# Cisco Desk Phone 9800 Series: What Decides the Model Mix > How the five Cisco Desk Phone 9800 Series models differ on display, Wi-Fi, line keys and PoE class, and what each difference decides on a rollout. *Source: https://trybussolutions.com/actionable-insights-for-your-business/ · Trybus Solutions · Chattanooga, TN · 423-633-1817 · info@trybussolutions.com* - [Home](https://trybussolutions.com/) - Company[About us](https://trybussolutions.com/about-us/) - [Careers](https://trybussolutions.com/careers/) - Solutions[Collaboration](https://trybussolutions.com/collaboration-unified-communications/) - [Networking & Connectivity Solutions](https://trybussolutions.com/networking-connectivity/) - [Cybersecurity Solutions](https://trybussolutions.com/cybersecurity/) - [Cloud & Infrastructure](https://trybussolutions.com/cloud-and-infrastructure/) - [Governance, Risk & Compliance](https://trybussolutions.com/governance-risk-compliance/) - [Digital Workplace](https://trybussolutions.com/digital-workplace/) - 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Cisco Desk Phone 9800 Series: What Decides the Model Mix # Cisco Desk Phone 9800 Series: What Decides the Model Mix October 23, 20247 min readCollaboration The Cisco Desk Phone 9800 Series is five desk phones sharing one software load. Choosing between them looks like a features exercise at the start and turns into a power and call-control exercise about two weeks later. What follows is what actually separates the models, and which of those differences changes something in a wiring closet or on a call-control cluster. ## What Separates the Five Models Every model in the series carries the same software load, the same codec set and the customizable action button. The differences sit in four places: the display, whether the phone has wireless, how many line keys it presents, and how much power it draws. - **9811** 2.6-inch grayscale display at 256x132, no Wi-Fi, no Bluetooth, two line keys, Class 2 PoE. - **9841** 3.5-inch backlit grayscale display at 384x160, no Wi-Fi, no Bluetooth, four line keys, Class 2 PoE. - **9851** 3.7-inch backlit color display at 480x240, no Wi-Fi, no Bluetooth, six physical line keys and up to 46 in software, Class 3 PoE. - **9861** 5-inch backlit color display at 800x480, Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.2, ten physical line keys and up to 130 in software, Class 3 PoE. - **9871** 5-inch backlit color touchscreen at 1280x720, Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.2, no physical line keys and up to 128 in software, Class 3 PoE. ## The Class 2 and Class 3 Split The 9811 and the 9841 are Class 2 devices. The 9851, the 9861 and the 9871 are Class 3. On an access layer that was sized years ago around a fleet of Class 2 phones, replacing those phones one for one with color models moves every one of those ports up a class. The switch does not care what the phone is called. It cares what the power budget in the chassis can still deliver with one supply out. The 9800 Key Expansion Module sharpens the same point. It is a 5-inch color panel at 480x800 carrying 20 keys across two pages, and it draws its power from the host phone. It has no supply of its own. Cisco requires Class 3 PoE or the Cisco Power Adapter 3 behind any phone wearing one. A reception position that used to be a Class 2 port becomes a Class 3 port with a module hanging off it. Expansion modules are also the item nobody counts accurately at design time. They get requested by name, one department at a time, usually after the order is placed and the power budget signed off. We ask for the count during discovery and we still expect it to be low, so a closet is better sized for more Class 3 ports than the drawing shows. ## Call Control, and Where the 9811 Differs The series registers to Cisco Unified Communications Manager, Webex Calling, BroadWorks, Asterisk and Microsoft SIP Gateway. The version floor is not uniform. The 9841, 9851, 9861 and 9871 are supported from Unified CM 12.5 onward, while the 9811 requires Unified CM 14 or later, which on an estate still sitting on 12.5 decides whether the entry model in the series is available to you at all. That detail tends to surface after the purchase order. Cisco describes the series as one device with one software load configured for each platform, and that is what makes a phased migration workable: phones go in against the call control you have today and move to a cloud platform later without a hardware swap. ## What the Action Button Changes Day to Day Every model in the series has the customizable action button, including the 9811. What it does is set centrally rather than chosen by the person at the desk, so the value of it depends on somebody deciding what belongs there before the phones ship. Left at its default it is one more button. Configured against the way a team actually works, it takes a menu traversal out of something people do all day. Planning an endpoint refresh? Endpoint standardization is where most calling projects quietly lose their budget. We size the mix, confirm firmware and power requirements, and stage the rollout so users are never without a phone. The teams that get something out of it are the ones whose calls follow a pattern. A ward that always dials the same escalation number. A front desk that transfers to the same three places. Working out that pattern belongs in the design phase, alongside the button templates and the line key layout, and the conversation with the department takes longer than the configuration does. ## Maximum Line Keys Is a Software Figure Read the line key columns carefully. The 9851 has six physical keys and supports up to 46. The 9861 has ten and supports up to 130. The 9871 has no physical line keys at all, because the whole face of it is a touchscreen, and supports up to 128. Those upper figures are what the software will address once expansion modules are attached, at 20 keys per module across two pages. They are not buttons on the phone. The 9811 and the 9841 have two and four keys and no expansion path, which is worth knowing before a shared line appearance design is drawn. ## Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Sit on Two Models Only the 9861 and the 9871 have wireless. Both carry 802.11a/b/g/n/ac and Bluetooth 5.2. That combination gets used in two ways and one of them deserves more scrutiny than it gets. A Bluetooth headset at a desk is a reasonable reason to specify the model. Wi-Fi as a substitute for a data drop nobody wants to pull is a larger decision, because it puts voice onto a wireless design that was very likely surveyed for laptops. Trybus does not pull cable in house. We survey the building, write the specification and coordinate the cabling partners who install against it, and on most floors that costs less than upgrading a block of endpoints to avoid the question. ## Codecs, and What the Series Does Not Do Codec support is the same across the series: OPUS, G.722, G.722.2, iSAC, G.711 a-law and mu-law, G.729a and G.729b, and iLBC. That covers the wideband cases and the narrowband ones, including the low-bandwidth remote sites where G.729 is still doing work. The thing worth stating plainly is that no model in the 9800 Series has a camera. If a role needs video at the desk, this is the wrong device for that role, and the requirement belongs on a different line of the bill of materials. ## Choosing the Mix Most of this decision is duller than the marketing around it. Count the people who read a directory on the screen, watch a shared line, or handle calls for somebody else, and give them a color model. The rest lift a handset, dial an extension and put it down, and a 9811 or a 9841 covers them. A phone in a stairwell or a plant room has no use for 800x480 pixels. Across a few hundred endpoints that split is worth more attention than it usually receives, and it is a question for the departments before it is one for procurement. ## What to Settle Before the Order Goes In Four things decide whether the rollout is quiet. The Unified CM version, because the 9811 needs 14 and the rest need 12.5. The PoE class per closet, with expansion modules counted and one power supply assumed to be out. The line key and button template design, agreed with the departments who will live with it. And the headset standard, since only two models in the series carry Bluetooth. None of that is difficult. It is work that has to happen before the phones arrive rather than during the week they are installed, and it is the first thing compressed when a project is already late. An endpoint rollout that stalls rarely stalls on the endpoints. Every figure above comes from the two documents listed below, and both are worth reading in full before a bill of materials is fixed. Neither one can tell you what your closets deliver today or which version your call control is on. Those two numbers settle more of the model choice than the comparison table does. Establishing them is where the work starts. ## Sources - [Cisco - Cisco Desk Phone 9800 Series Data Sheet](https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/collaboration-endpoints/ip-phones/desk-phone-9800-series-ds.html) - [Webex - Phone power requirements](https://help.webex.com/en-us/article/8squbeb/Phone-power-requirements) ## Keep reading - [CollaborationReliable Communication with Webex Calling5 min read](https://trybussolutions.com/reliable-communication-with-webex-calling/) - [Unified CommunicationsWhat is UC? Why Does Your Business Need It?8 min read](https://trybussolutions.com/what-is-uc-why-does-your-business-need-it/) - [MigrationAnalog Endpoints and Cloud Calling8 min read](https://trybussolutions.com/analog-endpoints-cloud-calling-migration/) ## Plan your endpoint refresh with people who have done it before Trybus Solutions specifies, sources and deploys Cisco endpoints at scale, including the licensing and power infrastructure that has to be in place before the first phone ships. Or call [423-633-1817](tel:+14236331817) · [info@trybussolutions.com](mailto:info@trybussolutions.com)