Product Review: Yealink SIP-T53W
Yealink is a desk phone, speakerphone and headset manufacturer that is trusted for making great sounding voice products that are reliable, big on value and easy to deploy. Today, we evaluate the mid-range Yealink SIP-T53W and evaluate it for its viability in today’s office environment.
Features
The Yealink SIP-T53W is an attractive phone unit with a 3.7” LCD display that swivels vertically for an optimal viewing angle depending on your desk height and setup. This desk phone model has advanced wireless connectivity, including built-in support for Bluetooth, and dual-band Wi-Fi, so you can use it without being tethered to an ethernet cable if you choose. Finally, you’ll find and a USB port for call recording or using with a wireless expansion module that enables you to use Yealink expansion modules, or cordless phones
In an office environment with background noise? You’ll enjoy Yealink’s proprietary Acoustic Shield technology, which eliminates background chatter and distractions. In today’s growing work from home use of phones made for the office, this is a big plus when the kids walk in and just start talking to you from across the room.
Other features to highlight:
- Support for Wi-Fi (including 802.11a/b/g/n/ac)
- Bluetooth 4.2 connectivity for wireless headsets
- USB port for call recording on a USB thumb drive
- Power over Ethernet (PoE) support
- Support for up to 16 VoIP accounts
- LED for call and message waiting indication
Lastly, I’d really like to highlight the Wi-Fi capability that’s included onboard the Yealink SIP-T53W. With more office workers needing business phones at home, this unit’s wireless connectivity enables you to have a phone in places in your home/office without the need for ethernet cables. This is a huge advantage for this Yealink model.
Opening the Box and Setup
My review unit came with the expected included pieces: the phone base unit, the handset, cord, stand, ethernet cable and power supply. One note — not all Yealink SIP-T53W phone units come with a power supply, so make sure to check and purchase a Yealink power supply separately if your unit does not include one, or if your network does not have power over ethernet (PoE).
Lastly, there’s an included plastic stand that enables you to customize the angle the phone sits on your desk. This phone model is easy to assemble and to connect to your network — it took me less than 75 seconds to get the phone physically ready to use.
If you purchase the Yealink from the SkySwitch store, it arrives already provisioned out of the box. For me, this unit came from Yealink, so I had to provision it myself. Luckily, getting the new Yealink handset online and ready to use was an easy three-step process:
- Find the MAC address using the YeaLink on-screen menus
- Add the phone to my Skyswitch Dashmanager PBX using the Yealink’s MAC address
- Setting the Yealink to use SkySwitch’s server URL in the web user interface
For the Yealink, I simply navigated to the Admin settings, set the provisioning server address to http://sipcfg.io/cfg – then, the Yealink SIP-T53W power cycled itself and the phone came back ready to use!
Let’s Check Out Performance
I’ve been using the Yealink for a week now, both at my home (to mimic working from home situations) and at my office. In both environments, the SIP-T53W performed marvelously. The phone is easy to set up and sounded perfect in each call I placed and received. I have used the SIP-T53W to call my SkySwitch colleagues via extensions, regular landlines and on their mobile phones in the U.S. and Canada, and each call sounded really clear.
Yealink’s Acoustic Shield noise isolation technology came in handy when I had noisy office chatter in my work area; it was great at canceling out cars driving by and copying machines that are near my workspace. The phone has a great user experience overall. Using the on phone display, I was easily able to handle calls such as mute, transfer and use my headset.
I also tested out the speakerphone on the Yealink, and it performed as expected. Callers were able to hear me but not any of my background noise – but, of course, they also reported that I didn’t sound as good as when I was on the handset.
Lastly, at home, my review of the Yealink SIP-T53W was to ensure the WiFi support performed well in different parts of my house, where I know my WiFi signal is strong and other areas where it’s weak. I’m happy to report the antennas and performance of the desk phone performed well in my house, no matter where I placed calls from. I had zero dropouts and no dropped calls. So – home workers – this is a great phone for you to use in your home office workplace.
Conclusion
The Yealink SIP-T53W is an attractive, well-built, and highly functional office desk phone that will compliment your office or home office well. It delivers amazing call performance and has a set of features that’s unrivaled in the marketplace.