So, I haven’t had much experience with Aastra phones, but for years now, I have heard that they are great phones, and since they are a trixbox Platinum certified partner, I have really wanted to try them out for some time now. Well…I finally got my hands on an Aastra 9133i, a 480i, and a 55i, so let’s set ‘em up, tear ‘em apart, and generally find out all about Aastra…

Aastra 9133i


The first phone I tested out is the 9133i. This is what I guess is considered their entry level phone, or more accurately, ‘standard’ phone. It is what an employee without any special telephone needs would have sitting on their desk…very basic 3 line phone. The back has 4 ports, one for the handset, one for a headset, and a two port switch (from LAN, to computer). It has the capability to use PoE inline, or with a PoE injector sold separately, and retails for about $124.99. Initial impressions are positive for an entry level phone. It definitely looks more professional than the Grandstream GXP-2000, and has a nice, well lit 3 line display which pops up at an angle for easy reading.

Since Aastra is a trixbox Platinum Certified partner, setup of this phone in trixbox Pro was a snap. I plugged it into the network, and it automatically DHCP’d an IP address, updated itself to the latest firmware, and configured itself as extension 102 on my trixbox Pro (the next available extension). Basically, at that point, you simply edit the extension in ‘Extensions > view extensions’ and personalize it for your user. You can then reboot the phone, and it picks up all of the settings via trixbox Pro’s TFTP server.

Manual configuration is pretty simple as well. Through the phone, you just hit ‘Options’ and then use the 4 arrow keys to navigate through the different options…it is fairly intuitive, and easy to understand if you already have a standard knowledge of SIP and network settings. The default admin password (needed to change some of the settings) is ‘22222’.

The web interface can be accessed via the phone’s IP address (which can be found on the phone, option 11 Phone Status > Option 1 Network port 1). The default username / password is ‘admin / 22222’. The initial screen shows the phone’s status and firmware versions, and the menu down the left hand side clearly lays out all of the phone’s options.

An interesting note, this phone has 3 ‘line’ buttons, and 7 configurable softkeys. The softkeys are the blank spots in the label on the right hand side of the phone. Going from top to bottom, trixbox Pro automatically configures these as follows:

Soft key 1: voicemail (8555 using line 1)
Softkey 2: do not disturb
Softkey 3: open
Softkey 4: open
Softkey 5: line appearance 4 (extension)
Softkey 6: line appearance 5 (extension)
Softkey 7: line appearance 6 (extension)

If you want to add a line appearance or speed dial that uses one of the softkeys, this can be done in the phone’s web GUI. Connect into the GUI and click on ‘Programmable Keys.’ Then, choose one of the open spots and select BLF (Busy Lamp Field – for another extension’s line appearance) or speed dial from the drop down box, and set the ‘Value’ field accordingly. For speed dial, you need to put the phone number in the format that you would dial the number from your phone (ie. with a 9 for an outside call).

Pros:

Clear, well-lit display.
Great price.
Super simple configuration.

Cons:

Handset cord plugs into the opposite side of the phone.
Physical assembly of the phone may be a bit tedious if you have a large number of these phones.


Aastra 480i
The first thing that struck me about this phone is how great it looks…it’s got a HUGE display, and would look impressive sitting on anyone’s desk. This is Aastra’s (what I call) ‘executive’ phone, and retails for about $164.99. Like the 9133i, it can run on the power adapter, with inline PoE, or with a PoE injector. When I plugged the phone into the network and powered it up, it automatically got a DHCP’d IP address, updated its firmware from trixbox Pro’s TFTP server, and showed up in ‘Extensions > phones’ just like the 9133i. Very simple plug-n-play operation. It also automatically came up as the next extension in my list (x103). Right away, I see that the upper-left two softkeys were configured for voicemail and DND.

The first thing I do is go into ‘Extensions > view extensions > 103’ and set up my voicemail and other settings. Really, at this point, I’m done, but I want to add a couple of line appearances to customize it a bit further. To do this, I need to go into the 480i’s web GUI. The default username and password for the web GUI is ‘admin’ and ‘22222’. The configuration GUI looks very similar to the 9133i’s, which isn’t surprising, but is also great for administration…you don’t have to learn a new GUI if you’re already familiar with other Aastra phone GUI’s.

To configure the softkeys, click on ‘Softkeys and XML’ in the left hand menu. For softkey 3, select BLF to add a line appearance. Since this is a softkey, it gives you two fields…label and value. The beauty of this is that you can personalize the line appearances. Instead of just having an extension number, if your CEO’s is George at extension 100, you can put ‘George’ in for the label, and set the value to 100 to monitor that extension…very slick.

One other item of note…you can program up to 20 softkeys. When you get past softkey 5, a ‘more’ option appears as the 6th softkey. Pressing ‘more’ takes you to the next page of softkeys.

Pros:

Great big display.
20 programmable softkeys.
Great sounding speakerphone.

Cons:

Can be tedious to set up if you are doing a large number of these phones, but better than the 9133i.
The BLF indicators in the softkeys aren’t real clear…but chock that up to available pixels on the screen.



Aastra 55i


That Aastra 55i is Aastra’s receptionist-level phone and retails for about $189.99. This is a really sleek looking phone, and has a great, easy to see backlit main display. You can also add on up to 3 Aastra 536M sidecar modules ($142.49 each) with 36 line appearances each for a total of 128 line appearances if you want. That’s a lot of lines to manage, but I’m sure your receptionist is top notch.

Same easy trixbox Pro plug-n-play configuration as the 9133i and 480i. The phone downloaded the latest firmware automatically and came up as extension 104. After customizing the extensions in the trixbox Pro, this phone was ready to rock ‘n roll. Love it.

I then decided to program some of the softkeys, and realized that this phone has a lot more softkey options that receptionists would need such as paging/intercom functionality, park, pickup, and phone lock. The phone lock feature is pretty cool…it allows you to lock your phone (obviously), and the phone will not be able to make calls until it is unlocked (the default unlock code is 22222). Even though it is locked, you can still configure special numbers that the phone cal still dial in the ‘phone lock’ settings in the phone’s web GUI (such as 911, or perhaps some internal extensions only). It would be nice if this feature could use wildcards for all internal extensions (such as 1xx), but it doesn’t look like it has that capability…regardless…it’s a cool feature.

One thing to note about making changes to the 55i in the phone’s web GUI…most settings don’t require a reboot of the phone (unlike the 480i and 9133i). This is great for making changes to your reception phone without missing any calls. The only thing that required a reboot was the BLF functionality…the phone didn’t actually require it, but the little phone icons didn’t work until it was rebooted.

Pros:

Very sleek looking.
Beautiful backlit display screen.
Changes can be made on the fly.
Extra features not included on the other standard Aastra phones.

Cons:

More expensive than other phones…I wouldn’t recommend this phone except for a receptionist, or for someone who could take advantage of the extra features such as phone locking (for instance, if only certain extensions in your company can call international…you could lock them so employees can’t call their mom in England at will).
The hardkey label installation (top of the phone) is a bit clunky, but stays in place once you get it right.

In conclusion, these phones are great, but the best part about them is their ease of setup in trixbox Pro. They are truly plug ‘n play, and you can’t get better than that for ease of administration. The 480i would be my recommended choice out of the three that I reviewed…or the one that I would most like to keep on my desk. The 9133i is great for end users who don’t require any special functionality or perhaps call centers, and the 55i is perfect for receptionists. Way to go Aastra…great product line!