I should be keeping this little secret to myself, but in the spirit of open sauciness and sharing:
Buy the Panasonic KX-HDV230 instead!
vs Cisco: everything just works without obscure settings and extremely long/complicated BLF configuration strings, which don’t work when you switch to PJSIP anyway and cause days of troubleshooting.
vs Cisco: Cheaper than buying an SPA508G + 500ds attendant console
vs Cisco: You don’t have to discover weird things like ‘SPA50xG doesn’t support EHS, but SPA525 does’.
vs Grandstream gxp2160: stuff works better, isn’t slow, screen and menus aren’t confusing.
vs Grandstream: gcp2160: headset remote answer doesn’t delay ~6 seconds before answering the call
vs grandstream gxp2160: the BLF keys are LCD so your users don’t have to tipp-ex out old names everytime somebody moves extension.
vs Yealink: See Grandstream.
vs all the above: these look and feel businessy and professional.
Only one issue left, and I will use my ‘scope to figure out what’s going on: There’s no "ringing’ in the earpiece of DECT Plantronics cs500 series (cs510 & cs520) headsets. EHS/remote answer works (without having to spend £25 - £50 on EHS adapter cables), but if you’re sat on the toilet, you don’t get the beep in the headset to tell you your phone is ringing. This is also a problem with the Grandstreams, which additionally, introduce a 4 - 6 second delay to remote-answer/EHS. Cisco 525g do the remote-ringing, and all Polycom SoundPoints seem to do it too (500, 501, 321, 330, 430).
They don’t come with a PSU, and the Panasonic one is expensive. Where needed, a £5 + vat poe-injector-wall-wart works fine.
I was just looking at that phone a few days ago, and it does look attractive. Keep in mind though that the Grandstream GXP2170 is even cheaper and more compact.Since my baseline is generally Grandstream I would likely go with one brand anyway. The KX-HDV230 is the only Panasonic phone that is reasonably priced for the features.
Get one and try it. I bought 1 from eBay, then bought 5 from a supplier in Germany (unfortunately the -NEB version which has bizarre icons instead of text labels, but the price was good), and then another 15 of the same from Germany and I just completed an install with them over the Xmas break. I’m sure the customer will be very happy.
They seem to be well thought out. I may do a quick YouTube video on how to configure them for asterisk/fpbx (via browser… not tftp/http
provisioning). It’s not at all difficult but some things don’t work if you miss some bits out.
@jarvisswope yes I agree. I would def would rather go with the sangoma phone also… any day.
But the gxp2160 has the 24 programmable physical buttons and that huge full color display and only $99 wholesale.
I have hundreds in production with hardly any problems at all except a reboot every once and a while. I have had two handsets go bad out of about 650 phones. That’s it … amazing to me.
But I’m thinking with the new firmware and my latest finding that I wrote about earlier this week I doubt I will even have to do periodic reboots anymore.
The gxp2160 has to be the best bang for your buck in the whole ip phone market at this time. I don’t think there is anything feature to feature that can even come close.
To Sangoma and all the phone manufacturers … customers simply want physical buttons not virtual buttons!!!
Yes but with the GXP2160 you have to hand-write the labels, which is messy
Customers want physical buttons, but with LCD like the SPA with digital attendant console, or… these Pansonics
The EHS doesn’t work properly on the GXP2160 (long delay after the headset relay clicks, before handset answers incoming call)
The menu system is laggy and confusing. I much prefer the neon-blue backlit Panasonic tiny display to the Grandstream laggy colour gimmick.
Not sure why your experiencing this lag you refer to. Not experiencing any of these types of issues as you state with over 600 of these in current use
Our users don’t mind the paper labels at all it gives them the freedom to use colors to group different departments or use special symbols or fonts as desired.
@jarvisswope here check it out. There’s 2 to every sheet. Fits in any printer standard 8.5" x 11" sheets. The labels just pop out they are already dye cut perforated.
like the SPA with digital attendant console, or… these Pansonics