Cheapish VOIP Phones?

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codyc1515

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#59907 14-Apr-2010 19:44

Hi there,

Just wondering if somebody knows were I could purchase some appropriately priced VOIP phones.
The only local website I could find was www.nicegear.co.nz and they seem awfully expensive :)

Thanks,
Cody

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102 posts

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#318505 14-Apr-2010 20:01

We too found nicegear's pricing a bit excessive while looking for an Atcom PBX and Grandstream phones, ended up buying GXP-2010 phones from http://www.voipstuff.co.nz/ and had an Atcom line card shipped from the US for about half the local price.

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hads

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#318508 14-Apr-2010 20:25

Sorry to hear that you've both found our prices expensive.

I am aware the Grandstream pricing is out of date, it should be updated this week. We don't deal with Grandstream phones a whole lot so our prices on those may be darer than others. Other brands should be more competitive.

When comparing to overseas prices you do need to take into account shipping, GST, customs fees etc. As well as local stock and support. Of course if you purchase something small such as line card you may slip under the radar and save some money.

If you would like to discuss anything in particular then please feel free to contact me (Hadley) through the website.

nicegear.co.nz - VoIP, DVB and other Linux compatible hardware

sbiddle

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#318510 14-Apr-2010 20:26

It depends what sort of phones you're after. As a level entry phone I recommend any the Linksys SPA series (but the 9xx are now obsolete and replaced with the 5xx series), Polycom IP3xx range or Aastra handsets. I've also heard some good things about the Thomson 2030's but have not personally played with one.

Price is very much a subjective thing - I consider ~$200 up to be the price for a level entry handset. I would also personally never go near Grandstream gear but many people love it, some because they're simply not used better equipment so are not aware of how poor their gear really is.

hads

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#318513 14-Apr-2010 20:33

I agree, $200-$300 is what I recommend people budget on spending for an IP phone. Less than that and you can really tell the difference in both hardware and firmware quality.

One of the reasons our Grandstream prices aren't fantastic is because we don't deal with them a lot. We mostly sell and would recommend Polycom, snom and Linksys, which are all good phones.

Yealink phones we've only just started stocking though they have had good reviews and are really well priced.

nicegear.co.nz - VoIP, DVB and other Linux compatible hardware

codyc1515

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#318518 14-Apr-2010 20:45

Im looking at simply piping some VoIP calls through a wireless connection.
I don't need any extra features, just VoIP (eg. Voice calling)

So $200-300 is roughly average, what about the Linksys phone's, I've heard they are quite good?

Cody

hads

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#318527 14-Apr-2010 21:10

codyc1515: So $200-300 is roughly average, what about the Linksys phone's, I've heard they are quite good?

Yes both Steve and I recommended them in our posts.

nicegear.co.nz - VoIP, DVB and other Linux compatible hardware

nate

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#318548 14-Apr-2010 22:01

lokeynz: We too found nicegear's pricing a bit excessive while looking for an Atcom PBX and Grandstream phones, ended up buying GXP-2010 phones from http://www.voipstuff.co.nz/ and had an Atcom line card shipped from the US for about half the local price.

Grandstreams? Good luck, you'll need it.

lokeynz

102 posts

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#318552 14-Apr-2010 22:06

We ordered 6, had one DOA, voipstuff had a replacement to us the next day.
The system has been running solid for the last month... not sure whether they've got their bad rep from older firmware versions or the older gxp-2000's but these seem fine so far.

We wanted functionality similar to the keyphone system it was replacing so needed the BLF keys, Linksys and the like didn't fit the bill.

sbiddle

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#318610 15-Apr-2010 08:11

lokeynz: We ordered 6, had one DOA, voipstuff had a replacement to us the next day.
The system has been running solid for the last month... not sure whether they've got their bad rep from older firmware versions or the older gxp-2000's but these seem fine so far.

We wanted functionality similar to the keyphone system it was replacing so needed the BLF keys, Linksys and the like didn't fit the bill.

Grandstream phones got a horrible reputation because of their build, performance and firmware quality. If you don't remember this you haven't been playing with VoIP stuff for long enough!

Linksys phones support BLF fulctionality, you ovbiously just have to buy one of the handsets that features lamps, the SPA5xx series does up to 12.

kiwiscoota

237 posts

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#319011 15-Apr-2010 19:23

We used a Grandstream phone for some time and found it to be well built & reliable, indeed it was the phone preferred by my staff, probably related to the feel & use of the dial buttons.

I only disposed of to standardise on two brands of phone, Level1 VOI7000 and the Thompson 2030, both the Level 1 & the Thompson seem quite good, the only downside with Thompson is that the display is not back-lit.

Personally I had so many bad experiences with Linksys I would never again buy one of their phones, although I do accept that many people have had good experiences with them

webwat

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#319794 17-Apr-2010 23:05

I have a really cheap Atcom, not that reliable and the voice quality is a bit average but it does work. So yes I agree that you shouldnt expect less than $200 for a really basic voip handset.

Time to find a new industry!

Noig

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#320100 19-Apr-2010 08:16

Has anyone of you used the Siemens A 580ip or c470ip?

sbiddle

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#320117 19-Apr-2010 09:26

Noig: Has anyone of you used the Siemens A 580ip or c470ip?

I've had an A580IP since August last year.

Noig

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#320119 19-Apr-2010 09:31

And, are you happy with it?

sbiddle

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#320126 19-Apr-2010 09:46

Noig: And, are you happy with it?

They are good phones but were hurt by a dodgy firmware upgrade that came out in December that has recently been fixed.

There are two things I dislike - the screensaver takes the first keypress to disable it so if this is active and you try to dial a number it will use the first digit to disable the screensaver which can be annoying. The VM notifcation is also slightly annoying, both missed calls and VM's are indicated by a flashing LED and you then have to press this and scroll to a menu that lists VM's and missed calls.

They have good audio (incl G722 HD voice) and good battery life.

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