With the end of the third quarter and the start of the fourth quarter upon us all I haven’t had a lick of time to play around with the new snom 870. But thanks to the flu, I’ve been quarantined at home by the rest of the VoIP Supply team giving me a perfect opportunity to take the snom 870 for a spin.

Although I’ve only logged three hours of usage on the phone and have yet to take a series dive into all that it has to offer, I’m left with the following first impressions of the snom 870:

• Either I’m getting better at configuring phones or the 870 is simply that easy. I was up and running in a snap. Plus the touchscreen makes such that you don’t have to use the web GUI to set the phone up. Big win.
• I’m an iPhone fan, so you know the color touchscreen on the snom 870 would be appealing to me. It certainly makes using the phone more engaging, but I’m not sure everyone will value it enough to pay the “luxury tax” to get it.
• The speaker phone is outstanding. In working from home I find myself in rather unfamiliar territory, so I’m often moving around to grab a pen, paper or my laptop in another room while on a call. With the 870, there’s no need to put the other person on hold…I can pretty much hear them throughout the entire house.
• Since the entire industry is abuzz about HD calling, I figured I’d mention that the snom 870 is up to the snuff when it comes to supporting wideband codec calling. From internal calls to external ones with other HD capable participants, the call quality that I’ve experience has been awesome.
• Finally it is a sharp looking phone. Both family and friends have commented on how slick the 870 looks – especially on an end table.

So if first impressions count for anything, the snom 870 is a winner. Hopefully this cold holds up and I can give the device a few more days of undivided attention.

Then again who knows – it might just become my new desktop.

Look for more on the snom 870 in the coming weeks.