After a long wait and roughly a year after other brands like Yealink brought Microsoft Teams certified phones to the market, Poly “formerly Polycom” finally joined the party with the release of their CCX line of Microsoft Teams certified devices and I finally got my hands on one, the CCX 500.
The Good
- The clean lines and elegant style make the CCX 500 fit in nicely to the aesthetics of a modern office.
- The 5 inch touch screen is sharp, easy to read, and refreshingly fast and responsive compared to some of the other Teams certified devices I’ve tried.
- I like the fact that it has actual buttons for the speakerphone, headset, mute, and volume, and there is a also a “Teams” button to be enabled with a future software update.
- The handset and speakerphone are both clear and get plenty loud.
- The inclusion of both USB A as well as a USB C port provide both current and future support of Teams certified headsets and accessories.
- Built in Bluetooth for pairing Bluetooth headsets directly to the phone.
- Wi-Fi can be added via USB dongle
- On the top right there is a red light that blinks to notify you of voicemails.
The Not so Good
- My biggest complaint isn’t against the CCX 500 specifically so much as the entire line of Poly Teams phones. Why is there not a single model with a physical dial pad, if a user doesn’t want to use a soft phone client and wants a desk phone instead, that user is probably also the type that wants to punch phone numbers into old fashioned physical buttons on a phone. I know a Dialpad isn’t not fancy, modern, or good looking, but I believe physical buttons “especially for the dial pad” is what users want.