 is considerably more expensive - but
considering the size of the colour LCD screen, they're not that
badly priced. (as an aside, the button banks for the SPA-962 are one
of the cheapest available!)
One person's trash is another's treasure.
I've used many linksys phones, including the SPA962 and found the
sound quality and usage to be simply sub-par. In several set-up's I
found the sound quality of a Grandstream 286 ATA to be much better
than a SPA962 IP phone. But, I agree in I find the polycom to be
amazing phones — and you end up paying for it (although on long term
cost of ownership it might not be that bad. I bought a Polycom 601
years ago, use it heavily, and it sounds just as good today as the day
I bought it. The SPA962 went on ebay within 3 months of me buying it.
I have a few grandstream 286's I like to use for traveling and placing
in remote areas of an installation.
Fred Posner
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