Customer Reviews

Polycom Voicestation 300 Analog Conference Phone

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I work from home on a regular basis and this product solved the problem of not having a good solution for conducting conference calls from my home office. As stated in the literature, it doesn't pick up past about 7 feet from the phone but I actually think that is a good thing since any possible background noise (i.e. dog barking in another room) doesn't come across the call and distract the participants. Great phone and great buy. Highly recommended for small conf table or home office use.

I've used the Polycom 300 for about 6 months now and my experience has been very mixed. The sound from the speaker is great. However, everyone I speak to with this phone complains that my voice sounds like I'm talking from inside a sea-shell or a tin can.

They have trouble hearing me and I find that I have to hold my head about 10 inches from the mic in order to be heard clearly. People hate talking to me when I'm on this phone.

Unlike the digital polycom units, this one doesn't have external microphone inputs... so there's really no way to remediate the poor sound with a better microphone.

It is what it is.

My recommendation would be to consider other products before this one - or at the very least, wait for the price to go way down.

I purchased a VoiceStation 300 for my home office in order to do business conference calls, and had to return it no more than 10 days later. People on the other end couldn't hear me unless I was inches away from the speakers, and my voice was constantly breaking up because the unit was picking up ambient noise from the heating system in the room. I was very disappointed in the performance of this product.

Three of us had to huddle very close to the speaker to be heard by the folks on the conference call. Not even close to an excellent product.

It is well constructed, good looking, and has excellent voice quality. Very suitable for office meetings with 3-5 participants. Also, it is not too big, and will save space for your desk :)

This review is for Rev D, which is what I received. The speakerphone has very good sound quality, and I would rate the speakerphone capability as four or five stars. There was a "marketing" sticker pasted above the model number labeled "No Cell Phone Buzz." (It does not appear in the product photo or is mentioned in the description.) I interpreted that as it was immune to the irritating buzzing sound picked up by speakers from cell phones due to radio interference.

Overall I gave it two stars because the speaker makes a hiss when the unit is off. I have a very quiet home office and the placement of the unit is in relative close proximity to me; I found the continuous hiss annoying and returned the unit. (Amazon makes returns very easy.) I am going to try the Voicestation 500. The hiss has been noted by other reviewers so it was not particular to my unit. If you are several feet away from the unit or are in a louder setting, you will probably not hear the hiss.

Jan 16, 2010 Update: Voicestation 500 speaker also makes a hiss when unit is off.

The use of the product was for a medium sized room. I did not set it up, I was the remote user. I think if it was more centrally located in the meeting room it would have had better results. The attendees speaking up would have also helped. But, it did its job with no problems.

The Voicestation 300 is a good option for enabling conference on small-to-medium meeting rooms. The sound is crisp, as it is for all polystation products, operation is simple, and the price-benefit relation is very good.

We are using a couple of these units for more than 6 months, with a great level of satisfaction.

While the full duplexing allows for conversations where both parties can speak at once, the microphone on this isn't very good. It makes the speaker's voice sound tinny and grating. The speaker is very good, though.

Lovely product for the price.
I love the design, and the simplicity of the keypad.

only thing I would change, is either make the power adapter a smaller one, or in the format of a laptop, e.g. a cable attached to the wall, and the adapter on the floor.