As with all of the other handhelds, there will be three options depending on the needs you may have. The desk phone is designed to work in the home, or in the office. With that said, there will be advanced features such as BLF, and call transfer. There will be a number of other features that I am sure an executive or secretary can give you more details, but the goal is to make for a sufficiently good office phone. One things that will be a benefit that the Desk Phone has over the other phones is the Desk Phone can make an outgoing call on any of the lines and not just the two top lines. This is because of the 7.3″ screen that sits in a portrait form. When the handset if on the hook, you would see the standard screen. When you lift the handset up, you would see a list of all of your accounts. You select the account you wish to use, and dial the number as normal. The features unique to the Desk Phone is as follows:
- 7.3″ vertical view screen
- 100MBPS POE? ethernet port
- Desk Phone handset
- Front USB-C + rear USB
- Ability to select any line
- Voicemail Functionality
The 7.3 screen will give you all of the information you would need depending on the mode the phone is in. When not in use, you would see the date, and time. You would also see the weather conditions that is in the area on the screen such as moving rain drops falling to the bottom of the screen when it is raining. A darker screen during the night time, and so on. When a call comes in, you would see the Call From then the name and number (if CID+ is supported by carrier), and then you would see Line Number. This way, you would know how to answer the phone.
There will be a 100MBPS ethernet port. 100MBPS is designed to reduce cost some, and make the phone more attractive. A High Definition quality audio is 10MBPS, and video is 25MBPS. Therefore, the 100MBPS connection is overkill no matter which option you are using. POE support is also available and will reduce the number of cables you would need from the phone if your switch supports POE.
There is a handset. This handset will plug into a dedicated RJ11 port on the side of the phone. This is intended to support a common standard, and will allow other manufacturers to produce sufficiently capable copies under license. Senitrus will also create handsets to support the phone. It is recommended that you buy a spare handset when ordering a Desk Phone so you have a spare in the case that something goes wrong. Even if under warranty, you have to mail the defective handset in before Senitrus mails you a refurbished or new handset. This is time you can’t use your Desk Phone.
There are 2 USB-C ports. One is in the front which is nice for when you configure the system during setup. This front USB-C port could also be used to install updates if the online updating system isn’t working for some reason. You also have a rear USB-C port. If your switch doesn’t support POE, then you would need to get a 45 watt power brick, and a long enough USB-C cable to plug the phone into the wall. If your switch does not support POE, then you must plug into the wall. Even though the phone does support POE, the switch must also support it.
As mentioned, you can select the line you wish to call from. You can have up to 10 lines, and this is a maximum of 10 SIP accounts. This will be more than what most people or even businesses will need for one phone. You do not need access to the line to transfer calls to another extension or phone. When you lift the handset, you would select what line you wish to use. If there is only one line, then you would not select the line. You would then dial the phone number as you would normally would. When finished, you just hang up.
When you insert a micro-SD card, you would enter a name, and that would be the folder name. You would need to create a vm.mp3 file for that particular folder. This could be done by uploading the MP3 file, or using the handset to create a vm.mp3 file for the phone. Your voicemail is only limits are the capacity storage of the microSD card. The only catch to using the phone as a digital answering machine is the phone must answer before your call goes to the service’s voicemail. The voicemail will show blocks on the screen of the time/dates of the voicemail as the item you select. This will give somewhat of a visual voicemail feature as you can for a desk phone.
Desk-W
The Desk-W will be able to support an ethernet connection for calls, but it will also have a wifi? connection that it can use. This is great if you don’t have an ethernet connection available to you. Obviously, you would not use the ethernet cable in the back, but instead carry the calls over your wifi connection. The phone as mentioned can support 10 accounts, and in this case, they will all be SIP accounts.
Desk-A
The Desk-A will have a SIM card slot in with the microSD card tray. This will mean that the card can be used either for voice, data, or data/voice. This will all depend on the carrier, but for the carrier’s perspective, this will be a cellular phone rather than a house phone even if it is contained to where it is sitting now.
Desk-P
The Desk-P will have all of the same features as the A, but now, there are unique voicemail for each line or person. This could be a maximum of 10 lines. Each line will be given a name, and a PIN can be set to secure your voicemails so that only you can listen to them when the time is right. Each line will have its own folder on the microSD card therefore everyone can have a unique voicemail announcement, and everyone with their own unit PIN. This will be great for families, or businesses where there is a shared phone.