Monday, May 26, 2008
Audience special 5 - Siemens Gigaset 675 IP user review

20080526_TwitterPhone.jpgThx Randy 4 this review. The original review can be found here:
hubpages.com

S675IP: I Am Impressed!

As a lifelong geek I go for these things like candy. They're toys and I love to play with them. I have to admit though, that I didn't expect to find so many new innovative features in a phone like this. The phone is not cheap: one base unit with one handset costs 120 Euros and an additional handset will be about 60 more. That puts us at about $250 for the two phones. The feature list is not only extensive though, but surprising. I'm going to describe the two-handset config I expect to use in pour new home/office.

The S675IP base unit connects to your LAN, the ordinary phone line and of course the power mains. You can use up to 6 handsets on one base. First great feature: each handset can be associated with any combination of the lines you configure. This means that you can have a given set ring for one or more lines but then only line, say a teenager's only rings her handset. You can have two simultaneous calls at any time on two handsets.

The phone can send and receive SMS messages.

Here's something novel: the screen can receive RSS feeds! The phone can show the latest "tweet" (Twitter again) of anyone you choose. Or the title of the latest article in a blog, or weather info.

The phone can also check one email account and show the Form and Subject fields of the mail there via POP. Many have said that it's too bad the unit can't associate one email address for each handset.

The phone can also do instant messaging through a Jabber connection.

But wait, there's more! Every phone sold has a free connection to the Siemens VoIP network and phones can talk to each other free over this network. It remains to be seen how well the network works (seeing as it's free) but wow, get these phones in several households and use them as a free interphone with NO complicated setup needed.

The phone contact book can record up to 250 names with up to three phone numbers for each contact.

Plus it is an Answering Machine!

Crazy, eh? I wasn't looking for an answering machine, but think about it: this will answer any of the lines you wish and take messages in several quality grades. The phone has exceptional sound, by the way. A hands-free "speakerphone" function is available, too. You can interrogate the recorded messages from another phone using a PIN, like most other typical answering machines.

If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm crazy about this phone. Sure it has a few fairly frivolous (and to me pretty much useless) features, but many of them are great, like the ease with which you can select which line to call on.

I'm not sure in which countries the S675IP is available as of this writing, but I do know you can get one from Amazon France, UK or Germany.

Thx again Randy for your work!

M. Schäufele 3:11 PM, May 26, 2008
Comments

Because this phone is of great value to VoIP users, please join our weekly conference on Fridays at 16h GMT. Check the site for details on how o connect: http://VoipUsersConference.org

Obviously, you can call the conference to ask questions or just listen by dialing a direct SIP number: 123@ts.x2z.eu

randulo

randulo 6:31 AM, May 27, 2008

Be careful, if the answer machine prompts are in German, you won't be able to change it to English !!! I am currently in the middle of this problem, and so far Siemens cannot provide a solution.

Marc 12:14 PM, June 24, 2008
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