Product Review: Snom D785
Snom is a unique offering in the business world because their products are always high performing and well-designed phones that perform with that legendary German precision. Let’s check out the Snom D785 as another member of the company’s next-generation desktop VoIP lineup.
For information and background on the Snom D735, be sure to see our review published earlier this year.
Features and Out-of-the-Box Experience
The Snom D785, at first look, is a very handsome set. It has that legendary Snom design in a compact body — with numerous features and buttons all presented in an aesthetically pleasing way. The phone has an impressive 4.3” color display and 6 configurable LED keys that can bring frequently-contacted colleagues within one-touch access. There’s also a secondary display that brings easy contact and call management functionality to the forefront.
Let’s look at the D785s feature list:
- A 4.3” 320×240 color LCD screen
- Support for up to 12 SIP accounts
- Dedicated display for extension monitoring
- Dual switch gigabit ethernet ports with integrated power over ethernet (known as PoE)
- HD Audio support with support for all the major codecs including Opus
- 3-year standard warranty from Snom
When your Snom D785 arrives, you’ll open the box and discover the highly fashionable handset base, ethernet cord, power cords and footstand that allows you to set up the phone at the viewing angle that makes sense for your desk height and preferences.
Provisioning
After you unbox and set up the phone, the Snom D785 is ready for provisioning to your company’s phone system. If the Snom phone was ordered through the SkySwitch Store, the phone will come pre-provisioned and ready for use directly out of the box.
As my unit came direct from Snom, I simply followed the instructions on the SkySwitch Knowledge Base, which instructed me to:
- Add the Snom D785’s MAC address to my SkySwitch Dash Manager via the MAC address, which can be found on the back of the phone
- Set the D785 to use SkySwitch’s provisioning server via the D785 web user interface.
- To find the D785’s IP address, record it upon boot-up as it’s displayed on the color screen as it loads up
- Pull up the IP address in a browser using a computer on the same network by going to http://
- Set the provisioning server to http://sipcfg.io/cfg/{mac}
- Hit save and reboot the Snom D785. The phone will reboot and be ready for use
Use and Performance
I’ve had the Snom D785 on my desk for a week, using it to call contacts in Ireland, and landlines all over the US and Canada.
In terms of call testing, the D785 performed very well. All my callers were able to hear me clearly when I spoke on the handset as I spoke to them on landlines and mobile phones. Also, when talking through my headset, I was clearly audible to callers and they sounded great to me. The speakerphone returned great results as well – and it was freeing to be able to depend on its crisp and clear audio quality when I had to quickly answer.
The stand-out feature on the D785 though has to be the secondary screen. With it, you can bring contacts, calling features and applications within one-touch access. For instance, if you want to initiate a 3-way call, it’s fast with these customizable buttons.
Another small touch on this phone I love: the integrated LED that provides a visual alert to voicemails when I return to my desk. It’s a small touch — but to me, it stands out in this compact, highly functional phone.
One note for D785 buyers — there’s no power unit in the box. So, if your office environment doesn’t support PoE (power over ethernet), you’ll want to add a plug-in adapter to power the D785.
Conclusion
The Snom D785 is a smart, attractive phone that keeps me in contact with all my colleagues, in my office and abroad. The smart modern design of this deskphone presents call functionality in an intuitive way, and the performance of the D785 means you can rely on a quality call, every time.