SoundStation 2W exceeded my expectations

Polycom SoundStation2W Conference phone evaluation.

In the last year or so I have received several requests for desktop conference phones which would be appropriate in larger conference rooms; so I began to search for phones which allowed external microphones. The SoundStation2W® (SS2W) appeared to be the most popular, plus it was cordless! so I spoke with my friendly Polycom Rep and she arranged for a unit to be sent for evaluation.

The SS2W is one of the latest in the line of analog desktop conference phones from Polycom; it is not designed for use with digital phone systems. Our department has been using the wired version of these ‘bat’ phones for many years with great success. This ֬W’ version is wireless using rechargeable batteries, and operates on the 2.4 GHz transmission band. The wired base station is compact and has no user controls, so it can be placed out of the way or hung on a wall. The phone is fairly light weight, but feels quite sturdy for frequent handling and portable use.

In brief: The unit performed well beyond my expectations, and I enthusiastically recommend it. Around $475. U.S. street price.

You can read about the complete specifications on Polycom’s website, but the features which impressed me are:
• Very good base-to-phone distance range. The spec is 150 feet, and I was able to connect with “three bars” ~100 feet away from the base station through a difficult concrete wall environment, allowing the phone to be used in several adjacent offices as well as outside the building!
• Excellent microphone sensitivity and voice clarity at my end as well as the far end. In a quiet, acoustically-treated conference room, a talker 15 feet from the phone could be heard well at the far end.
• A pair of external microphones are available as an option (#EX, ~$140.) which is very helpful when the system is used on a long conference table, or in a more difficult acoustic environment.
• Digital spread-spectrum transmission and encryption of the RF signal.
• Numeric indicator on the LCD display which show approximate amount of talk time left on the battery charge.

The SS2W was able to access our phone system’s conference call function, which was a show-stopper if it didn’t work.

The phone requires regular charging via an included power supply. Polycom boasts 24 hours of talk time on a full charge, which we did not measure. There is no power switch on the phone itself; the unit goes into Standby Mode after about a minute of inactivity to save battery life. However, the phone did continue to lose its charge over a period of several days of inactivity—typical of NiMH batteries—but not so fast as to be of concern when a regular charging routine is set up.

I also found out that the phone and base stations are “married,” so multiple bases and their phones can be used in proximity to each other without interference.

Check it out.

-Pete W., CTS

Follow-up 10/28/2008:  We have since purchased three of these cordless phones and we are still very pleased with their performance. We are generally unhappy that the phone must stay connected to the charger except when in use, as the batteries will lose their charge after approximately five days--not a major problem, but an inconvenient storage problem.  -Pete-