My wife tells me I’m obsessed. In the course of going about our daily lives I notice things that most other people don’t. Given my proclivities, I usually notice interesting telecom equipment in action. Sometimes it’s simply product placement on television and in movies, other times it’s telecom tools in action at real-world installations.
This series presents an overview of the Gigaset SIP/DECT systems offered in North America for 2010. Part 1: Features common to the entire famly Part 2: The entry-level A58H handset Part 3: The C59H handset Part 4: The middle-of-the-range S67H…
Introduced in early 2009, the Gigaset SL78H is the top-of-the-line cordless handset that they offer in North America.
Like the C59H and S79H, the SL78H is only being offered as an expansion handset with respect to the IP-capable A580IP and S675IP systems. You may see it offered as part of the SL780 or SL785, but these are not IP-capable systems.
As I’ve moved up the product range there has been a natural progression in features and physical attributes. Each better model builds logically upon the previous, but adds certain improvements in hardware or software.
At the top of the range the SL78H is physically a very different device. To start, it’s heavy. Unlike the prior models there is a lot of metal in the SL78H. Even the keypad itself has a brushed-metallic finish.
Sennheiser is a name that I’ve known my entire career. They are a well respected name in pro audio circles, specialists in high-quality microphones and headsets. They are not as well known for headsets targeting computer and telephony applications, but it happens that they do have some offerings in that area.
In fact, this past week they were named in a press release from Telstra in Australia. In this release Telstra announced the launch of the Polycom VVX-1500 video phone, a device that I’ve written about previously. However, along side the VVX-1500 they were also launching the Sennheiser DV Office, a DECT wireless headset.
Thus far in this series I’ve looked at things common to all the Gigaset handsets, the A58H, C59H and S67H. This time I’m examining the S79H.
The S79H has actually become my favorite of the five Gigaset handsets that I’ve tried. My challenge now is to describe how it came to earn that honor.
You may look around and find it offered as part of the S790 or S795 DECT systems. These include a DECT base that provide only an analog line interface and are not SIP capable.
Like the C59H, the S79H is only being offered in North America as an expansion handset. It can be used in conjunction with any existing A580IP or S675IP system.
Thus far in this series I’ve looked at things common to all the Gigaset handsets, the A58H and C59H. With this post I turn my gaze to the middle-of-the range S67H.
Since there are already some good reviews of the S675IP available online I’m not going to go into great length describing it here. However, I will highlight the differences between it and it’s siblings in the Gigaset range.
To start I recommend you read the review offered by Alan Lord at The Open Sourcer.com. In his review Mr. Lord details his use of the S685IP with an Asterisk system. His review has been online for a while and collected a long comment trail with a lot of good information.