So after returning the Plantronics CT11, I read a description of the Plantronics Calisto Pro in Continental’s in-flight magazine. I did some searching around the Internet and read reasonably good reviews of the phone so I ordered one in the middle of last week. It came in a few days ago and while I haven’t used it much yet, I’m pretty optimistic after the 10 minutes or so I spent testing it out. Apart from seeming to work well as just a cordless POTS telephone (good audio quality, easy to walk with it around the office), the Calisto has some things that are bonus for me:
1) the headset is a regular bluetooth headset so it can be paired with other devices. And it seems to pair well with my cell phone (Apple iPhone) so I can use it to take cell phone calls while in my office, and
2) the cordless handset (the bar of soap shaped thing) can sync contacts with Outlook (limit of 200), which means I should be able to save some commonly dialed numbers to my handset.
Here’s a review of the Calisto Pro at Web Worker Daily and here’s the official Plantronics page. And even though I ended up buying it directly from the Sharper Image, Amazon’s product page for the Calisto Pro had a few useful customer reviews on it.
Hey Rakesh –
I just saw your blog post, I actually asked for this phone for Christmas and got it! I love it too. I’ve got it connected for landline, iPhone, Skype & even works for Dragon Naturally Speaking for voice transcription.
Great review. It’s a great phone.
Chris
This looks very cool. If it works with Yahoo Voice then it can probably be hacked to work with any SIP PBX.
I’m currently playing with a Snom M3 (www.snom.com) cordless SIP/DECT system. After literally years of trying WIFI SIP handsets this Snom is the first thing that really works well for me. No bluetooth earpiece, but I don’t care for those anyway.
I have one of the very first M3 systems to be unpacked by the US distributor (www.abptech.com) and http://www.smallnetbuilder.com will be running a detailed review I’m writing in a couple of weeks.
I used to brag that I had the smallest Bluetooth headset available. I now wear my giant Plantronics Calista headset as a badge of honor – holding my head up high and proclaiming, “Yeah, but can you do this?”
When it come to my techno-gadget purchases I spend countless hours searching/web surfing/reading/testing – and always with the same futile results which inevitably leads me to ask, “Why can’t ANYONE make a product that fits ALL my needs”.
Guess what? Plantronics (not necessarily at the top of my gadget-manufacturers list) HAS HIT THE MARK! True, this phone is not without its flaws but I dare you to find another wireless handset/headset that can boast: for home, for Skype (or YahooVoice), for cell.