Yealink T56A Telephone Review

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hey guys it's prince
rich with rich technology group and in
today's video we're going to do a
hands-on
unboxing and review of the yaylink t-56a
smart business phone so some of you are
probably watching this and you're
wondering
huh why is it called smart business
phone well it's simple
so you guys have seen me review a lot of
phones but most of them they have your
typical functions of a phone which this
one does
but this phone actually allows for the
use of microsoft teams
and also skype for business so
just before we get into this review so
you guys know there
is a t56a like this one
that basically is microsoft teams
compatible in skype for business
and then there's also another one i
forget the exact model number but
there's another one that looks exactly
identical to the one that i'm going to
show you today
but it is not teams compatible
unfortunately even though i'm going to
power this thing up and let you guys see
the screen and see what it looks like in
powered on mode
i won't be able to log into it and show
you any intricate features regarding
teams because
we don't use teams here at rich
technology group but i am going to go
over the interface the features i'm
going to talk to you guys about some of
the select similarities
between this phone and some of the other
yay link phones in the t50 series
such as the 54w that we've reviewed in
previous videos and that i've
actually used in the office and then i'm
just going to wrap up with some other
my honest thoughts my first impressions
and what i think about this phone so
without further ado let's unbox this bad
boy and see what we got
and one other thing that i totally
forgot to mention this box as always
was sent to us by voip supply so huge
thanks to voip supply for sending us
over this box
if you if you like what you see in this
video i'll have some links below this
video on our youtube channel as well
as the blog that gets created later on
for this review
where you can go on voip supplies
website and you can see more specific
information
such as pricing you know detailed
hardware specifications
what it's compatible with and much more
also as always if you're on voip
supplies website and you're looking at
this piece of hardware
you can either reach out to us if you
need help or recommendations on this
phone with them
or just hit up one of the people in the
chat at voip supply and say hey
i saw this video of a review of this
phone rich technology group
sent me and they'll be more than happy
to help you with whatever you need
everything from seeing if this phone is
right for your business
or getting you special pricing on one or
more of these or any other phones or
voip related hardware that you need for
your business so again
let's jump right into this and see what
we got in the box
all right this looks like our actual
phone assembly here
yep and just like i told you guys this
very much has a liking
to the t54w
so let's put that down same layout
a lot less buttons than a t54w or than a
t46s
from yaylink but keep in mind that's
because this is a touch screen so a lot
of your buttons and your function
is going to be in the screen so that
means less button space needed
even though the chassis is almost the
same it even looks like they freed up
some space here
but if you look at it first impressions
you notice there's no directional pad
here
my guess is is because all that's going
to be up here
for you to move around and things like
that so let's see what else we got
inside this box
all right you've got your quick start
guide here
yay link as again this is a t-56a
teams edition again as i mentioned
there's one that is like this that is
not a teams edition
and you can just automatically provision
it without having to have a team log in
or anything like that like i said we
don't use teams
so we're not actually going to get into
too much of the interface
in this video unfortunately
here is your mounting bracket i mean
your uh not your mounting bracket i'm
sorry this is kind of like your uh
stand that would go on the back so that
you can stand this up and we'll assemble
all that in a few
here is your cord obviously to connect
the
uh handset to the actual base
and then as always a cat5 or cat6e cable
in the bag to connect to your switch or
router
and then last but not least is
our handset
right here all right so
let's go ahead and put all this together
shall we
all right looks like this would go this
way like so
yep we'll go ahead and connect
our handset here like so
all right and there you have it yaylink
t-56a
teams edition so
let's go ahead and see what type of
interfaces this thing has got before we
get into specifications
and then power it on and i give you guys
my honest thoughts
okay so the front as i mentioned before
looks very similar to most all of the
other
t50 series phones
that yay link has like the t58 the t54w
so on and so forth um the one thing that
i noticed
is that i already mentioned earlier is
that this thing still uses the same
chassis as the other t50 models but
because it's a touch screen
it doesn't need as much functionality on
the actual chassis
but instead of minimizing the chassis
itself
they just kind of eliminated where
buttons are on the non-touch screen
yaylink phones that use this exact same
l-shaped
uh you know chassis if you will so
that's kind of strange
i guess it makes it easier from a
manufacturing standpoint they don't have
to change machinery or the chassis type
but it's just kind of weird that there's
that bare
space like that there to me that looks
strange but that's just a personal
preference that has obviously no bearing
on the functionality or anything of the
phone itself
the buttons as always which is the case
with most of these yay links that i've
worked with
is are very ergonomic they feel really
nice on the hands
they're easy to push they're very
responsive so that's one thing that i've
always personally liked a lot about yay
link devices
that i'm sure somebody who likes
responsive buttons or
you know just prefers buttons that feel
good on the hands and you know are just
good to use
feel nice to use would appreciate
the receiver on this phone is pretty
self-explanatory i mean you know you
pick it up you hang it up
it's got the round little speaker here
which is kind of traditional on most of
the a-links
um sometimes i wish that the
speakerphone here was a little bigger as
you noticed with some of the other
phones out there like your fan villes
and even some of your polycoms
the speaker tends to be bigger
especially with the fanville having like
a giant
almost all of this being a speaker which
gives you kind of more of a
i guess more audio quality or a louder
speaker if you've got a bigger office or
need to move around
i've not tested the speaker on this so i
can't tell you whether it's too quiet or
too loud but
it's typical of your yay link t50 series
speaker phones
okay so our for our interfaces on the
back
we've got your typical internet port
here this is a poe capable phone
so this is a poe capable pass through
you've got your internet port here this
is where you would come in with your
router from your you know your internet
service provider from your switch to
give this thing
actual internet and of course if it's a
poe switch that's how you give it power
and this is your pass-through port that
can go out to a pc
to also share the internet connection or
some other internet-enabled device
like maybe like a i don't know like if
you had a internet fax or something like
that that you wanted to connect to
or whatever that may be i guess in this
case it'll be an ata there is
a dc 5 volt power adapter jack here
but as most of you may already know
which i mentioned in many of our phone
review videos
most iphones when you purchase them from
a third-party source other than the
service provider
they do not include the power supply so
just be aware of that
when you purchase these online from like
a voip supply or an amazon
or something like that they are assuming
that you're either going to buy this
power adapter separately
or you've got a poe switch to power your
phones in your office so just be mindful
of that
over here to the right on your ports
panel on the bottom or back side of this
phone
you've got where your actual handset
receiver
plugs into which is this here that i'm
holding going into there
and then you've got like your typical
rj9 um
headset jack now i don't personally
really have any rj nods everything is
pretty much usb or bluetooth at this
point
but luckily this phone does
have a usb port on the back
as you can see right there that's on the
back side of the actual screen
that you can plug into with the usb
headset and this phone
does also support bluetooth and i also
believe it supports
wi-fi which i'll verify that shortly um
but i'm pretty sure it supports wi-fi
because most of the phones in the 50 in
the t50 series when you get
higher up like to the t54 and higher
they support
wi-fi but i do need to verify that
i was really hoping for a second usb
port on the side
a lot of phones these days have a second
a separate usb port that tends to be
like maybe on this side
or over here but there is nothing so it
looks like there's just one usb port on
here
which you can use for like an external
recording device or
more commonly used for an external
headset
and now we are going to power this bad
boy on and maybe while we are waiting
we will get into the specifications of
the actual device
itself
okay so the yaylink t56a teams edition
smart business phone it has a seven inch
1024 by 600 capacitive
touchscreen it runs android 5.1.1 so
that actually
is new news to me i would be curious to
know once you get into this thing do you
have access to like the play store
or something like that to be able to
install apps unfortunately i don't know
but i will have links that can tell you
all of that under this video so don't
worry for those of you who are
interested
this thing supports bluetooth 4.0 for
headsets and pairing
mobile devices um it says
it's pretty interesting it says
bluetooth 4.0 for headsets and pairing
mobile devices
via dongle and it says wi-fi 802.11
via dongle so unless i'm mistaken that's
actually a little bit disappointing it's
funny because on yaylink's website
it says that the wi-fi is kind of built
in from what i gathered unless i'm
mistaken
but on other third-party sources it's
saying that it requires a dongle
but i'll try to dig up that information
for you guys i want to believe that this
thing has wi-fi and bluetooth built in
without the use of a dongle because it's
other you know phones that are also in
the 50 series that are
cheaper than this phone before as you
step up to the 56a
do not require a dongle to be able to
connect to wi-fi
and bluetooth so i'm really hoping that
this is just a typo here
um it does say it is usb compliant and
it's 2.0
it says for usb headsets media and
storage applications
and it also says it supports up to 16
voip accounts which means this is a 16
simultaneous
line or simultaneous call phone
and i would assume that that actually
is in tandem with whatever you're able
to do through your microsoft teams
account based on the phone system you're
using
or what capabilities and functions and
features you have with whatever
microsoft teams plan
and phone system you're running it says
that you can also do
up to a five party audio conference so
that's kind of cool that's better than a
three-way call
and it says it has a stand with two
adjustable angles so the stand that you
guys saw me set up earlier
it it looks like i've probably got it on
the the
highest angle yeah and then it means you
can probably also go lower and push it
back a bit
so that is possible there it does say it
is wall mountable but obviously a wall
mount bracket is not
included with this phone in the box as
you just saw
and last but not least it says that it
has a color screen
expansion module support which means if
you wanted to add an expansion module
to this phone for additional lines or
additional functionality
you can do that via this port over here
that is actually covered up here is what
that is
you would attach it here and then i
assume connect it through the auxiliary
in the back of the phone so you can put
an expansion module
on the side of this phone which is
actually cool and works great for
somebody in an office who
is probably taking a lot of calls and
needs to be able to
you know have that expansion capability
on this phone
okay guys so real talk pros and cons
what i do and don't like about it
let's start with the pros first of all
it's a beautiful design
it's that familiar yay link t50 series
uh
you know desktop type phone that just is
sexy to look at it looks really good in
an office
um the only thing that i don't really
care so much about
is just the space that's missing here
but other than that it's a good looking
design
color screen is really nice it's very
responsive even though i can't sign
in into microsoft teams i've played with
it a little bit
you know during the pauses on this video
and the color screen is really
responsive
i personally never have really liked
touch screen phones because i found that
historically older touch screen phones
you touch it and then there's like a
millisecond or sometimes even a second
delay
and the time that you touch the screen
and the time that you get your menu
not the case with this phone it seems
very responsive
even on the on-screen keyboard it's
extremely responsive
to my taps into my inputs and whatnot so
that's one thing that i really actually
like about it
other pros it supports microsoft teams
um
even though we don't use teams
internally we talk with a lot of
customers that do
that are looking for a phone that can
integrate with teams for vonage teams
for nextiva teams for talk desk you know
teams for ringcentral
to be able to connect with a phone like
this
that will work directly with your
service provider and also have
teams functionality and support that you
can also integrate and use
with your service provider that's just
icing on the cake that's just a win-win
the fact that it supports an expansion
module to the right of the chassis
that's a huge plus even though i don't
personally
use enough lines or talk to that many
people in a given day
for large offices or people that need to
manage a lot of calls like a front desk
receptionist
you know at a big law firm or multiple
people at a call center that are routing
a lot of calls and need to be able to
see shared line appearance or
who's available or patching to people
quickly being able to add an expansion
module to this phone is actually a
really big plus
so you guys are going to laugh at this
other pro that i like about this phone
because i noticed it when i unboxed it
and meant to say something earlier but i
guess we'll say it now
um one of the things that was really
neat is that this
user manual that came with this thing
has like a basic call features
cheat sheet most phones that i review of
all different brands
they do not have anything in it that
shows you how to do certain things in
the basic sense like
how to park a call how to transfer a
call how to do a warm transfer
how to do a blind or unattended transfer
so on and so forth
how to do a basic conference this thing
seems to have all of the basic features
and literally like what we like to call
layman terms which is just
hey want to make a call do this wanna
transfer call
step one press this step two press this
step three press that so
that's actually a really big pro that it
has a cheat sheet manual like this
i know some of you are watching this and
laughing and being like really prince
how's that a pro
uh you'd be surprised how many people
call me after
we have recommended a phone system
provider to them they've chosen their
phones they've went with the provider
and they call me up and say hey prince
we love this system that you um
recommended we even love the phones but
we have no idea how to use them
there's no manual there's nothing that
tells me how to do anything in the basic
sense like transfer a call
conference in somebody do this or that
well it's actually in this manual most
of the stuff that even i would need to
do
were i using this phone so that's a huge
pro there
okay so i found that information for you
guys and this is still in our list of
pros
this thing does support integrated
bluetooth and integrated wi-fi from what
i'm seeing on yaylink's website
it does not require that you have a
wi-fi dongle which means
less plugs and things and less expense
to be able to get on wifi or get on
bluetooth
that's actually a huge plus so you've
got the choice on this thing for your
headset
of using the regular rj9 plug or you
could use the usb port
or just go totally bluetooth and if this
phone is anything like what i've
experienced in the past when i connected
a bluetooth headset
to a yaylink in the 50 series it's more
or less like instantaneous you pair it
and you're paired within like two
minutes or so however
long it takes to do pairing i also
looked at some other information on this
thing prior to this
video and i learned that this phone has
a built-in web browser
since it's android os my guess is maybe
it's based off of chrome since android
is google
but it has a built-in web browser and
it's also
android so it has built-in calendar
it said it has a built-in calendar and
also a built-in where did it go
built-in calendar built-in voice
recorder or phone call recorder
and much more so i don't know if you can
access the play store with this thing
but my guess
is it's some form of a limited play
store of sorts
where you can get access to certain apps
that have been approved
by google and by android and for use on
this yaylink platform
okay so let's move on to the cons the
first one
which i already mentioned once before
that is just very strange to me
and i can't stop looking at it is
obviously from a manufacturing
standpoint to create all these phones in
the t50 series
it's easier to use the same mold or the
same chassis that's already kind of
we'll say on the press so to speak if
you will
on the printing press so i understand
why
this chassis is on here even though they
don't need all this space for these
buttons
because most of this functionality is
going to be in your touch screen here
but it just looks weird to me that
there's absolutely nothing here like
it makes me want to put like a yay link
sticker there
like a rtg sticker there or like
something that says for service call
here
just to fill that space so that i can
stop looking at it because it looks
strange
for me the con of this phone another con
would be that this phone
it seems like you can't use it at all
unless you have microsoft teams and i
don't use microsoft teams so for me
the phone is virtually useless for us
even though it is compatible with the
voip service provider that we use
but like i just don't really have a use
for this phone
because we don't use microsoft teams so
that's one
i guess you could say that's a con for
us at rich technology group but not
necessarily a con
or a or or anything bad towards yay link
because like i said yeah link makes one
well i'll just show you guys yaylink
actually
has one that is not the team's version
of this particular phone so you can get
this phone where it just
works with your provider assuming your
provider supports this particular
yaylink t50 series phone
you don't have to use it with microsoft
teams you can get that version which i
wish i had
okay so that's it for cons so you guys
are probably wondering how much does
this thing cost
based on what i've been able to see from
our sources this thing
is priced at about anywhere from about
399 to 415
depending on where you get it from so
we'll just say it's about a 400 phone
um that sounds about right uh you know
with the
with some of the other ones that are
similar to this chassis
but don't necessarily have the uh have
the teams integration or the google play
store and all that kind of stuff and
android capability
where you can you know check voice
this thing has visual voicemail so you
can listen to voicemails visually like
on the screen and stuff like that
um which a lot of phones even in this
yay league series cannot do
that being said i'd say it's a pretty
good price
where some of the other gay link phones
in this series that can't do these
functions
come in at maybe about 275 to 300. so
you're talking about
extra hundred dollars to get teams
integration android and like a lot of
google app and whatnot
capability and stuff like calendar
integration and all that it's not a bad
price
um one other con that i totally forgot
to mention that i wanted to point out
that i thought was
strange which is weird because some of
the other phones in the same series like
the 254w
can do this is this screen does not move
it doesn't it doesn't have a tilt hinge
here where you can actually move the
screen back and forth
to either you know fit your viewing
angle of the distance or the height of
your seat at your desk
or to basically be able to move it to
push away from the glare of like a
window or something like that like i did
earlier
so um that's probably the only other con
that i can think of with this
if you're interested in this phone um
feel free to hit us up on our website or
just hit up hit us up in the comments
you know i'll have links where you can
get it from voip supply
or amazon in the in the uh on the
description
but if you want to talk to somebody and
you feel that you need more of a
consultative approach
just let us know you know i am more than
happy to hook you up with one of our
contacts at voip supply who is more than
happy
to chat with you to find out more about
your business needs see if this phone
makes
any sense for your business especially
if you're using teams or
to see if another team's capable phone
because there's a bunch of them out
there
you know uh makes the most sense for
your business
so anywho if you found this video
helpful
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um uh what else is gonna oh well you
guys know the deal the outro
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
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video
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you