Polycom SoundPoint IP 670 - now available for order

[Aaron Rosenthal]

So I just heard from my Polycom guy today that as of yesterday the Polycom IP670 phone is available for order. I had a few things to say about this phone in a previous blog here, but now that it's available I'm sure it's only a matter of time before we get one to play with at which point you'll see a full review.

I'm quite surprised that the release of this phone has gone by almost entirely unnoticed. The fact that I've heard very little about this phone leads me to believe that there isn't whole lot to this phone other than a color display. It seems like Polycom is really pushing their Applications for their SoundPoint IP line which I haven't found to be all that groundbreaking other than providing a more intuitive phone based interface for things like conferencing... nothing groundbreaking.

This is what I call groundbreaking interface>

not this>

You'll probably see me write a blog reviewing these new Applications as there's a lot more to talk about here than the IP670. Has anyone been working much with the Polycom SoundPoint Applications? Would love to hear your thoughts.

I hope Polycom comes out with many more pictures of this IP 670 because the only picture I could find on their website is EXTREMELY lackluster. I don't get why they released their first SoundPoint color phone with a picture of a color screen that looks more like a DOS prompt. I've seen the color screen on the Polycom Microsoft Communicator phones which is quite sexy and assuming Polycom is using the same LCD screen, it should look pretty nice on the IP670. I honestly think Polycom is overdue for a re-design of the SoundPoint IP line.

I really hope the Polycom CX700 Microsoft Optimized Device will ultimately adopt the same open'ness of the SoundPoint phones once Microsoft releases their exclusive rights stranglehold on Polycom. I certainly hope that's the case cause these phones are HOT!

Regardless of the IP670 not hitting the news hard, it should still be a great piece of hardware. The SoundPoint IP phones are rock solid and work swell with Asterisk. Polycom still has a few things to sort out with Asterisk (call barge anyone?) but overall these phones have proven more stable than other SIP phones we've tested like Grandstream, Snom and Aastra.

The color expansion module is a nice touch too. But seriously!!.. who took these pictures?? Polycom almost has me convinced that these color displays are only green. Something tells me they haven't even photographed the new phones yet and just had someone photoshop some color.. aka green.. onto the IP650.