Hello all,
I’m looking for what your recommendations for a Grandstream phone that has the same quality feel and function of a Cisco 8841? I’m new to the ecosystem and looking for some help choosing a similar phone to save money. Will be pairing the phones with a UCM6301. Thanks in advance for the help!
I would say the GXP2170 or the GRP2615.
In your experience, have you had many weird issues? I have read reviews about people complaining about grandstream phones. In your opinoin, it is more of a lack of experience thing, or have they had firmware issues in the past that have fixed for the most part now? Thanks again!
I know the question was directed to Willie, but I will offer my two cents worth.
I have a few hundred of the GRP261X phones in service and we use the same at our offices. There have been a few glitches in firmware in years past, but the past year or so, those have gone away. As with any other vendor. I will try new firmware in a Lab setup and wait a while to make sure there are no bugs before moving it into production models. I have not found any in the past couple of years. The GRP2616 is my go-to phone.
Thank you for the insight. Im leaning towards the GRP2615 to do testing and see if I like them.
Yeah we only sell the GRP series for all of our healthcare customers. I’ve got a hundred or so from GRP2613-1615 out there. I’ve had intermittent reports of Bluetooth headset issues but GS has been pretty good about responding to bug issues. Look on their firmware page and look at the known issues and bug fixes for an idea of what’s been happening and fixed. Firmware- Grandstream Networks
Only complaint I have so far with the Grandstream phones is the ridiculous ringtones. None of them are suitable for offices, especially in comparison to other brands. Currently working on creating some custom ringtones and getting them on the phones.
IMO I don’t think the ringtones are that bad. That’s me. I keep them at defaults for outside calls and set internal calls to bellcore3. of course that being said they could probably do more, and OMG some better default on hold music from the PBX. 
The default MOH is what comes with Asterisk. I just use simplicity or whatever and call it a day.
I agree the ringtones are a bit weak and wish they had some more “traditional” ring audio files. I have tried a bunch of different audio files over the years but can’t seem to find one that I really like.
I will look at bellcore3 though and maybe it will work for our installs.
What phones do you typically use?
Lately I have been using the GRP2650. For a lot of my customers they want to see everything on one screen and that helps. I also like using the GRP2624 as it’s pretty cheap and has wifi/bluetooth. Bellcore3 does a 3 ring pulse, just so they know it’s an internal call. I have some MOH I put on that is a little better then what it comes with.
I downloaded a couple of the old Nortel Norstar ring tones and uploaded them to phones. I just did a google search for ring tone sounds
Yeah i immediately disable Robot Ditty. Its the worst. I have a Jazz one that I pulled off a Zultys system a while back, its a little more bassy than usual (and jazz guitars with heavy percussion isnt everyones cup of tea). I could upload it here or email it if someone wants to check it out.