Cisco SPA301 SIP Phone Video Review - The Cheapest SIP Phone In the World? PART 1
By
Matt Landis
__on
12/27/2010 07:01:00 AM
I'm on a quest to find the world's lowest priced enterprise grade SIP hardware phone! This search is leading to places...I mean...SIP phones, I don't normally glance at twice. But since we all have a project sometime or another were price is king, the "Cheapest SIP Phone in the World" blog/vlog series was born.
The first phone I decided to take a look at was the Cisco SPA301. In a world were mobile phone screens and deksphone screens seem to grow increasingly large with each iteration, it's amazing that a SIP deskphone/wallphone can survive at all with out ANY screen! ;-) That's right. That SPA301 has no screen. Scandalous I know. But how about a MSRP of $79? The cheapskate in all of us takes notice.
Only in this class of SIP phones is "Narrowest SIP phone I know off" a Con! ;-) Enjoy!
Pros:
-Cisco name
-Low cost
-Nice web interface
-Good handset feel
-Ringer on/off button
-Wall or desk mount
-Narrowest SIP phone I know off
Cons:
-no screen
-no POE
-no switch
-no transfer button
-Volume cycles instead of low / high rocker
-no speaker phone
-One led: Solid=MWI; Blinking=Ringing
-any settings related to sip registration requires a reboot;
-would be nice if there would be a key combination that announces IP address for initial setup
Oddities:
-Why is the LAN port is marked WAN?
Tips
-Press # after dialing a number will force SPA301 dial immediately.
Notes:
set volume of ringer using volume button.
Transfer and conference depend on your PBX features or star codes.
On snom ONE PBX the spa301 flash button puts calls on hold.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
For me, the phone with the best quality/price ratio is the Thomson (now Technicolor) ST2030.
ReplyDeleteIt has a shitload of features (even SRTP), a really good mic/speaker, and a big screen (128*64 full graphic display). And, more important, it works perfectly with asterisk.
You can get one new for around 80€.
Look at http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/Thomson+ST2030 or
http://www.technicolorbroadbandpartner.com/telephony-solutions/products/product-detail.php?id=87
Hello istep,
ReplyDeleteThanks for that suggestion but...I'm not featuring price/value here--I'm after one thing in this blog series--raw, LOW price! ;-)
But thanks for that suggestion! I'll check it out.
And if anyone else knows of seriously CHEAP SIP phones--please comment.