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So you ask yourself?

What’s the difference between the Cisco 7940 and 7940G or the 7960 and 7961-GE?

What’s the difference between a Cisco 7940 and a 7945G?

Scroll down for a chart!

The Cisco 79xx series of phones is now a well established line of IP Telephones. Probably best known for their High Quality Speakerphone, and Sturdy construction. There are a number of reasons why they’re not always the best choice when buying an IP Phone. But that’s another story.

The 79xx line of phones is so well established that it has grown to include a variety of subversions. Whereas the product line used to contain just a handful of phones, Cisco has continually upgraded and released subsequent updates to their phones. For this reason we see the current multitude of phones on the market. Fortunately for us the numbering and naming scheme follows a pretty consistent logic.

Although there now exists a multitude of phones, as a general rule of thumb the majority of Cisco phones are based around one of three models. The 7940, 7960 or 7970. Most phones are simply subversions of these phone with different features and capabilities.

The Base Models

The 794x Series of Phones are all 2 Line Grayscale Phones

The 796x Series of Phones are Identical to the 7940s except with the presence of 6 lines instead of 2.

The 797x Series of Phones are Colour Executive Phones with 8 lines, which will drive you insane trying to configure.

The Subversions

The final number, and the letters that come after each of the phone models each represent a different version of the phone. Each with different features and limitations.

79xxG – The “G” in any Cisco Phone stands for “Global” it means that the phone supports Firmwares in Languages other than English. I will not include it in the below graph as it has no other bearing on any other features in the phones. Many of the later models all include this G, that is because Cisco eventually made it a standard feature on all the phones.

79×1 – This was the first generation of revisions to the Cisco line up released in 2006. The 79×1 phones are 802.3af PoE Compliant. For example, the 7940G supports only Cisco’s Prestandard PoE, whereas the 7941G will work with any normal PoE Switch. Additionally the 79×1 typically has a higher resolution screen than the 79×0.

79×1-GE – This is a further revision on the 79×1 phones, phones with the GE feature tag afterwards have been upgraded to support Gigabit Ethernet.

79×2 –An oddball version. High Resolution Greyscale Screen. Can’t find much else about it. Comments!

79×5 – The most recent update in the Cisco Series, now has a higher resolution standard, are colour, and have Gigabit Ethernet Ports standard.

79xx-CH1 – This is the exact same product as the one without the CH1, however the CH1 typically denotes that the CallManager License is included with the phone. (Only applies to customers using CallManager)

Model	7940	7941	7942	7945	7960	7961	7962	7965	7970	7971	7975
# of Lines	2	2	2	2	6	6	6	6	8	8	8
Gigabitt	N	GE Only	N	Y	N	GE Only	N	Y	N	GE Only	Y
Screen Type	Grey	Hi-Res Grey	Hi-Res Grey	Colour	Grey	Hi-Res Grey	Hi-Res Grey	Colour	Colour	Colour	Colour
PoE	Cisco	802.3af	802.3af	802.3af	Cisco	802.3af	802.3af	802.3af	Cisco	802.3af	802.3af
Protocols	SIP, SCCP, MGCP	SIP, SCCP	SIP?, SCCP	SIP, SCCP	SIP, SCCP, MGCP	SIP, SCCP	SIP?, SCCP	SIP, SCCP	SIP, SCCP	SIP, SCCP	SIP, SCCP

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