As announced during VoiceCon, Polycom will be releasing new CX phones in conjunction with the release of Communications Server '14'. The exciting thing about these phones is that Polycom was able to put their own HD Voice™ technology in the phones, rather than using hardware designs that were created by Microsoft and simply manufactured by Polycom like the devices that were released for OCS.
The first phone I’ll mention is the CX600. This is likely to be the workhorse of the group since it’s targeted towards the typical business worker. Here are the main features (from the Polycom website):
- Large color display to view call, directory and presence information
- Polycom HD Voice™ technology in the handset, headset and speakerphone for stunning voice quality and clarity
- USB port for optional "Better Together" capabilities
- Two-port Gigabit Ethernet switch for PC pass-through
Next, the CX500. The CX500 is primarily targeted as a “common area” phone. Most common use cases will be lobbies, travel cubicles, etc.
Like the rest of the new CX phones, the CX500 is PoE capable. The main differences from the CX600 are that the CX500 is wall mountable, does not have the second ethernet port or USB connectivity, and does not have a 2 way speakerphone. However, it retains Polycom’s HD Voice™ technology.
Additional information can be found here.
Lastly Polycom will be releasing a conference phone in the well-recognizable star/spider form factor. This device will be branded the CX3000.
Like the other phones listed here the CX5000 is also PoE capable. All of these phones use the same Communicator Phone Edition application so that the user experience is the same between the devices. Details on the upcoming Communicator Phone Edition are still under NDA as of this writing but that information should become public with the rest of the CS '14' platform this summer.
Additional information on the CX3000 can be found here.
I’ve been using the CX600 for a bit now and am very pleased with it. I’m looking forward to seeing customers be able to use a more complete range of devices, combined with the full feature set of CS '14', to move forward with true Unified Communications deployments and solutions.
