Siemens Gigaset C470IP VOIP Cordless Phone Review
I wrote this article about a month ago but with a fairly mental workload at My Real Job, it kind of got put on the back burner.
My interest in the C470 IP was originally peaked when I asked on Whirlpool about some handset suggestions last year when I wasn't satisfied with the Telstra E5100 handsets I was using with my Billion 7404VGP. The original problem was that my E5100's wouldn't audibly 'ring' when a call came in over the VOIP line - they'd display the calling party's number, but not audibly ring. This gave me a good excuse to change to an all digital setup anyway - I didn't like the unnecessary conversion to analogue and back again. When Decryption mentioned a month or so ago he'd been given one as a review unit - I jumped at the chance to get my hands on one.
VOIP Basics
I guess a bit of background is required on VOIP setups and how they work. First of all your digital handset records and encodes your voice as a digital stream, then it sends it as a digital stream to the base station. So so far we've got Voice -> DECT handset -> base station.
The next step differs on your setup. If you have a standard PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) service, at this point your call is converted to analogue and enters the network to be switched about and bastardised by Telstra. If you've got a modem/router that does PSTN and VOIP switching or Least Cost Routing, you can plug a device like Billion's 7404 series into a land line and also set up a VOIP service on it. From there by setting up detailed dial plans your calls can be routed on the fly to go over the appropriate service. Local or interstate call? Route it over the VOIP service. Location dependent or free call (such as 000, 13 numbers or 1800 numbers)? route it over the PSTN.
This worked great but because the handsets I were using were designed for the PSTN there was this extra level of digital->analogue->digital conversion happening most of the time when I made VOIP calls, which were 99.99% of the calls I made. So the path of my voice would be something like:
- My voice travels as an analogue sound wave to the DECT handset
- DECT handset then essentially records this and sends it digitally to the basestation
- Base station sends an analogue signal to the modem/router/SIP device (because it's designed for the PSTN)
- Modem sends a digital signal over the internet to your VOIP provider.
- Your VOIP provider then converts this signal back to an analogue signal so it can travel over the PSTN to whoever it is that you're calling.
So, in the above scenario the signal would be Analogue, Digital, Analogue, Digital, Analogue.
Obviously the first Analogue component we can't change until we can plug a phone into our brain or something and the last part is dependant on who it is you're calling. Unless you're calling another VOIP user, the chances are this last step will always be analogue. So removing the two bits you can't change we're left with a Digital->Analogue->Digital conversion path. Every one of these conversions affects the audio signal somewhat. You can't make a smooth sine wave with ones and zeros and vice versa.
The benefits of using a DECT handset with an ethernet enabled base station like the Siemens Gigaset c470IP is that you skip this first Digital->Analogue conversion because your SIP device and your base station are the one device. This reduces the number of conversions that are necessary and essentially makes sure the call is digital for as much of the path as possible. This should in theory improve sound quality. More on this later.
The C470IP does have a RJ12 connector on it though, so you can use it as a switching or cheapest-call-routing device if you so want. Remember if your family has a high liklihood of needing to call Emergency services you should stick to your PSTN line. Because it's got both Ethernet and PSTN interfaces it makes a good and reasonably inexpensive first piece of VOIP hardware. The fact it's got both in one saves you from having to buy a new ADSL modem/router to start using VOIP as your native telephone service, too. So on to the actual review
What's in the box?
My box had been previously opened by evil overlord Decryption so we'll take the manufacturer's word that it contains
- A Documentation CD
- A handset
- Handset charging station
- The base station
- 1x RJ12 cable
- 1x RJ45 cable
- Quick setup instruction guide
- Warranty card
None of this is exciting enough to warrant pictures, I assure you. So what about setup?
Setup
As I mentioned above, my setup was going to be VOIP only. As a result setup for me was pretty simple. For the hardware side of things all I had to do was plug in the base station and the handset charging station. It was at this point I found a handy feature on the base station - one of those things that makes you realise someone actually put some thought into the design of their product. I pushed the lit up blue button on the front and it paged the handset. This wasn't so remarkable in itself but the handset also displayed the IP address of the base station. This kind of thing is invaluable for people like me who like to statically assign IP's to the devices on the network that aren't true clients (printers, base stations, servers, routers, APs, etc.). It could save you quite a bit of time trying to remember if it's a printer or a VOIP base station or a wireless AP at 192.168.0.5. Already I was excited about the setup of the product.
So then I got to the software side. I didn't bother looking at the documentation CD, I just fired up a browser and pointed it to the IP the phone gave me earlier:
This is the greeting page. Just a simple clean language and simple authentication prompt. Once you authenticate you get dropped at this page, which explains what to do next. Unless you're trying to some pretty freaky stuff or you're running your own Asterix server or something I don't think too many people will need to go delving for the documentation CD.
From there you can jump to all sorts of places. I'll only discuss the more interesting ones.
Here we can see just how ridiculously easy it is to create dialing plans on the go for people with a combined PSTN/VOIP setup. Free calls to Telstra mobiles? Chuck the numbers in here and tell them to use the fixed line. Call interstate a lot? Tell it to always use VOIP for other area codes. It's also advisable at this screen to add in 000, 1800 and 13 numbers to use the fixed line. If these calls are sent out over your VOIP line the other party won't be able to get your location which is handy when you're calling Pizza Hut or absolutely critical if you're calling 000.
Quick disclaimer at this point. If you or anyone at your house is likely to need emergency services, I'd strongly recommend you retain a landline for this function. If the person calling 000 is incapacitated or otherwise unable to talk it could make a big difference.
The Gigaset's multiple entry interface is a dream. On the Billion you had to telnet dial rules in because a bug on the web-entry screen wouldn't allow entries of more than 200 characters or something.
Here you can see you can program the different mail boxes. Telstra landline? 101. NodePhone? 111, Someone else again? could be 333. Who knows. With the Gigaset's support so many different VOIP providers, it'll also prompt you when you press the voicemail button on the handset as to which mailbox it is that you want to call.
One of the most interesting features of the phone though I only discovered through reading the manual while preparing this review. The 'Services' menu actually allows you to stream information services to your phone when it's not active (by default if the phone is charging, the display will remain lit. What these services allow you to do is change the time display to something more interesting such as weather, horoscopes, RSS feeds, eBay - Yep. It'll even track eBay auctions for you! All you need to do is provide it with the auction number and it'll tell you the time remaining and current bid right on the display of the handset. Awesome-sauce. So, we've established the hardware's pretty clever. What's it like to use?
Usability
Unfortunately the handset menus are a little convoluted. Menu layout and bullshit weird named options remind me of the menu system from one of the early Motorola V3s. What's with that?
While it's disappointing it's not the end of the world for my needs. I really will only be using the handsets to make calls. Extra features buried in these menus like checking-an-email-account and SMS capabilities I won't be likely to use. I also don't hold out much faith the built in idle RSS reader would cope well with Lolcats, but it might be reasonably well suited to Jack Bauer or Chuck Norris facts. The handset does include a speaker-phone function, can call internally and do everything else you'd expect from a reasonable DECT phone. The base station also will allegedly pair with other DECT handsets, but I've not tried this out yet. The real thing I was hanging to test out was sound quality.
Audio Quality
We'd eliminated two analogue -> digital and back again conversions, remember? How much difference would the fact I'm using real-world VOIP aware equipment over my cheap-as-chips-second-hand-on-eBay-plugged-into-my-ADSL-Modem setup? Unfortunately not much. For the calls we do make interstate and to PSTN lines, the difference isn't really noticeable. Don't get me wrong, the call is crystal clear and sounds great for a phone-call, but it still sounds like a phone call.
I'm eager to test this against other VOIP users though, specifically those on my own VOIP network (NodePhone). Perhaps I should give Internode a call and shoot the breeze just to test the quality
So unfortunately for my use the difference in quality isn't measurable or even really identifiable, but I'm confident this is due to limitations in the PSTN, rather than my own equipment.
Conclusion
So is this worth it? MaxoTel currently have this bundle for $164.95, which sounds pretty reasonable but it is only one handset + the base station. Secondary handsets MaxoTel are selling for around the $90 mark (but it's exciting they're selling them at all - I spent a while six months ago trying to track down a local distributor and couldn't EDIT: Since I wrote this article things have gotten a lot better. Not only are MaxoTel now stocking these but Internode are too - though at a premium because of the extra support). If you live in a one bedroom house and don't have a cordless phone, get it. It'll save you the hassle of getting a new modem.
If you've got a big house or you want one in the kitchen, lounge room, study and bedroom, you're going to be up for $435 odd dollars for four handsets and a base station. This is considerably more expensive than a three or four handset DECT setup from eBay for $100 and a sub $200 SIP capable router. If you've already got a three or four handset setup then your total outlay for joining the VOIP world drops to about what you'd pay for the handset and base station here.
I'm looking at migrating my mum to Naked DSL and VOIP to save her $50 a month and I'm currently going through this very same dilemma. She's going to need at least two handsets and her current modem doesn't do Wifi or SIP. I'll probably end up upgrading her DSL modem instead. That way the change will be more transparent for her.
It really is a great device, there are just too many other options at the same price point or less. Since you're probably a Mac user, you don't mind paying a bit extra for quality and function.
Recommended.