Issue TOC Print full article Print this page Download as PDF E-Mail this URL Discuss this article Flame the author     In this article Introduction It's All Good Just Managing Polycom SoundPoint IP 600 Mitel Networks Corp. 5055 SIP Phone 2.0 Siemens optiPoint 400 standard SIP 2.2 Zultys Technologies ZIP 4x4 Snom Technology Snom200 VoIP phone ipDialog SipTone How We Tested SIP and NAT: Not So Perfect Together Web Links Report Card

Polycom, while best known for its videoconferencing products, also provides superior conference phones. Anyone who's ever used one can attest to the quality of the speakerphone. We were impressed with the phone's ease of use, and the features that made it possible to customize it for individual preferences. We also liked its diagnostic capabilities. This combination of features and functionality helped Polycom edge out Mitel, Siemens and Zultys for our Editor's Choice award.

The phone's layout is logical, intuitive and functional. When a call is received, the screen displays the phone's number, along with context-sensitive options for the four additional buttons along the bottom of the screen. And these options always seemed to make sense. For example, when receiving a call, the hold, transfer, end call and conference buttons were displayed. Those buttons were also available as hard keys on the phone, but we found ourselves taking our cues from the screen.

Six lighted buttons on the left of the screen can be used for call appearances or user-programmable speed-dials. It was a cinch to add numbers or even feature codes with labels that appeared on the display next to the corresponding buttons. The four cursor movement keys, along with an enter key (a check) and a delete key (an x) made this an intuitive process. For example, we were able to make a call pickup button that dialed *98, the number that the BroadSoft proxy server uses to pick up calls from phones in a call-pickup group. Eight additional keys are available for conference, transfer, redial and other functions.