Hands on with the Unidata WPU7700 (and a Quickphones update)

First, two quick updates on the Quickphones QA-342. First, the battery on that phone finally died. The available information on the expected life of the battery seems to vary a bit depending on which site you are looking at. The site I purchased the phone from claims it should last 7 days. The Quickphones release notes claim 70 hours. Based on this, I figured if I got 70 hours out of it, I would call the battery life a success. After three days, the phone still showed 50% of the battery available. After 9 days, it was finally dead. To put some quick perspective on the battery life. This isn't a situation where I just put the phone on the desk and waited for it to die. I actually used it during that week. I probably spent 30-45 minutes talking on the phone. (Which, while not a lot of time, should have at least a small impact on the battery life of the phone.) So, the verdict on battery life for the Quickphones is an overwhelming two thumbs up.

Second, I heard back from the Quickphones guys. They said they are looking in to the multiple AP issue. If they could get this fixed, I would be sold on these phones for day to day use. As I mentioned in a previous post, the voice quality isn't great, and the shape of the phone could use some work. But, both of those things aren't annoying enough to keep me from using the phone.


However, while I was getting no response from Quickphones, I decided to pick up a Unidata WPU7700. From what I could tell, this phone offered the next best battery life in a Wifi phone.

The phone itself is built well, and feels pretty hefty. Not that I would recommend dropping it, but it does feel like it could take a drop or two. (Assuming the screen didn't break, of course.)

Out of the box, each button press resulted in a beeping noise. This was extremely irritating. Fortunately, hitting the menu button, and switching to the "sounds" menu, I was able to shut that off. This made the phone a lot more pleasant to use.

This phone quickly connected to my WPA2-PSK network. And, after figuring out how the text input worked, I was able to quickly get it signed on as an extension on my Asterisk box. So, I got on quickly to the first test I wanted to run. The battery life test.

I let the phone get a full charge, and then unplugged it from power and left it sitting on the desk. About 21 hours later, the phone was beeping and complaining it was low on power. This was shocking, to say the least. This phone was supposed to have 40 hours of stand-by battery time.

While configuring it, I had turned on the internal web server. So, I wondered if that was keeping the phone more awake that it needed to be. I shut it off, and charged the phone back up completely, and left it sitting on the desk again. About 21 hours later, the phone was again beeping and complaining that it was low on power.

Since I don't see any more options for adjusting the power savings on the phone, I have to conclude that the battery life on this phone is nowhere near what the manufacturer claims. (And down right pitiful compared to the Quickphones!)

As for the sound quality of this phone, it was quite good. It is on par with any cordless analog phone you would find.

One of the more interesting things about this phone is all of the crazy features it has. It has a small web browser built in, some text messaging functionality, a calculator, and a bunch of other little applets. For many, or perhaps most, of the applets, I can't see a point to them. It is functionality that exists on other pieces of equipment that exist in a normal business or even a house. The one feature the Unidata phone has that is great, is the ability to do 802.1X. (Or, WPA(2)-Enterprise, if you want to call it by that name.) I didn't test the functionality, since I have not had time. But, for businesses that care about security, this would be a major win.