Good but not quite excellent
Customer Rating: 
This phone is good, nice to use, color screen etc...
The main thing for me is that there is no FXO (Standard phone socket to hook up your landline through this phone).
I had read many reviews and item descriptions, mostly, they all say "Optional FXO port"... year right. Not 1 FXO port on my phone...?
Apparently, the Optional FXO port is if you order direct from Gandstream a batch of, say, 5000 phones and special request this FXO port. So why have it on the phone descriptions?
Anyways, apart from that I like the phone, the sound quality is excellent providing you have available bandwidth, like any VoIP phone.
Handsfree seems to be good.
I am using Sipgate for my VoIP provider and am happy with the service, however at first, I was using a old Telefonica modem (im in Spain), this needed to be rebooted every 12-24 hours, if I didnt do this, I would not be able to hear anyone I called, yes I had port forwarding setup and still the same. Since then, I have replaced the modem with a new one and that problem has thankfully gone.
The web browser is basic but seems easy to use. I have written a SMS text messaging program for the phone that runs in the browser and I have ordered a "Rii Mini Keyboard" (USB keyboard & mouse in one) on ebay so hopefully this will work well with the SMS app. and phone.
Internet radio is good.
Other points;
I changed the time location to Madrid time, I then rebooted and the phones language changed to Spanish, this surprised me a little bit but you can change it back in the Personalize menu.
When you put the phone handset down after use, it doesnt always sit in the cradle correctly, so watch out for this.
Internet messaging, seems to work well but I have not found a way to use the built in camera with messaging? Is it possible? I think not.
Its a bit tekky, you have to be au fait with entering ip addresses and website URLS if you want to update your firmware. Or leave the default values if your happy with it as is.
Grandstreams answer to the Germans "Eierlegende Wollmilchsau"
Customer Rating: Believe me I have been waiting for this long time.
5 Years back I was already considering a solution like the GXV3140.
At that time the devices came with some kind of VOIP account bundle. So I was skeptical.
Especially Grandstream as a budget maker has a long history for hit or miss products.
If Grandstream can pull this product of the right way, make it work and actually deliver on the promises the brochure gives then this will be a 6 star product.
Grandstream has been promising before features that didn't make it into later firmware versions. So when I heard the GXV3140 comes out with all this killer applications built in I was even more skeptical.
The GXV3140 is clearly a device that focuses towards "one size fits all" - in other words - quantity.
The GXV3140 must be Grandstream's answer to the Germans "Eierlegende Wollmilchsau."*
- Browser
- IM (Gmail, MSN, QQ, Yahoo)
- Weather
- Calender
(Display of holiday names in local language)
- Currency converter
- Calculator
- Stock ticker
- RSS feeds
- Mp3 player
- Internat radio (streaming)
- phonebook
- 3 sip accounts
- USB port
- SD slot
With this vast amount of functionality the device can literally fulfill "little" technical wonders.
As a sidenode: The "bigger" wonders are fulfilled by you during the configuration period ;-)
The key to this success is that - after configuration - the user can enjoy all those applications without PC knowledge.
With all this privileges comes of course a new level of responsibilities. So keep in mind that running so many applications on a network device naturally increases the risk of becoming unstable.
The good thing (from security point of view) is most applications need to be started first before they can be used.
So first advice I would give is to update to the latest firmware.
(Users have been complaining about stability on earlier version.)
However, since the official GA release of Firmware 1.0.1.18 (GA) on 24th August I think its fair to say that the phone became considerably more stable. This is especially true when running the browser or IM in the background.
Its pretty cool to have that much functionality after the initial 4 days of configuration.
So I don't need to startup my PC for smaller tasks anymore and my desk looks cleaner too.
My only complaint (for now) is that 3 sip accounts is no way enough for me.
(I would require roughly 6+). If you use 3 incoming DIDs (Tokyo, London, New York) with different providers and 3 others for outgoing calls than you already have an issue.
It can be an invaluable advantage to change the provider at a push of a button when the carriers voice quality varies. (as it does with many budget providers).
Having said that The GXV3140 has a remarkable voice quality even when the network is sluggish.
I am (still) a long term (5+ years) SNOM 360 user (and fan) and was buffled that the GXV3140 delivers even better voice quality.
The voice is literally crystal clear. Your partner will hear you taking a breath in and out. (and that's no joke !!)
I am surprised to read Skype or IAX is not supported but can accept it.
I have to confirm yet if Netmeeting will work with it.
Ekiga does (think of it as a sip based Netmeeting) and there are other compatible softphones out there too like f.e portsip, eyeBeam etc.
Its pretty cool that you can receive PC calls.
This means that your partner does Not have to buy the GXV3140 if (s)he doesn't want to.
The video experience itself is pretty cool too, but dont yet consider it a replacement for a video conference system. Instead think of it more like a web cam experience.
The video size is sufficient to confirm that its your mum on the other side.
That alone can make it worth if you live far away from people you care about.
I have read stories about it being used in health care as well.
The key to being able to enjoying it is the networks latency and that is where you (usually) don't have influence in long distance calls.
Nevertheless we have been running tests between Tokyo (Japan) and Frankfurt (Germany). The slower end of the line ran on a DSL 384 kbps SOHO connection.
After some initial trial and error to start with we found that it gave us sufficient performance to make us want to deploy it further.
Summary:
Spending $250 on a VoIP phone is not cheap, but with this amount of functionality it might be worth considering. You get the most used functions accessible from your desk for the fraction of a power consumption a PC has.
In addition it also offers non technical users accessible functionality in a new package.
If you think about being able to see the people that are close to you, whether or not they are within the same building or on the other side of the street, the country or the ocean, then this alone is a big time motivation.
While the video experience alone might be the most attraction for some, for me its really the combination with the other applications that pull each separate function together and make it a whole package.
Also note while most phones are not used when you dont call, this phone has a screensaver, digital photo frame function, mp3 player, internet radio streaming function, weather function, currency converter etc. all build in.
Have I even mentioned yet that the interface currently already supports 11 languages ?
English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Chinese (twice), Korean, Japanese etc. - (the last language I am guessing is either Russian or perhaps Greek).
Overall, in its current state I think its well worth 4 stars.
Three things that immediately got my attention:
First, upgrade your phone to the latest firmware.
Second, I personally would like to see the GXV3140 offer at least 6 sip accounts.
This way I could take all current accounts from the "old" phone over to the new phone.
Thirdly, I would loved to see the device design more elegant and in different colours than black. (f.e coffee cream or pearl white) perhaps at some time skins will be available in several colors.
* A fairytale pig, which in addition gives milk and lays eggs and with a skin made of wool. You get the idea ? ;-)
--- Update on 18th December 2009 ---
Things have been heating up in the Grandstream forum in the last weeks while users were waiting for the long promised support for H263, SRTP etc.
The new Firmware 1.0.3.10 (released 8 hours ago) addresses many of the users concerns.
Its still beta and the favorites settings get lost, but this firmware is starting to show case what the GXV3140 and its fuzz behind it is all about.
This also shows Grandstreams commitment to develop the product on a steady pace towards a six star killer application.
Finally the light at the end of the tunnel is starting to shine through.
--- Stay tuned ---
