▶▶▶ Polycom CX100 Speakerphone

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Polycom CX100 Speakerphone

Polycom CX100 Speakerphone Review

Since Polycom came out with C100S for Skype over a year ago, the "Polycom Communicator" has been a viral-marketing sucess story. (I saw someone with one and decided to buy one for myself.)

The newer CX-100 is designed to be used with Microsoft's Office Communicator 2007 (MOC) client. This is the best 5 bucks you can spend on a PC VoIP accessory. The sound quality rivals Polycom's high-end, star-shaped conference room phones but with the convenience of a truly portable device. I travel frequently and utilize my CX-100 with MOC and other VoIP soft-clients when I'm in the hotel, airport lounges, Starbucks stores, etc. I prefer using the CX100 instead of a bluetooth headset because it offers better 'mobility' around my hotel room than a bluetooth headset - I can shave, get dressed,pack my bag, all while listening to an early morning conference call - without worrying if I'm going to knock an earbud out and into the sink (or worse, the toilet.) When I need privacy, I plug my iPod earbuds into the headphone jack on the side of the CX100. The noise cancelling on the CX100 is outstanding. While a lot of laptops are supporting higher quality microphones and speakers, they have some serious drawbacks - namely picking up typing sounds off of the keyboard - not very 'con-call friendly'.

The CX100 also has the advantage of allowing you to answer an incoming call directly on the CX100 without having to rearrange you PC desktop to find the MOC window to click answer. There are mute and volume control buttons on the CX100 too.

The convenience of the CX100 makes sense in the office too. I make about 50% of my voice calls using the CX100 instead of my convential desk phone.