Quoting Tony Lewis here on the quality of Yealink phones from a thread in July 2014:
“I would not use Yealink. There are lots of bugs. Spend the money and buy Aastra or Digium.”
Is this still the case or can you now recommend them?
We are using T23G in our company. We do have issues like short dropouts during calls, pixelations, but we tend to think these are due to network issues, but it could be the phones too.
Other people any bad experiences with Yealink phones?
I just started with a company that uses Yealink Phones. The audio quality seems to be good, and I have not seen any issues with them. They have probably 20-30 in use, (But I see several in piles in storerooms. Could be older models) I still use GrandStream, Cisco 7960, end others.
This is a very funny question.
IMHO Yealink phones suck. Tony obviously thought the same thing. But, the new “Sangoma” phones look an awful lot light Yealink phones (almost identical) and so I suspect that Tony might say something different today.
I’m a huge fan of Aastra phones (and especially the 6737i which I think is the best SIP phone ever made). I like the sound quality of Polycom VVX phones, but they’re very difficult to configure and I don’t like the user experience on them at all.
Panasonic has just updated their SIP phones and they look very nice, but I have not used them.
And why do you think Yealink phones suck?
Maybe Tony wants to chime in as well.
@tonyclewis
Probably depends on the model and/or the version of firmware. I love the T46G. Haven’t had any issues and the features are great especially if your using the REST Apps.
We have several hundred Yealink’s deployed - practically all of their gigabit phones - so T23, T32, T38, T42, T46 and T48.
They are excellent phones marred by inconsistent and spotty Firmware Updates - SEVERAL times we have gone to install a site, downloaded the current Firmware’s with Endpoint Manager, and then get called back to the site because something BASIC doesn’t work
Customers LOVE the touch-screen on the T48G - the T42G is a great basic desk phone, and the T23G is an excellent “Entry Level” (Cheap) phone.
For large deployments, I would say they are our go-to phones.
For small deployments, I prefer the Grandstream 2135 and 2170 - they are not supported by Endpoint Manager which means manual configuration through the web interface (which is why I say for small deployments) but they are excellent - and the very first phone that has a better speaker phone than the Polycoms - and that is saying something.
I LOVE the Aastra phones, but they are just too expensive compared to the Yealink’s and Grandstreams - as always, price pressure from both the customers and competitors drives us to use the Yealink and Grandstream phones. If I could I would use nothing but Aastra.
Guys my comment was all about the bugginess of their software. Nothing to do with design and it was 2 years ago. Alot changes overtime.
Secondly I feel it would be wrong of me to comment on something now since we have our own phones so my impressions are going to be bias.
As far as our phone looking like yealink the Sangoma Phones have NOTHING to do with Yealink except they are also manufactured in China like almost everyone else now days and their are only a handful of quality contract manufactures of phones. In the end what makes the phone is the software which is what sets our Sangoma Phones apart as long as quality parts are used for the audio portion such as Mic, Speaker.
With Yealink, I’ve found the firmware to be very buggy, and I was not happy with the UI and user experience with the phones. Aastra phones, on the other hand, have generally been very solid and have a great user experience as well.
I’m not a big fan of touch screen or color phones. I find that both features are generally troublesome and unnecessary. Color generally makes the screen more expensive and harder to read. Touch screen eliminates the tactile feel that makes a phone easy to use and also generally makes it more prone to failure.
These are just my opinions, and I respect anyone who holds a different one.
I’ve got over 50 and growing Yealinks (T48G, T46G, T42G) deployed and the only issue I’ve had is button labels not disappearing when removed via EPM.
My favorite is the T46G, but the clients love the huge touchscreen on the T48G. I find the touchscreen to be just a tad too insensitive and making backgrounds look right is tricky.
I haven’t done any firmware updates yet, so I can’t comment on that, but I’m very pleased with Yealink and you can’t beat those prices for the features you get.
But, if I was doing a new deployment, I would give the Sangoma phones a spin.
We have a number of T48G’s and I consider them excellent. Never a problem. One very nice feature is the ability to push XML type data to the phone. We use this to provide nicely formatted information about factory productivity, etc in real time to our users.
I have to respectfully disagree on this point. More expensive yes…but still less expensive than the Aatra/Mitel 55i. And the screen quality on the T46G is top notch. Also since most everyone has a color smart phone it is a natural transition. Don’t get me wrong…the Aastra’s I deployed 6 years ago still work great but they just look outdated. This day in age aesthetics make somewhat of a difference to the customer at least in my experience.
What do you mean by this? Are you able to push messages to users phones somehow using XML? If so any documentation or examples on that setup?
Yes you can push messages to the phone and even create simple apps. It’s all documented very well and they have examples. Look at the docs for the T48G and it will have everything you need.
ohhhh i think i will. Thats really neat. Do you generate the messages using a 3rd party software or through the FreePBX system?
I use php. It doesn’t have any dependency on freepbx. You could use any language to generate the xml that you are familiar with.
We Use over 600 yealink phones , specially the new ones (including T52V) , they are solid , dependable and wonderful to work with. We have a spattering of polycoms too, but they are time consuming to setup. Both are great with audio quality, though the yealinks are our employees favourites and untouchable in corporate environment. hoping to benchtest the video features on 52v.
I love them, configurable, compatible and affordable. They also look nice.
I currently using TWO set of yealink t21p in my SOHO Office. Nice to use them.