asterisk users - Jan 2007 - 7 points of comparison Polycom 430/501 and Aastra 480i. Which one to choose ?

I need to provide a 80 people office with VOIP.

I want to commit to one vendor Polycom or Aastra. Price of the phones
is not a factor in the decision. The quality of the phones is the
factor.

Some of the features that I am evaluating on are: (arranged in order
of priority)
1. Sound quality
2. complete product line with conference phone and receptionist phone
(not on Aastra)
3. cordless (not on 501/430)
4. backlit LCD (not on 501/430)
5. Inbuilt POE (not on 501)
6. speaker phone
7. 2 network ports.

Which one will you choose ?

Vikas

IMO, the 480i, by a LONG shot.

The 480i is easier to use, looks nicer, has better audio quality, easier 
to read, and has a great speakerphone.  The web-interface is also 
leagues better than the tripe the Polycom phones have.

The only issue I have with the 480i, is that it's a little unintuitive 
in how to disable the "X missed calls" option.  There's no option
in the
web-interface (I'm told one is coming, however), so you have to manually 
edit a .cfg file and send the info back to the phone.

Other than that, I have had zero problems with my 480i's, and nothing 
but frustration with any of the Polycoms I have on hand.

HTH,
Jay

Vikas wrote:
> I need to provide a 80 people office with VOIP.
> 
> I want to commit to one vendor Polycom or Aastra. Price of the phones
> is not a factor in the decision. The quality of the phones is the
> factor.
> 
> Some of the features that I am evaluating on are: (arranged in order
> of priority)
> 1. Sound quality
> 2. complete product line with conference phone and receptionist phone
> (not on Aastra)
> 3. cordless (not on 501/430)
> 4. backlit LCD (not on 501/430)
> 5. Inbuilt POE (not on 501)
> 6. speaker phone
> 7. 2 network ports.
> 
> Which one will you choose ?
> 
> Vikas
> _______________________________________________
> --Bandwidth and Colocation provided by Easynews.com --
> 
> asterisk-users mailing list
> To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
>   http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
> 
> 
>

Your list seems to lean heavily to the Aastra, while I choose the Polycom
501/601 over the Aastra, I did like the unit I tested and the cordless. In
the end the fact that most of the people using the phones would use the
speaker phone, Polycom and their history of conference phones made the
choice. We rolled 75 phones at one site and another 30 now at remote
locations. As far a a receptionist phone, we choose to use a software
operator panel instead of a phone that took up most of the desk, there were
initial concerns but the results have been excellent. If you have not
already done so grab a few people from different parts of the office and
have them give their 2 cents, it will help to have their perspectives on the
quality and feel of the phones.

On 1/22/07, Vikas <topgun9@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I need to provide a 80 people office with VOIP.
>
> I want to commit to one vendor Polycom or Aastra. Price of the phones
> is not a factor in the decision. The quality of the phones is the
> factor.
>
> Some of the features that I am evaluating on are: (arranged in order
> of priority)
> 1. Sound quality
> 2. complete product line with conference phone and receptionist phone
> (not on Aastra)
> 3. cordless (not on 501/430)
> 4. backlit LCD (not on 501/430)
> 5. Inbuilt POE (not on 501)
> 6. speaker phone
> 7. 2 network ports.
>
> Which one will you choose ?
>
> Vikas
> _______________________________________________
> --Bandwidth and Colocation provided by Easynews.com --
>
> asterisk-users mailing list
> To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
>    http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
>


-- 
Bruce
Nortex Networks
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL:
http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-users/attachments/20070122/ac4c0d56/attachment.htm

I am going to weigh in on this one because is an issue near and dear to me
...  In my fleet, I have mostly Cisco 7960 phones ... We have a few of the
Polycom 501's and a few of the Aastra 480i phones ... 

My personal preference is the Aastra but not based on your priorities ...
Addressing your requirements in order of preference ...

Sound quality ...

1) Polycom/Cisco (toss up, they are roughly equal)
2) Aastra (its close, but no cigar)

Complete product line

1) Cisco (about every model you could ask for)
2) Polycom (missing the wireless model and have not seen a receptionist
model)
3) Aastra (good quality basic and executive phones only - wireless is
married to an executive phone and is NOT WiFi)

POE

1) Cisco, Polycom, Aastra (toss up, they are roughly equal)

Backlit LCD

1) Aastra (though its so dim its useless)
2) Polycom, Cisco (not available unless you go the new Cisco models)

Speaker phone

1) Polycom, Cisco (toss up, they are equal)
2) Aastra (close in quality but no cigar)

Dual LAN NIC

1) Cisco, Polycom, Aastra (toss up, they all have it)

As to my own requirements ... I place a very high priority on availability
of driver updates and support ... Go to the Cisco and Polycom web sites and
TRY to download their latest SIP firmware ... Once you are totally
frustrated, go to the Aastra site and do the same ... You will find that
user manuals and software updates are readily available for Aastra phones
without having to jump through ridiculous hoops ... CASE CLOSED ... From now
on I am buying Aastra ...

The Aastra phone is very nice ... I have figured out how to make ALL the
buttons work, it looks impressive and has much better sound quality than the
cheapies ... It is NOT as high quality in construction or sound as the Cisco
or Polycom but it is VERY close ... But with their superior support
offering, Aastra tips the scales ...

You will not go wrong if you choose any of the three I mention ... I have
been doing this now for about five years and have tried just about every new
phone model to hit the market at one point or another ... I dearly love the
Cisco phones and if it was not for their unfortunate support policies, that
is the only phone I would use ... When I went looking for a replacement, I
tried Polycom, liked them but was once again confronted with high handed
support policies ... So even though they were not my first choice, the boys
at Aastra have earned my business ...

G.Hendershot



-----Original Message-----
From: Vikas [mailto:topgun9@gmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, January 22, 2007 5:12 AM
To: asterisk-users@lists.digium.com
Subject: [asterisk-users] 7 points of comparison Polycom 430/501 and
Aastra480i. Which one to choose ?

I need to provide a 80 people office with VOIP.

I want to commit to one vendor Polycom or Aastra. Price of the phones is not
a factor in the decision. The quality of the phones is the factor.

Some of the features that I am evaluating on are: (arranged in order of
priority) 1. Sound quality 2. complete product line with conference phone
and receptionist phone (not on Aastra) 3. cordless (not on 501/430) 4.
backlit LCD (not on 501/430) 5. Inbuilt POE (not on 501) 6. speaker phone 7.
2 network ports.

Which one will you choose ?

Vikas