snom's VoIP phone portfolio has achieved the highest "green" standard in a recent test against VoIP handset competitors. snom's SIP based phones received top marks for being the most energy efficient in head-to-head testing against six other VoIP competitors in a recent lab study conducted by the Research Group for Telecommunication Networks at the Frankfurt Main University of Applied Sciences in Germany.

Research assistants and engineers at FH Frankfurt tested a total of 23 VoIP phones by seven well-known manufacturers over a three-month period. In every use scenario investigated - idle mode, conversation, idle mode after a conversation, and three-way conference - snom phones had the lowest power consumption in each comparable product class. Companies using snom products are not only saving electricity costs, but are also contributing towards the sustainable use of the earth's energy resources and keeping with today's green IT strategy.

The readings taken by the FH Frankfurt research group show that VoIP phones with large illuminated displays generally consume the most power. The display illumination on all of snom's products is designed to automatically switch off 30 seconds after the phone conversation has ended. In standby mode, the snom 370 uses up to 3.5 watts less than comparable telephones by other manufacturers. To create realistic usage conditions for the different readings, the FH Frankfurt tested the VoIP phone on two different switches: the ALL8084, an eight-port switch 10/100 Mbit half/full duplex, four of these ports with automatic PoE Classification Recognition, and the ALL8089, an unmanaged layer-2 switch with eight Fast Ethernet ports and maximum PoE support on all ports. To obtain additional results, depending on the efficiency of the utilization, the test did not include the changing consumption of the switches. The test engineers subtracted mean values to allow for the power consumption of the switches.