Hi Reza, You can now strike out Boot time and complex provisioning from the "cons" of Polycom phones. As you have mentioned these are excellent phones, good build and great sound quality.
Their new firmware version 3.3.0 cuts down boot times and simplifies configuration if you were to use Microsoft's XML Notepad editor. Polycom provides a xsd schema file also to make things easier to configure Polycoms in the XML Notepad Editor. There are some worth while changes and new features added in 3.3.0. One of them is the ability to apply new changes to the phones configuration without requiring a reboot. I think this one saves a bunch of time and shortens the "tweaking time" after things are initially deployed etc. Microsoft XML notepad 2007 can be downloaded from the following: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=72d6aa49-787d-4118-ba5f-4f30fe913628&displaylang=en my 2 cents. Elliott > -----Original Message----- > From: Reza - Asterisk Consultant [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Thursday, September 02, 2010 1:05 AM > To: Mark Little > Cc: Asterisk Users Group > Subject: [on-asterisk] Which VoIP phone is better? > > One of our Asterisk servers we have close to 200 Aastra phones > connected that I can speak of personally. Combined with our > resellers and other ITSPs who purchase bulk trunks from us, > our last count of known Aastra phones deployed exceeded over > 2,000 in the past > 3+ years. > > Within my 200+ phones personally deployed, not one had been > returned after deployment. Clients who had the Aastra phones > for over 5+ years now, are still happy and phones are working great. > > + POLYCOMS: At the quality & stability - I will say Polycoms are > **THE BEST**. However provisioning them is a REAL PAIN in the behind > and boot up time is a real pain too. Their firmwares are all > standardized and firmware for one unit is compatible with the > rest of the product line. Overall, I will say POLYCOM has > the best engineering efforts put behind them but they have > one major flaw: > Provisioning and Bootup time. > > + AASTRA: At the deploy-ability, ease of configuration and short boot > up time - Aastra phones have been beyond perfect in our real world > deployments and MUCH easier to troubleshoot. The customer service & > support from Aastra (at least to me) has been beyond what I > expected (direct access to their engineers if needed). > > + LINKSYS/CISCO: Linksys/Cisco Phones (the new ones) are equally > reliable and competitive. But I don't like them because they > look like toys (We are a Linksys/Cisco partner but I hate > their phone designs. I think it needs to look more business > like and their series needs a face lift in terms of design) > > + SNOM - I know a lot of people like them, but to me they look like > cheap plastic toys (Sorry SNOM supporters) > > + GRANDSTREAM - Grandstream phones - Well, I know my good friend Henry > will stand by them! I think he's had good luck with them. > But my experience with Grandstream phones has been extremely > poor in terms of reliability. Another good friend stands by > the product and has requested me to give Grandstream a 2nd > chance. Supposedly they've changed their philosophy and > vision and now making good products. > (I'll let others give feedback on this) > > + No Name Chinese Aastra Knockouts - stay the heck away from them! > > I can also tell you first hand, that everyone who had SNOM or > Grandstream, when we provided our loaner Aastra units to try out - > never looked back on Snom or Grandstream. I think because the Aastra > phones (original design bought out from Nortel) - are phones > that most corporate users could relate to, as they somewhat > resemble their OLD Meridian/Norstar phone systems. > > My preference is Aastra mainly because their phones have **never > failed**. The phones that were broken because of negligence were > replaced. They are also a Canadian company with amazing > executives, tech support staff and engineers, most of whom I > know personally. > > I am *very* pleased with the Aastra product line. If you > like to be connected with the distributor of Aastra or wish > to be a reseller, contact me off list and I will be happy to > make the proper introduction. > > Alrighty now... enough postings for a day here :). I will > visit again in a week or two. > > Cheers! > Reza. > > > On Wed, Sep 1, 2010 at 6:49 PM, Mark Little > <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > Hey, > > > > Just wondering what phones you go with/recommend instead now? > > > > > > Cheers, > > Mark > > > > > > On 01/09/2010 5:09 PM, Reza - Asterisk Consultant wrote: > >> > >> Erik: > >> > >> Trying to send you the necessary files but google is preventing it. > >> Please send me a userid/password with an SSH account and/or FTP > >> account (off-list) and I will drop the necessary files. > Where did > >> you buy the phone from and how much? These phones are considered > >> "End of Life" -- and are not the best SIP phones if you > ask me. We > >> no longer use this phone on a production basis, but we do > use them as > >> test tools and demo units for customers. > >> > >> Kind regards, > >> Reza. > > > > -- > Toronto based VoIP / Asterisk Trainer, > I.T. Consultant and Hosted PBX Solutions Provider. > +1-647-476-2067. > http://www.linkedin.com/in/seminar > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For > additional commands, e-mail: [email protected] > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
