computer-reviews.net

Zyxel Prestige Wireless VoIP Phone

Tuesday, February 21st, 2006 | Networking (LAN), Reviews

The Zyxel Prestige Wireless VoIP phone (model name Zyxel P-2000W V.2 VoIP Wi-Fi Phone) is one of the first WiFi VoIP phones to hit the shelves just at the time when people were really digging into the word ‘mobility’. But does the gadget deliver?

The Zyxel Prestige wireless VoIP phone enables users to receive or conduct phone calls anywhere they are as long as they are within the range of IEEE 802.11b or 11g wireless access points.

One of the Zyxel P-2000W’s strongest features is its range. Many users have reported that it has detected access points that some of their other wireless gizmos haven’t found. Officially, Zyxel claims that its operating range is up to 300m out-doors and 75m in-doors and so far, users are not defying that claim.

However, is the Zyxel Prestige Wireless VoIP phone’s strength also its weakness? Its sensitivity clocks in at -82 dBm@11Mbps, with the antenna’s output power at 14 + 1dBm. This assures users that the antenna is indeed powerful and can detect and connect to many access points. The downside is that the phone takes so much power that it drains the battery… fast. Some users claim that it only provides 11 hours of standby time and 1 hour of talk time.

Although not very important for the purposes of a wireless VoIP phone, it’s also noteworthy that the Zyxel P-2000W only has an earphone jack. That is, you cannot use it with a headset with microphone.

Other features:
- Supports G.711 and G.729 voice compression technology, enabling it to successfully reduce bandwidth consumption caused by voice traffic.
- Direct IP-to-IP call and ad-hoc Intercom mode support. The Zyxel P-2000W offers a direct IP-to-IP call feature when users configure a remote IP address in its built-in phone book.
- Another strong point of the Zyxel Prestige Wireless VoIP phone is that it is based on SIP v2 (Session Initiation Protocol version 2.0) open standard, which means that the unit is compatible with most SIP-based providers, IP-PBXs and other standard SIP-based client devices. As far as looks are concerned, the Zyxel Prestige Wireless VoIP phone is pretty ‘cool’. It features a bright blue backlight keypad and a blue backlight 112×64 pixel LCD.

Overall, the Zyxel P-2000 is a great deal for those who would want to take advantage of cheap VoIP rates and services without having to log on to their PCs.