Grandstream GXP2200 Enterprise Android VoIP Phone

I’m a hearing aid wearer who was looking for a VoIP deskphone that had Bluetooth so that I could pair the phone with my hearing aids. I’d tried a Cisco set a couple years ago with mixed results. Finding the Grandstream GXP2200 seemed to good to be true. As a long time user of Android-based products, what an incredibly great idea to transfer that experience from a smartphone to a deskphone. I run my business using Vocalocity (hosted PBX) and I was able to very quickly “register” the GXP2200 with them and was quickly making phone calls (paired to Bluetooth and my hearing aids). I was soon futzing with the phone and syncing it to my various Google services (you have full access to the Google Play store). Yes, you can have a synced Calendar and Contacts list right on the phone, and yes you will be able to dial from the contacts just like you would if it was smartphone.

A few caveats as this is still a new product. The native Grandstream Contacts app (February 2013) doesn’t support synchronization to Google yet, and limits the number of contacts you can store on the phone (I have 1800+). Also the standard ‘accounts and sync’ functionality you’d find on Android 2.3.5 seems crippled at some level. I did replace Contacts with GO Contacts (available from the play store) and that got me around the contacts limitation (also its much more fully featured than the built it). Grandstream runs some forums which are pretty active and it seems that the phone is being actively developed and supported.

I replaced an SPA525G2 with this phone to do some testing. Bluetooth connectivity is a must these days – I can’t deal with holding a phone to my head anymore!
My main gripes with the unit are these:
1. Interface is often painfully slow. Even the physical buttons encounter a significant delay when pressed to dial. And I’ve uninstalled any apps I had previously installed.
2. Unable to acquire the attendant console. Have been in touch with Grandstream in the past, and the VP (Bruce MacAloney) advised that it would be available the first of this year. He is now non-responsive to the last few e-mails I’ve sent to inquire.
3. Nevermind the attendant console, it seems they could have at least implemented a small supplementary virtual sidecar dedicated to ~10 extensions to monitor.
4. Conference calling is great with this unit — a toddler could probably figure it out. It shows a picture of you and four other people, which you can click “Add” on their icons to add more callers. Unfortunately, the Phone app often crashes completely during a conference call and negates the convenience of it all. Most often happens when a caller is dropped and re-added to the conference.
5. Caller-ID name/number is not transmitted to capable Bluetooth headsets (Plantronics Voyager Legend, Jabra SUPREME) for caller announcement.

On the positive side, the phone works well when it is working. The speakerphone is loud. The bluetooth works great. The touch screen seems to work well, although the lag puts a damper on it a bit.

I hope they’ll improve this unit, work out the bugs, and release the sidecar… Then, it will be a viable option for deployment.

Ich verwende das Telefon mit einer Fritzbox 7390. Das Telefon ist schnell und unkompliziert installiert. Wichtig war mir, dass es auf ein Telefonbuch der Fritzbox zugreifen kann. Das funktioniert tadellos. Allerdings ist es nicht das interne Telefonbuch, sondern das Google Telefonbuch. So sind Handy, Fritzbox und Grandstream immer auf dem gleichen Stand. Individuelle mp3 Klingeltöne und Bildschirmschoner Bilder kann man per USB Stick importieren und installieren. Über die Browseroberfläche des Telefons habe ich das nicht hinbekommen. Die aktuelle Firmware installieren ist Pflicht! Die gibt es auf der Herstellerseite. Die Firmwaredatei wird über die Browseroberfläches installiert. Unter dem Menüpunkt Maintenance, Upgrade und dem Punkt Upgrade via das Pulldownmenü von TFTP auf manual upload ändern und die Firmware auswählen. Wer ein LAN Telefon für seine Fritzbox sucht, für den kann ich es empfehlen.

Für Laien Vorweg: Es ist ein VOIP Telefon, muss also ans Netzwerk angeschlossen sein und dort entweder direkt eine Verbindung zu einem Voip Anbieter oder an einer Voip Telefonanlage (z.B. Fritz Box, Auerswald etc.) angeschlossen sein.

Kurze Vorgeschichte:
Ich betreibe das Telefon an einer Auerswald 5020 Auerswald Telefonanlage COMpact 5020 VoIP Tk-Anlage 1So/Up0,10A/B-Ports. Ich hatte mir zuerst das Auerswald Comfortel 3500 AUERSWALD COMfortel 3500 schwarz gekauft doch das Teil stellte sich als einzige Katastrophe raus. Man sollte meinen, wenn man ein Auerswald Telefon (in der Preisklasse) an einer Auerswald Telefonanlage betreibt, dann sollte es keine Probleme geben. Doch weit gefehlt. Die Tonqualität war zwar erstklassig, nahezu genial, doch laufend durch etwas anderes gestört. Mal war es ein Echo, mal laufendes Knacken etc.
Auch der Kostenpflichtige Support von Auerswald konnte nicht helfen (Switch, Netzwerkkabel, alles wurde getauscht), und hat später einfach überhaupt nicht mehr geantwortet. Traurig aber wahr.

Nun zu dem Grandstream GXP 2200.
Es kann per POE (Power over Ethernet) angeschlossen werden, das hat schon mal den riesigen Vorteil, das man nur ein einziges Kabel zum Telefon braucht, da Strom über Ethernet kommt (entsprechender Switch vorausgesetzt). Trotzdem liegt dem Telefon natürlich ein Netzteil bei.
Eingesteckt, Netzwerk konfiguriert – funktioniert. Auf Anhieb, ohne jedes Problem, ohne knacken ohne Echo. Perfekt.
Das Telefon macht zwar nicht den hochwertigsten Eindruck (das Comfortel 3500 war da eine andere Hausordnung), aber hallo, es kostet weit weniger als die hälfte.
Der Support von Grandstream (die haben ein Forum) ist vorbildlich und schnell. Es gab die letzten 2 Wochen wo ich das Telefon habe auch schon mehrere Firmware Updates mit neuen Programmteilen – genial.
Der Touchscreen reagiert einwandfrei und schnell, einziges Manko ist die Plastikoberfläche, da klebt der Finger doch regelrecht drann und gleitet nicht so gut wie auf Glas. Die Empfindlichkeit ist jedoch TOP.
Ansonsten kann man alle erdenklichen Apps aus dem Google Play Store laden. Der interne Speicher ist 4GByte groß und kann mittels USB Stick bzw. SD Karte erweitert werden. Es gibt meines Wissens auch ein W-Lan Stick um das Telefon per W-Lan zu betreiben sowie die Möglichkeit eine WebCam drann zu hängen, doch das wird bei mir nicht benötigt.

Die täglichen Funktionen die ich hier brauche (Büorbetrieb) funktionieren klasse die da wären:
– Telefonieren
– Weiterleitung an anderen Teilnehmer
– Konferenzschaltung
– und mir wichtig:
Ich verlasse ab und an mal meinen Arbeitsplatz muss aber trotzdem erreichbar sein. Eine Rufweiterleitung an mein Handy ein bzw. auszuschalten geht über 2 Tastendrücke.

Ich telefoniere hauptsächlich über Headset. Das Telefon hat einen RJ-9 Headset Anschluss. Ich verwende das Jabra GN 2100 Jabra GN2100 Binaural mit Überkopfbügel (FlexBoom, E-STD, NC) mit entsprechendem Adapter und kann die Kombination empfehlen.

Ich kann das Telefon zum jetzigen Stand sehr empfehlen.

UPDATE: 4/6/2015 I have had this phone for 21 months and enjoyed it until about two weeks ago when the screen started flashing, going white or freezing. I was rebooting it weekly at first, then daily, then I was having problems even getting it going. I tried another power supply per Grandstream support to no avail, although I did find that where the power connects to the back of the device seems to be the key to the problem. When I applied light pressure to the connector, I was able to get it to boot, otherwise, nothing. Sometimes it will run for hours, other times for minutes. I tried reformatting it again to no avail. I must conclude that there is a defect of some sort with the soldering inside the phone resulting in this problem. In any case, the phone is useless if you can’t count on it during a call. So sadly, I must replace it, but this has shaken any faith I had in Grandstream as 21 months is not a satisfactory life span for a phone (IMHO). This is a huge disappointment as I enjoyed the phone and call quality. This could be an isolated incident or a design/manufacturing flaw. I can only tell you it has never been moved from my desk since purchase and wasn’t heavily used (1-2 week). So the King of Geekdom has been reduced to a court Jester. I am now off to try the Obi1032 as a replacement and we will see what luck we have with that.
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Come on, let’s be honest here, if you are looking at this phone, YOU too are a geek! As a fellow geek, you obviously appreciate the Android OS, the ability to sync your Google Contacts, view your email, make calls over a VOIP account (or via Google Voice using GrooveIP or similar (a pay app in Google Play) and you love that you have the ability to put calls on hold and have people’s faces show up when they call. Well, you can do all that and much more with this very cool phone. I have added a few apps from the Play Store like “Google Play Music”, Pandora, GrooveIP and more. The interface works very well for my purposes (home user, light usage). I should mention that the call quality is excellent on both ends (as a listener on the phone and a recipient on the other end).

If you are buying this with an anticipated heavy use, you may be disappointed that the phone is light and feels a little, I hate to say flimsy, but … well, flimsy. I like the feel/weight of the handset, but the phone is surprisingly light (there, that’s a better way to say it). I don’t have any concerns at this point about it’s longevity and I expect I will be bored of it long before it loses its usefulness. Although, because it has my Contacts synced, it really makes this phone a winner with me.

So, if you are falling into the geek category and you have $170 extra bucks, or just need a new phone, I wouldn’t hesitate. If you are looking for a commercial phone for your office, I say if you need less than 10, I would seriously consider this as an option. More than 10, well, I think I would want something more centralized … there is a fair amount of setup for the SIP accounts, so if you were doing a setup on each device, it may not be so much fun. Also, in a business environment, you would want a battery backup if you have power interruptions as it takes several seconds (I want to say 60-90) for it to boot back up again. Not a problem for home, but in an office environment I would see if there was a faster alternative (many VOIP phones take a long time to boot).

Anyway, that’s my two cents. I hope you found this useful!