Issues with 9871 Desk Phone

[JF77]

Hi everyone! I was so excited to try out the new 9800 line of phones! I have used the 3PCC/MPP versions of the 8800 phones in my office and overall really liked them, so I expected the 9800 line to be as good if not better. I just got a 9871 and I am sad to say I actually feel like at least for 3PCC use they are a downgrade. I am hoping that by submitting this feedback some other users might have found work arounds to some of these issues, or if you are interested in upgrading you will at least know these issues exist.

Pros:
Smaller form factor for the 9871
Nice touch screen
Sleek design

Cons:
- Almost no user preference settings for the end user. Can't even change screen time out.
- In order to get the screen to turn off when idle, you have to set "office hours."
- When the screen is sleeping, the LED bar pulses, which is quite annoying. I resorted to covering it with electrical tape.
- There are way fewer built in ringtones as compared to the 8800 series
- Custom wallpapers are no longer an option
- You can no longer assign a ringtone to a specific contact in your local address book
- The phone stand is less adjustable compared to the 8800 series
- The headset feels lighter/cheaper
- The action button can only be set to emergency call mode (This seems to be the case for WebEx too from the documentation). It was advertised as an action button that could be used for various things. While it is true you can set it to dial any number, the end user will always be warned that it is making an emergency call (see pictures).
- The LED bar cannot be disabled or dimmed and does not dim of you decrease the screen brightness. It is blindingly bright in dark spaces.

Hoping some of these things will be addressed in the next firmware update, but for now if anyone has any ideas or workarounds for these issues I would love to know. I am also interested in other people's opinions/experiences using these phones with 3rd party call control systems. 

[Leo Laohoo]

The current firmware was just recently released ("SR1") and barely out of the "beta" stage.  It will take several years for more features to be added.  

[JF77]

Thank you! I was hoping the same basic features would carry over from the 8800 series. I am at least glad to hear that new features will come with future updates. I do find the action button functionality strange though since it is not working as expected from the marketing materials that came out before the phone's release. I'll definitely hold off on upgrading any 8800 devices for a while.

[RS_PTD]

Thanks for the heads-up!

[JF77]

Hi there!

I do want to mention that a couple issues were resolved in the firmware update released at the end of October. You can now stop the LED bar from pulsing when the phone’s display is asleep and also the emergency warning for the action button can be avoided by setting the warning duration to 0 (but it only allows you to use the main account for the action button from what I can tell). Keep in mind that these features can only be changed in the web interface and are not accessible to the end user. (Also, the weird office hour thing for the display is still a problem too so I resorted to make everything not office hours except one minute to actually allow the screen to sleep).

The rest of the issues remain, so I am hoping more will be resolved in the next update. The one that especially irks me is the lack of ability to assign a ringtone to a contact since that is a pretty basic feature that almost all VoIP endpoints have regardless of company.