Microsoft Teams desk phone Yealink T56A review

[tech_london]

Hi everyone, I've done a quick review on a desk phone for Microsoft Teams as I noticed there was no review showing how it works, the setup process and the features compared to the Windows client and mobile device clients. I hope this video helps you to take a decision if a desk phone makes sense for your business or your customers as there is still a lot of people that want to stick with a physical phone, but have to move to a more modern platform like Microsoft Teams. Please drop me any feedback you may have here or on the Youtube video, I would really appreciate your thoughts so I can improve my tutorials and videos going forward

[mavhc]

£170 ex-vat it seems

[tech_london]

you can also get the T55A 1/3 cheaper but also screen is smaller like 4.3 inches. It depends on the needs of the customer. The 7 inches gives a nice overview of the calendar which I think is beneficial

 

Bear in mind, this should be a very long term investment, I don't see Teams changing over the next 5+ years so this phone will be fully supported for a long time with these nice features

[john]

you can also get the T55A 1/3 cheaper but also screen is smaller like 4.3 inches. It depends on the needs of the customer. The 7 inches gives a nice overview of the calendar which I think is beneficial

 

Bear in mind, this should be a very long term investment, I don't see Teams changing over the next 5+ years so this phone will be fully supported for a long time with these nice features

 

I'd not be so confident, they were saying in events and meetings I went to with vendors and MS back in the early days of Teams that the VVX's would be fine with Teams when asked and now in reality yes they function but its basic function only so you need to move to the new Teams hardware to actually do much. Poly were very much VVX will upgrade to Teams no issues etc...whilst they have a migration "kit" / trade in options etc that isn't strictly an upgrade as I would see it as its send back the old phone get a new different one.

 

The other item that is making me less confident of any of the teams phones from any make being buy and forget, like the legacy PBX ones have generally been, are they run Android to run the Teams software, at what point will they pull support for that Android build and say its not upgradable and thus they are useless and as this is all cloud you cannot just not upgrade until budgets permit etc...

 

I'd like to find they go on and on but I just feel less confident at the rate of change and needs that in a few years the 1st gen ones will be non-supported and probably non-functional resulting in a regular expense on changing handsets. With any legacy style PBX I've not had to change handsets every 5 years they just go on and on and on usually so it is a worry for budgets that you need to budget possibly to change all your handsets every 5 years say compared to every 10-20 years, given many legacy style PBX's you could, if taking the same make, keep handsets and just change the main controller so phones could have done even longer.

[tech_london]

I can't comment on Poly as I haven't dealt with them. When were they released? What are the basic functions supported? I'm just wondering if they changed their mind due to hardware limitations on it. Is the trade in favourable? I guess perhaps was a cock up between Microsoft and Poly.

 

The old PBX phones did one thing only, make and receive calls. You can't compare a phone that can show remote desktop from another user or video calls to have the same level of lifespam, otherwise you would also be still with your 10 year old nokia mobile phone that the battery lasted for 2 weeks, right? The device replaces a old fashioned desk phone, but adds a lot of features on top, and that is where the market is going.

 

If you are planning to use Teams desk phones as a like to like replacement for old fashioned phones I think you are looking at the wrong product. You would indeed be better off with an Asterisk based phone system and some cheaper £50 yealink phones that can do SIP only. Teams will add complexity due to newer features and touch screen, but again we are in 2020...

[mavhc]

Basically you're buying a computer for the user, makes sense when it's their only computer because they're in a call centre and you can put your CRM software on it. Runs android, so does MS write the Teams app that runs on it?

[tech_london]

I tend to think more about people that may have a computer already as well, but they prefer to have a physical device separated from their computer. You cannot run any other software on it, even though is based on Android. I don't think there will be integrations for CRM systems anytime soon as I've already tried with Dynamics 365 and Zoho. Most likely the integration for calls will be part of Teams admin centre directly to Dynamics 365 instead of relaying on a desk phone.

 

Microsoft writes Teams app, the vendors have input and their people working with MS to fix things and add features accordingly to their hardware, but most development is on Microsoft side.

[mavhc]

It's the price of a computer though. If it's not lasting 10 years has to justify its cost. £40 phone for 10 years vs £170 for 5 years. £4/year vs £34/year.

 

Guess if you're already paying crazy amounts for each extension anyway it's not that much.

[tech_london]

I guess you have not used a cisco UC system? their prices are way further north than £170 and still there is a specific reason for it to cost that much and a market to pay for that. The same applies for a £40 desk phone and a cheaper service, it is a different market. If you are looking for a cheap alternative, Teams with a desk phone is not the answer. Same for Office 365, if you are looking for cheap email you can host your own linux with postfix and thunderbird. Still there is market for both solutions.

[mavhc]

We use office 365 because it's free, same with gsuite

[tech_london]

We use office 365 because it's free, same with gsuite

I never seen free O3655 and gsuite, please share how you can get it for free please.

[Edu-IT]

I never seen free O3655 and gsuite, please share how you can get it for free please.

For Education it’s free.

[tech_london]

For Education it’s free.

definitely not the market for teams desk phones, not for cisco, avaya or anything else that cost money then.

[Primus]

You're aware the name of this site is EDUgeek aren't you?!

[tech_london]

Yep I'm aware, and still there are schools here that pay for cisco and avaya kit and also pay for licensing as well. We have a Teams facebook group just for education where we discuss teams deployments and there are schools and universities that are using both teams and desk phones as they have the budget for it. Not everyone needs a desk phone on these deployments, but they need something better than just the cheapest option.

[Primus]

Yep I'm aware, and still there are schools here that pay for cisco and avaya kit and also pay for licensing as well. We have a Teams facebook group just for education where we discuss teams deployments and there are schools and universities that are using both teams and desk phones as they have the budget for it. Not everyone needs a desk phone on these deployments, but they need something better than just the cheapest option.

 

So this post here:

definitely not the market for teams desk phones, not for cisco, avaya or anything else that cost money then.

was sarcastic?

[mavhc]

We got cisco phones, 14 years ago, they still work, no ongoing costs.

[psydii]

Teams and the required phones are financially competitive if you have need of the E5 licenses for other reasons.

 

If you have to specifically add phone system to your subscription as well as buy the hardware, Teams is not really an option.

 

That the phones need to be kept up to date and not all lync phones now work with teams does raise some alarm bells, and indeed potentially alter the cost of the system dramatically for Education customers who pay about 5% of a business E5 licence.