Polycom IP 560 and IP 320 Pass Through the Junction Networks Labs!

We've been testing the Polycom IP 560 and the IP 320. These are really great phones - they came through all of our testing with flying colors, which didn't surprise us very much, since Polycom makes some of the most reliable SIP phones on the market.

The IP 320 is a great convenience phone and could certainly also work for most users, although the small screen makes it less ideal for heavy phone users. The functionality is all there, despite the smaller screen size. For a full feature set, see Polycom's spec sheet.

While the IP 320 is a nice phone, the IP 560 is the phone that really stole our hearts. It's an attractive phone, with a backlit screen that makes a nice impression. It is also, interestingly, capable of high definition voice. We were skeptical at first, but when we tried the feature out, we were all very impressed with the sound quality. Getting a high definition call is a little tricky, since both parties must have HD voice capable phones and it must be an Internet-only call (as soon as the call hits the PSTN, it's down sampled), but it's very impressive when it happens. The call quality is definitely superior to any other phone call that we've heard before and is close to stereo quality. We're big fans of the feature and are looking forward to the day when most calls are Internet-only so that it can become more common. OnSIP Hosted PBX users can take advantage of this on their internal calling and on Internet-only calls by buying HD-capable phones. It is definitely nifty.

On the downside, Polycom hasn't made much progress in making the phones boot faster, which we were hoping for. Still, a slow boot process is a small price to pay for the reliability and functionality of these phones.