The Spectralink Line Formerly Known as KIRK

You won’t find Polycom’s DECT handsets called KIRK anymore. It might be a little confusing, so here is a blog post to help break it down.

A while ago Polycom let Spectralink loose after acquiring them and their handsets in 2007 which has allowed Spectralink to rebrand their own products again, but otherwise Spectralink kept everything the same.

VoIP Supply already posted about Spectralink 8000 Series, so now take a moment for the KIRK transition to the Spectralink 7000 Series.

Following suit as the Polycom KIRK’s, the Spectralink 7000 Series do not come with a charger or a power supply. You’ll need to purchase both options separately. The correct charger options for each series will be available in the Accessories panel on each handset page on VoIP Supply’s website, or listed as a drop down option where applicable. When you decide on which charger you want, you can choose your power supply or USB cable (again, where applicable) to go with it, or if you know you have the correct power supply laying around your workspace somewhere, you can choose not to purchase another one.

There are five sets to this series: 74-series, 75-series, 76-series, 77-series, and the Butterfly Handset Series. Excluding the Butterfly Series, if you’re familiar at all with the old Polycom KIRK DECT phones, you’ll remember the handsets were split into the 40xx Series, 50xx Series, 60xx Series, and 70xx Series, and as you can probably guess, all four series match up. From the KIRK model number, if you drop the third place digit and add a ‘7’ to the beginning, you’ll have the new nomenclature for the Spectralink models. Let’s take a look:

Spectralink 74-Series:
Formerly known as KIRK 40xx Series
Spectralink 7420 = KIRK 4020
Spectralink 7440 = KIRK 4040 (IP54-rated)
Made robust for rough handling and free mobility, with a large alphanumeric backlit display and LED light up for incoming and unanswered calls.

Spectralink 75 Series:
Formerly known as KIRK 50xx Series
Spectralink 7520 = KIRK 5020
Spectralink 7540 = KIRK 5040
Made for use in administrative environments with a large color screen, address book, loud speaking, vibrate for calls, and wired headset connection for the 7520 or Bluetooth headset connection for the 7540. The 75-Series is supported on Microsoft Lync. If you’re purchasing a 75-Series for the first time, you’ll need the Spectralink Single Stand 75-Series Charger with USB Port to program your entire deployment. Only one is needed regardless of how many handsets.

Spectralink 76-Series:
Formerly known as KIRK 60xx Series
Spectralink 7620 = KIRK 6020
Spectralink 7640 = KIRK 6040
An IP64-rated phone, the 76-Series is a durable mobile handset for manufacturing floors, made with an alarm key and headset jack with amplifier. The 7640 also has Bluetooth headset connection, man down/no movement/running detections, and tear-off string. Remember you will need to license the Automatic Alarm Call on your Spectralink DECT system to enable these features. The 76-Series is also supported on Microsoft Lync.

Spectralink 77-Series:
Formerly known as KIRK 70xx Series
Spectralink 7710 = KIRK 7010 (IP54-rated)
Spectralink 7720 = KIRK 7020 (IP64-rated)
Spectralink 7740 = KIRK 7040 (IP64-rated)
The 77-Series is the top of the line with large color icons with customizable texting and prepared for third-party applications, perfect for hospital and nursing home settings. The 7710 has the most basic features, the 7720 adds on a membrane key-pad thats disinfectant resistance for easy cleaning, and the 7740 tops it off with man down/no movement/running detectors, year-off string and alarm key (Licensable on the DECT server), HD Voice Ready and Bluetooth headset connection. The 77-Series is supported by Microsoft Lync.

Butterfly Handset Series:
Formerly known as KIRK Butterfly Handset Series
Available in Black, White, Blue, Red, and Green, the Butterfly Series is still around to provide essential office functions with basic voice and messaging capabilities while contemporary designed to fit in naturally in the hand and identify your employees with some color.

Spectralink is still working the transition from the Polycom DECT phones over to completely Spectralink, so some of the literature for Spectralink 7000 Series phones will have Polycom logos on them and say ‘Polycom KIRK,’ which doesn’t help reduce the confusion. Think of it this way though: there has finally been a take over where one company didn’t mess up a product. While the names have changed, you still have the same great product. Once you remember to drop the third place ‘0’ and begin each part number with a ‘7’, it’s not so bad.