Invoxia NVX 610 desktop VoIP phone review

Mission control

Top-end speakerphone systems are usually festooned with buttons and lights, but that's not the case here. The only physical control is the rotary volume knob, which is also clickable for picking up and hanging up calls, plus a couple of touch-sensitive keys for muting and dialling voicemail.

Everything else dialling numbers, call management, adjusting settings and managing contacts is taken care of by the Invoxia iOS app that communicates via the dock or a Bluetooth connection

The Invoxia app looks very similar to the native iPhone telephone app, with icons to access to the recent call log, contacts, number pad and voicemail arranged along the bottom of the screen.

Set-up is very straightforward and assuming the Invoxia has already been hooked up to the network, all that's required is to select a VoIP service and provide the necessary credentials. The Invoxia app allows both SIP and Skype accounts to be used in parallel, but only supports one of each.

Performance

With a total of eight speaker drivers and microphones behind its silver grille, facing both front and back, the NVX 610 is a top performer. Voices come across loud and extremely clear, and the microphones are sensitive enough so users don't have to lean right in to make themselves heard.

With an NVX 610 at each end of the conference call, its positional audio means that two or more people are at one end of a call, the other end will hear their voices in the appropriate virtual position, making it easier to tell who is talking.

With only one NVX 610 at our disposal, we weren't able to test this feature ourselves, but it worked well when demonstrated to us by Invoxia representatives.

The handset for conducting private phone calls is top quality, too. Although the sharp edges dig into the hand a little during long conversations, the soft rubber pad around the earpiece is comfortable against the ear and audio quality is excellent a big improvement on using the iPhone on its own.