Polycom Communicator C100S USB Speakerphone for Skype-Grey
by Polycom Inc.
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List Price: Our Price: $106.99 You Save: $15.00 (12%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $99.00 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Polycom Communicator C100S USB Speakerphone for Skype-Grey
Customer Review: This saved me a LOT of money
Summary: 4 Stars
I use the C100S with XP, so my opinion is based solely on that experience. Others have posted issues with Vista or other OS's so take it for what it's worth.
I don't have a landline phone at home, I only use my cell phone. This worked out great until I started working from home a lot, and multi-hour conference calls for work were really eating up my cell minutes. Then I discovered Skype gives you FREE calls to toll free numbers (like my company conference system). The C100S gives me a excellent quality, noise and echo cancelling speakerphone for making free conference calls of unlimited length...exactly what I needed.
Is it perfect? No, not by a long shot:
1. The USB cord is permanently attached and very thin. when it breaks (and I'm sure it will), the unit is toast. I wouldn't be winding and unwinding the cord any more than is absolutely necessary.
2. The USB cord storage compartment will never close after the first time you take the cable out. You will not be able to rewind the cable in the exact meticulous fashion required for the cover to close completely.
3. Nobody is going to use this device as the default audio speaker for your PC, but the Communicator software will pop up an error message warning you it's not the default every time you use it. It's like having a warning that you're fly is up...I know and that's how it's supposed to be.
Other than those annoyances, it's excellent. It's nice to have a hard button for mute and volume control, the LED ring lights up green when you're online and red when you're muted...just like the big Polycom units, and most importantly it sounds great on both ends of the conversation.
Customer Review: Why I no longer use it
Summary: 3 Stars
We are using Skype more and more at work, and I very happy with the headset that I use. But my boss refuses to use a headset so I purchased the C100S speakerphone for him. It worked well, but I now realize it is not the best solution, and we no longer use it.
You can buy a camera (and if necessary an external speaker) for <half> the price of a C100S and it can sit on top of your display freeing up desk space. I was not familiar with how cheap and high quality cameras (and the associated microphone and software) were. And you don't have to use the video, you can make a "sound only" Skype call.
But more importantly, all speaker phones (including C100S) have a feature which cuts off soft sounds and amplifies loud ones. This form of intentional distortion was necessary with the poor phone lines that Ma Bell had but is counterproductive and unnecessary today. For example there is sometimes construction going on outside our offices and with the C100S it comes though as if the jackhammers were right in our building; at other times words spoken very softly can be completely cut off. On a long call these problems become quite noticeable and quite annoying. With the logitech video camera all sounds are passed though, softly or loudly as the case may be, a far more desirable situation.
So for me the C100S was an interesting experiment, but ultimately unsuccessful. Oh, well, live and learn...
Customer Review: Good, but could be better
Summary: 3 Stars
Prior to buying this product, I used Skype with the built-in mic and speakers on my laptop. The problem was that there was always an echo on the other side (people heard their own voice with about a second delay). I always ended up plugging in a pair of headphones which eliminated the echo, but wasn't ideal for long conversations.
Then I read some reviews that said this product did not have the echo problem. I was skeptical (the speaker is right above the two microphones) but decided to buy it and give it a try. The first time I used it, it actually worked: there was absolutely zero echo. But that was at home talking on Skype from one computer to another in a separate room. I've since then taken it overseas, and it fails the echo test every time.
On the plus side -- sound quality and build quality are both very good, the product is compact and nicely designed, and the power over USB is great. The drivers are Windows only. I used it with a MacBook, however, and it worked fine. You lose the functionality of the Skype button on the unit but you can adjust the audio via the OS X System Preferences.
Overall, I think this is a nice conference phone if you can live with the echo. I'm back to plugging in headphones and looking for another solution.
Customer Review: Not with Vista OS; Great Product but no support from PolyCom for VISTA
Summary: 1 Stars
It simply does not work with Vista. I have opened three separate problem reports/incident tickets with Polycom. I included all my contact information, but I NEVER received any feedback on the tickets. When I went back to check the status of the ticket, it was closed with a status of "keep checking the website for updates when they become available."
They gladly took my money when I bought the C100S, but are unwilling to provide any continuing support. VISTA has been available to the public for more than 9 months. Polycom should have a driver for this product to work with Vista by now. I consider this an INDICATOR of their poor support, and I am at the point of extrapolating this incident and making broad general statement that Polycom will take your money and not provide support services to keep you running; find another vendor to buy your conferencing products from.
I bought the C100S USB phone several months ago and was pleasantly suprised by the voice quality in a simple convenient package. Getting it to work on a PC with Windows XP using the Skype client and the intial trial time provided by Skype made me a quick proponent. I wish I had known they would not provide the continuing support necessary as I upgraded to a current OS.
Customer Review: Slick, Compact and Easy to Use
Summary: 5 Stars
Did I read the instructions? - Of course not! I opened the box and plugged the thing in of course... it auto detected (Win XP Pro-SP3) and was assigned as my Windows Default device.
Without installing the software, the shortcut buttons on the C100S to open Skype and place a call didn't work, but the phone quality was perfect. I placed a skype to skype call to test the range of pickup and was able to walk away probably 20 feet from the unit and was still able to be heard and hear clearly at the far end.
The compactness of this unit is a big seller if you plan to travel or use off a laptop. The one negative I saw - which really isn't that big of a deal is the guage of wire used on the USB cable in back that wraps around. It seems tiny and may have issues "being pinched" in the future - but time will tell.
The echo canceling and full duplex were slick and effective. I was able to be on a Skype to Skype call for almost two hours with absolutely NO noticable change in quality so assume that the bandwidth required is also well managed and not excessive.
Highly recommend, and plan on buying a couple more for our staff to use for small video conferences with each other.