Cisco 8841 IP Phone Review

thank you
hey guys it's Prince rich with Rich
Technology Group and in today's video
we're going to do an unboxing and review
of Cisco's 8841 desktop IP phone but
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when new videos release okay so first
and foremost a little bit of backstory
of this phone why it's here and why
we're doing this review for those of you
who may or may not remember I mentioned
in previous shorts and videos that Cisco
reviews will be coming soon for two
reasons number one a lot of you in the
comments were specifically asking hey
Prince we love your review videos but
how come you never talk about Cisco so
back in early 2022 we actually got a
little more acquainted with Cisco told
them that a lot of our viewers were
asking for reviews and I also had the
pleasure of interviewing their Global
lead which I'll tag that video above of
when I was actually at Channel partners
and so so went the relationship with
Cisco and we got permission to not only
review this phone but Cisco actually
sent me over a box of what they say are
their top five IP phones so this will be
the first one in the bunch so expect a
lot more Cisco reviews in the future as
always big thank you to Cisco for
sending this phone over to us at our
request as well as many others and also
thank you so much to the good old boys
and girls over at VoIP supply for
handling the shipping and Logistics and
getting this over to us safe and sound
so without further Ado let's see what's
in this box
all right so looks like we've got here
that looks like your phone kickstand
there looks like we've also got an
ethernet cable got our connector cable
here looks like we've got regulations
manual or whatnot this looks like the
actual handset for the phone here and
then last but not least here is your
actual Cisco 8841 phone and that is just
beautiful let's go ahead and put this
thing together and see what it looks
like First Impressions all set up and
powered on all right guys so here we are
with our Cisco 8841 desktop IP phone I
gotta say this is a beautiful phone this
is one of the prettier phones to Grace
this studio since maybe the poly CCX 600
and yay Lynx t58w Pro with webcam it's
definitely in the top three or top five
most pretty phones that has come into
this office but before we jump into
First Impressions and what we got here
quick disclaimer because there's
something different about this phone
that I just noticed and spent the last
hour trying to figure out for you guys
so if you take a look here you guys are
going to notice that on the screen here
it says enter activation code I have
talked to Cisco I have talked to VoIP
Supply and I have been back and forth on
Google and I cannot figure out how to
get past this code to show you guys some
of the stuff on the home screen but
that's okay nonetheless we're still
going to do an unboxing interview
because I got lots of other data on this
phone that I've researched that I want
to go over with you guys but I found out
that this is not only kind of a security
measure but it's also a provisioning and
profile type of measure meaning
basically you've got to either kind of
connect to Cisco's admin profile if
you're using this phone on an internal
phone system say like a semi-orn premise
or hybrid system or you've got to
connect this thing to your actual
providers profile such as say a Vonage
or dial pad or nextiva which of course
as you guys know if you've watched my
other videos about how voik works that
would connect to your profile which has
like your login your voicemail your
contacts list things like the and
connects to the server that is
controlling the provisioning on your
Cisco phone here since we don't have
that because we don't actually use Cisco
or WebEx in our office and we review
many phones I can't actually get past
the screen but that's okay I still got
tons we're going to go over with this
phone for you guys today so let's keep
going as you can see it's got a really
ergonomic design I dig it Cisco
classifies this as a business class
phone and they also boast that this
phone is easy to use it's got a five
inch high resolution display which is
actually VGA backlit color display and
they also claim that it has a standard
wide band capable audio handset which
you can see here I'm also told based on
my notes and based on all the research
that I've seen that this uses HD voice
now you guys know we review a lot of
poly on this channel and Polly's got the
signature HD voice but Cisco's got what
they call their HD voice so I'd be
curious to know what the quality of this
is anybody who's watching this that uses
a Cisco by all means state in the
comments below what you think but I'm
just curious in that regard the other
thing is that this phone is really
popular for or is basically held for
having a renowned like great user
experience like people just like the way
it feels the sound quality the display
like everything kind of comes together
and what they claim is a really good
user experience all right so looking at
our buttons and interfaces at a glance I
mean it's pretty typical you've got your
typical function keys up here you've got
four of them you've got a navigational
keypad which moves you know you can go
up down left and right and it's also got
a button in the middle that moves on its
own which I guess is like an accept
button you've got your typical in-call
button here and then you've got your
numeric pad like you do with most phones
it's got a quick button here to go to
voicemail and then it's got a quick
settings button and a quick looks like a
phone book so for contacts buttons so
that's kind of cool that's something
that's not on every phone over here
you've got like a quick pause or put a
call on hold and then you've also got
looks like conferencing buttons here or
to be able to patch out to different
lives like to be able to add another
person to the line or do a conference on
the Fly and then of course you got your
typical volume up and down button and
then your buttons to control external
audio interfaces such as speakerphone
interface headset and then microphone
muting and things like that let's go
ahead and see what's on the back of this
phone for interfaces all right so you've
got your DC AC adapter Port here as
always this did not come in the box so
we've actually had this plugged up via
Ethernet because I've got Poe here in
our studio so just remember if you need
a power cable for this this will be
extra you've also got your ethernet Lan
Port here to be able to connect to your
internet which is what I was using and
it is poe because I had power going to
it you do have a pass through here which
I will assume is gigabit and then you've
got an auxiliary port here I don't know
that this particular Cisco is one of the
ones that supports a line card so I'd be
curious to know what this auxiliary port
can be used for you've also got a
headset it's like kind of like an RJ9
type headset Port here and then you've
also got your handset Port here for the
actual handset another thing I wanted to
show you guys is that this does have the
kickstand connected to it and it looks
like it is just a one position I didn't
see any other mounts or anything and
this does not look like it is one of
those kind that you can turn backwards
to be able to get a variable height it
looks like this just goes in in the one
position you got a key lock there let me
show you guys that cool thing that I
found out about this phone by accident
so check this out guys if you've ever
seen any videos of these different Cisco
phones just in passing like Cisco's
marketing collateral or you've seen it
on their website or whatnot you probably
notice that you can change the colors of
these like people have the bezels in
different colors but what I did not know
was when I went to pull off the plastic
covering you know the like sticky part
when I went to pull that off I actually
the screen actually came up with it and
I thought I had broke the thing or
something but it turns out that this is
magnetic check this out so if you look
at the back of this you see that it's
got four little magnets there on each
corner and if you look at the actual
phone itself you can see that there are
four magnetic screws there so this is an
actual magnetic interchangeable bezel so
that's kind of cool right jumping into
the technical specifications of the
Cisco 8841 IP desk phone this is a five
line programmable phone so you can have
up to five lines on it now as you can
see here it looks like it's got 10 but
according to everything I've researched
on this phone it says that you can have
up to five lines or what we otherwise
call five sip accounts it is a Poe phone
so it is power over ethernet which is
exactly how it's getting its power right
now and it does have a gigabit Ethernet
passthrough on it this phone also
supports multi-core per line feature and
you can also do third party hosted call
control and three-way conferencing it
also has a function called Always on
reliability and it does have a full
duplex speakerphone which you can
actually see over here and it looks like
this entire thing is a speakerphone so
that's actually kind of nice there as
well this phone also supports wideband
audio for crystal clear communication
and it does use Cisco's HD voice and it
also says that it has audible dual tone
multi-frequency capability also known as
DTMF which is added for an extra layer
of security now while we're on this
subject I do want to point out that
Cisco has always kind of been the gold
standard for security and we've actually
got a handful of customers that use
Cisco with Cisco's WebEx platform for
these reasons for a specific standard of
security and end-to-end encryption for
their phone system and Communications as
far as the keys are concerned this phone
supports softkey these four-way
navigation Keys select Keys hold and
resume key transfer conference Keys
messaging direct Keys standard keypad as
you can see volume control keys
speakerphone headset control and also
mute keys for not only the handset but
also to be able to control the mute
function of your speaker and your
headset in use this phone boasts support
for all major languages and it also
states that it is energy efficient and
eco-friendly because it uses Cisco's
energy wise technology which has been
qualified by energy star major calling
features that this phone supports are
but are not limited to busy lamp field
call forwarding call filter call history
list call Park call timer call waiting
direct transfer conference calling and
call notifications okay so what do I
think about this phone let's start with
the pros so first I like the elegant
look as I showed you guys a little
earlier this thing has the ability for
you to change the bezel and the phone
also States on Cisco's website and in
their descriptions like on places like
voice Supply that you can get different
bezels of different colors so I believe
this whole thing can be changed out to
have different looks or different colors
and whatnot which is kind of cool it's a
good looking phone um the other thing is
the fact that it has HD audio quality
not only for the handset but also for
the speakerphone so it's nice to know
that you would have really exceptional
call Quality another really cool thing
that I like about this is that it goes
above and beyond in all of its
descriptions and boasting that it uses
Cisco's energy WISE Technology to reduce
energy cost now for those of you like
you know me that while we do have a team
at Rich Technology Group across the US
and some even overseas we all work kind
of in our own home offices and some in
an office but if you understand Cisco
you know that Cisco while it can be for
small business it does have a big focus
in large Enterprise such as hospitals
government large call centers things
like that so you may not have just one
of these like I do in an office or like
my staff may you might have 20 of these
in an office or 200 in an office or 2
000 in an actual building or complex and
if that's the case energy consumption
becomes a really big deal so that is a
big Pro there as well so jumping into
the cons I've only really got three
first and foremost this whole thing
about enter your activation code is
super annoying now I get it it's
probably for security reasons but we
don't personally use Cisco or WebEx
internally so I don't really have a way
to log into this why do I say that
that's a potential Con well if you're
somebody that wants to try the phone out
it would probably be impossible for you
to try this phone out and see what you
think about the interface beyond the
enter your activation code screen unless
you've got WebEx or You've Got a Friend
or maybe a neighbor or a business
colleague that uses it that would allow
you to be able to test out the phone the
good news is is Cisco seems pretty good
about things like demos um not only you
know virtually but maybe if you're a
large enough company midsize to
Enterprise I'm sure they'd send you one
and allow you to be able to take a look
at the interfaces and give you you know
a test activation code and account to be
able to look at it but for the purposes
of what I needed to do kind of a pain in
the butt moving on to the other two cons
that I have about this phone number one
this phone has no bluetooth support that
is definitely a bummer but before you
throw Cisco out of the window as a
potential option I do believe that they
have other phones in the bunch which
we're going to review later that provide
bluetooth support and then last but not
least my final con is this particular
phone has no Wi-fi support it can only
be connected via Ethernet that's not the
biggest con I've ever seen I mean
there's tons of phones I've reviewed on
this channel that don't support Wi-Fi
but would have been nice this isn't one
of Cisco's like oh my God newer phones
but this is one of their most popular
phones from a very popular generation so
I didn't expect this phone to have
Bluetooth or Wi-Fi built in I would
expect that on their newer models this
is a phone that is is well liked in the
Cisco Community has really good
compatibility with a lot of providers
out there on the market because of its
age and maturity in the Telecom space so
I still would not take this phone out of
your recommendation pool or potential
adoption pool if you're looking for
something that's got a really nice
interface good customization you know
good features that everybody likes but
most importantly has really wide range
of compatibility with a lot of providers
out there because of its adoption and
age in the market voice over IP
providers for those of you who are
wondering that are potentially
compatible with this phone are Vonage
nextiva RingCentral dial pad and of
course WebEx because WebEx is actually
Cisco's their own voice over IP service
that they offer which is compatible with
all Cisco phones that they currently
offer one thing I want to throw out
there is just a quick disclaimer is
while I do believe that all of the
providers that I just mentioned are
compatible with this IP phone like any
IP phone before you order any phones
especially if you're ordering them from
a third party Source other than the
provider you need to double check with
your provider that that phone will
actually work and of course if you're
working with us for voice over IP we're
going to make sure that whatever phones
you're looking for work with the
provider in question at the time of this
video the approximate price for the
Cisco 8841 IP phone is about 200 to 225
dollars through VoIP supply of course if
you talk to them or with the provider
that you're talking with that may offer
these wholesale with their voice over IP
service contractor package you can
probably get it a lot cheaper than that
if you're purchasing more than one of
these but as always I'll have links
below this video where you can see not
only the current price through VoIP
Supply you can also see some detailed
information that I'll have as well if
you're watching this video and you're
wondering what voice service providers
offer this phone as always our
information is below this video and you
can contact us directly not only do we
work with all of the VoIP service
providers that I mentioned we believe
are compatible with this phone we also
work with WebEx and have worked with
Cisco WebEx clients that have adopted
not only their system but Cisco phones
along with Cisco's hosted Voiceover IP
service WebEx so we can help you out
with custom demos special pricing on
quotes with the compatible providers
with this phone as well as if you're
looking for this phone through
third-party like void Supply we can work
with you on special pricing for that if
you need just phones and maybe not
service if you found this video helpful
or informative go ahead and show me some
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videos upload as always this is Prince
rich with Rich Technology Group your
go-to guy for the best deals on business
phone and internet service in the United
States I'll catch you guys again in the
next video
[Music]
thank you