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Grandstream GXV3275 IP Multimedia Phone for Android Review
1,199,319.95EUR excl. VAT
Back to Grandstream GXV3275 IP Multimedia Phone for Android |
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| Review by John Vickers |
Date Added: Thursday 23 October, 2014 |
I've been using this phone for a couple of months now, and I have to say, it's been the best telephony related purchase I've ever made.
Surprisingly, considering the low price point, the phone is extremely well built, and has a nice "heft" to it. It's weighty, but not ridiculously heavy. A stiff breeze wouldn't trouble it, unlike some of Grandstream's older product offerings (GXP2000, I'm looking at you).
Inside the box you get the GXV3275 unit itself, a headset, curly cord, and the usual wall-wart style power pack. You can throw this away if you're using PoE - but keep it handy in case you use the WiFi connectivity instead, I chose the WiFi option, and configuring the phone was a pretty painless operation, using the on-screen keyboard.
Ah, yes, that screen. Wow. Just - wow. It's nice and bright, pin-sharp, and the touch stuff works very nicely indeed. It does tend to pick up glare from lights or windows quite easily - but that can be dialed out using the "leg" to alter the angle of the phone - find a bit of neutral ceiling to reflect and you're home free. The screen does pick up finger prints like crazy - but the included microfibre cleaning cloth makes short work of those, and this will keep your OCD busy for hours...
Moving right along - once you're hooked up to the LAN, you can add SIP accounts just like you would on any other phone. You can either use the phone's built in web administrator; or use the touch screen. The web admin is probably a bit quicker, realistically, and other than a couple of cache issues, seems to be solid, dependable, and capable. You can configure all the usual stuff - ring tones, even the cadances and tones the phone plays when dialling, etc., can be configuered. Clever stuff. You can set up SIP accounts, IAX accounts, etc. I used SIP, and was pleasantly surprised to find the phone effortlessly navigated through 2 firewalls and a really hokey network configuration, to join up with my cloud-based Asterisk server - first time, with zero effort. 10/10 for that, Grandstream.
This being an Android tablet (effectively), you have a "home screen" (several, actually) which you can configure yourself. A mixture of applets and icons can be scattered around. The icons are pretty obvious; the applets are a bit of a mixed bag to be honest. The "busy light" applet is quite poor, and doesn't come close to making up for a lack of instant dial keys, they can be a bit of a beast to configure as well. It works fine on my phone, but I only have a couple of instant dials. This wouldn't do if you wanted to give your receptionist one of these (but, why would you? Your receptionist might simply end up using the YouTube app to watch videos all day....).
Pick up the handset, and the phone automatically brings up the Phone app (or, if it's ringing, automatically answers the ringing call, and brings up the same app). If you use Skype a lot, the Skype app works really well, it'll bring itself to the front when ringing, the only problem I've found is you have to answer it by pressing the screen, wait for the audio to hook up, THEN pick up the receiver. But that's a tiny black mark when you consider that - FINALLY - you can have a Skype-enabled phone on your desktop without the pain and aggravation of trying to force a phone that can't run Skype, to run Skype.... For that feature alone, the Grandstream is worth the tiny asking price.
Anyway - I could go on & on, there's so much this brilliant little gadget can do. Synchronise with your Outlook calendar? No problem - can do. Play Youtube videos? Yep. Surf the net? Sure. Basically, pretty much anything an Android tablet can do, you can do with this phone. With the advantage that, if it's a telephone call, you can treat it like it was an ordinary phone.
I 100% recommend this phone to anyone who loves gadgets, needs a "power phone", and anyone who uses Skype a lot. The built-in camera works fine with Skype too. You can record your phone calls at the touch of a button (ideal if you're arguing with a company about somethng). Damn, I'm going on and on again, aren't I?
Look, just buy it. It's absolutely brilliant.
 5
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