Snom 300, 320 & 360 IP Phone Review

Snom Technology AG is a well known manufacturer of SIP IP phones and accessories located in Berlin, Germany. Snom has a reputation for its excellent SIP implementation and advanced features on all of the phones they manufacture. Snom is a very popular phone in Europe and Asia and is starting to gain more popularity in the US because of its price point and feature set. 

Snom currently manufactures three IP phones, the Snom 300, the Snom 320 and the Snom 360. This article will briefly review all of these phones and give a preview into the currently (02-08-07) unreleased Snom 370.
 

Ease of Setup:

All of the Snom phones are quite easy to setup with Asterisk. When you plug in the Snom phones the phone�s IP address is displayed on the screen. Once you have the IP address of the phone it takes about one minute to go into the web based interface and setup the sip server, username and password. Once this is done the phone is ready to use.

Large Scale Deployments:

The Snom phone support trivial file transfer protocol (TFTP) configuration so if you want to use the Snom phones in a large scale deployment then the phones can be configured through TFTP.


Monochrome LCD Screen:

Snom 300 - 2 X 16 character display

Snom 320 - 2 X 24 character backlit display

Snom 360 - 128 X 64 pixel backlit display
 

Although the Snom 300 and 320 have a basic LCD screen the phone is designed well and the LCD does a perfectly adequate job of displaying necessary information. However, the larger LCD screen on the Snom 360 is nice and in my opinion well worth the extra cost.

Ethernet Ports:

Snom 300 - Two Ethernet ports

Snom 320 - Two Ethernet ports

Snom 360 - Two Ethernet ports.
 

As you can see all of the Snom phones offered have dual Ethernet ports. This is extremely useful if you only have one Ethernet port in your office or cubicle. If you have a phone with dual Ethernet you can plug the phone into the Ethernet jack out of the wall and then plug your computer into the second Ethernet port on the phone.


Speakerphone:

All of the Snom Voice over IP phones have a full duplex speaker phone - in other words they all have a fully functional speaker phone. While this may not be surprising to most people it actually is an impressive feature for the Snom 300. Most IP phones around $100 do not have a speaker phone at all and if they do it is usually half duplex. For instance the Cisco CP-7912G�s speaker phone only allows you to listen, not talk.
 

Line Appearances:

This is where the Snom phones really shine. The Snom 320 and 360 have 12 line appearances which is over double what most IP phones offer in the same price bracket. The Snom 300 has four line appearances which is better than most in $100 price range. If you are looking for line appearances a Snom phone is should definitely be considered.

Snom 300 - 4 lines

Snom 320 - 12 lines

Snom 360 - 12 lines
 

Web Based Interface:

All of the Snom phones have a feature rich web based interface which allows the phones the be setup in a matter of minutes. One neat feature of the web based interface is that you can dial out on the phone, this is great for alphanumeric numbers such as victor and not just 303.

Ringers:

The Snom phones allow you to assign different ring tones to different groups of people. That way you know if you want to answer the phone even before you look at the display.

Clock:

All of the phones have a digital clock on them. The Snom 360 clock looks like an analog clock instead of the standard digital clock. This is a unique feature that is not available on many VOIP phones.
 

Sound Quality:

All three phones have good sound quality that is comparable to most analog telephones on the market. While the sound quality is not exceptional, it is right on par with its pricing bracket but if you are looking for better sound quality, less features and don�t mind spending a little bit more you might look at some higher end Polycom or Cisco phones.
 

Message Waiting Indicator:

All three phones have a message waiting light on them. When you have voicemail the light will light up and let you know that you have new messages.
 

Directory:

All three phones have a 100 number speed dial directory. This is good if you have a lot of numbers that you want store in your phone for quick access.
 

Global Compatibility:

Because Snom is not a US manufacturer Snom goes the extra mile to make sure that their phones work all over the world including the US. All three Snom phones come with a power supply that works in Europe as well as the United States. The phones also support many different languages so if you are installing a phone where the language used is not English there is a good chance that Snom will work. Snom also allows you to change the dial tones and ring tones to match the countries where you are installing the phone.

Overall Comparison:

If you are looking for a good cheap Voice over IP phone I would recommend the Snom 300. This phone has a lot of features and is available at an extremely competitive price. If you want more features on your phone then the Snom 320 is the phone to go with. For people that spend a lot of time on the phone and whom want a larger graphical display Snom 360 is an excellent choice.


Snom 370

At the time of writing the Snom 370 has just been announced by Snom and is due to be release in Spring of 2007. The Snom 370 look like it will be a very popular phone with a large high definition color LCD display. The display along with its expanded memory will allow for advanced features such as time clocks, public directories and new tickers to name a few.  The Snom 370 also has the ability to use several audio devices simultaneously so for example you could use the speaker phone, and handset at the same time. Voiplink is currently accepting pre-orders for the Snom 370, if you would like to get one as soon as possible you can pre-order one online or through a sales representative.