Cisco SPA301 SIP Phone Video Review - The Cheapest SIP Phone In the World? PART 1

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.