End-user perspective on small office tools & technology

Review: Polycom SoundPoint IP335 Entry Level HDVoice IP Phone

The phone does include Polycom’s XHTML browser feature, but with such a small LCD display it’s hard to see how anyone would really make good use of such capability. I do appreciate the fact that the display is backlit, and the backlight level controllable.

Sonic Siblings: The Polycom SoundPoint IP335 (above) and IP450 (below)

to give you a sense of their relative sizes.

Just a few weeks ago I was asked to provision a couple of new phones for my employer. I waited a little before acting on this in the hope that the IP335 sample would arrive in time to be part of that process. In the end I could wait no longer so I bought another few SoundPoint IP450 models, consistent with our past strategy. Now that I’ve actually used the IP335 I’m glad that I decided  to use the IP450s over the new IP335. As the primary desk phone for someone who spends a lot of time on the phone the IP335 leaves me wanting more.

Friend and VUC sponsor Michael White of E4Technologies does a healthy business reselling Polycom hardware. He tells me that, in his experience, the SoundPoint IP300 Series were the most popular of the SountPoint range. No doubt people are attracted to the combination of Polycom’s legendary quality and an attractive price point. The SoundPoint IP335 seems a very rational extension of this range, adding some nice features while keeping to an approachable price.

Sonic Siblings II: The Polycom SoundPoint IP335 (left) and C100 USB speakerphone (right)

With a street price of around $140 the SoundPoint IP335 definitely hits an attractive price point. Some will justifiably note that there are less costly SIP desk phones available, even HDVoice capable phones. However, none of those bear the Polycom name. The IP335 in reality costs only incrementally more than the Polycom C100 USB attached speakerphone (street price approx $120), but it delivers a great deal more capability. Admittedly, these two devices target very different applications.

The Polycom SoundPoint IP335 extends the companies well-earned reputation for quality to a new low price considering the HDVoice capability. If you are planning a new installation the SoundPoint IP335 fills the entry-level niche perfectly. In the break room, lobby or near the loading bay door it gives you an affordable HDVoice capable phone that will seamlessly integrate with the more capable Polycom models deployed in service of your busy staff.

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This Post Has 20 Comments

  1. Thanks for the indepth review! Would you mind posting a screenshot of the 450’s LCD display similar to the one you provided for the 335?

        1. The IP450/550/650 all share the same screen. Looking at my older photos they look a little washed out. That’s not the LCD, that’s something that happened to the photos as they were published. Perhaps too much Photoshop was used, or the PNG files are not being displayed correctly with gamma compensation.

          1. Oops! I was mistaken about that. I’m told, from someone who really should know, that the IP450 LCD screen is smaller than the one on an IP650. I’ll take comparative pics of all three when I’m back in my office, just to be very clear.

  3. Michael,

    As usual you’ve managed to give us all an excellent intro to a product before we invest! We should talk with you in depth about this on VUC in the next few weeks.

    Randy

  5. Still now 802.1x support for Polycom Soundpoint devices. Having that requirement behind, there´s unfortunately no way for us within our new pbx

  7. I am a new user of SoundPoint IP 335. The phone is installed and is presently working. My query here is to find out the details of handling the instrument. I am unable to feed in the Speed Dial list, Change the date and time on the screen. Feed in my frequently called numbers in the Directory. 

    Please can you send a mail to me [pradip@globeforex.com] with the details of using the hand set in order to use the keys and set the speed dial, dictionary and clock etc.

    Thanks 
    Pradip

    1. Sorry, but my ability to assist does not go to such lengths. You should be reading the user guide and admin guide for Polycom SoundPoint Series. There you will find all the info necessary to either manually load contacts or automatically provision a contact list from an XML file on a provisioning server.

      You should also check http://www.voip-info.org. I know that there’s some good and relevant info about this on that site. Sadly, it seems to be down at the moment.

  8. My current employer uses these phones in part of the office and I agree with this review. The LCD screen is too small for any major stuff but it works well enough. I think the speakerphone is very good and the build quality seems very sturdy. 

    1. Thanks for the comment. My experience has been that the IP335s are great for common areas, lobbies, etc. They last well and sound great. There are now cheaper HDVoice capable phones, but not with Polycom sound and build quality.

    1. Mike,

      That was not my experience with the IP335. I’ll check and see if I still have one around here somewhere to confirm. You can alter then sidetone level by way of a parameter in the config file. That means using a provisioning server at least for a while to make the change.

    2. Mike,

      Sorry, but I think that the IP335 I once had has found a new home elsewhere.

      1. OK, thanks.

        I’m an end user, so I can’t change the setting myself.
        I sent a message to our institutional help desk, and the reply I got was to adjust the volume with the buttons on the phone….

        I don’t think they understood what I was asking for.

        Oh, well. Maybe if enough other people complain, they might figure it out.

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