Around 2.5 million people in the UK make regular use of Skype, but for most of them making a call via Skype means using a PC. This is where the Skypephone from 3 comes in. It's a mobile handset with the Skype software onboard so you can make free calls from the phone to other Skype users.
The handset is available for around £50 as a pay as you go phone or for free on contract.
Strengths
If you were expecting this handset to be a large brute of a thing then think again. It's actually surprisingly small and slim. It's available in black or white (the latter having either a blue or pink trim) and while the design is more functional than flash, it's not an altogether unattractive phone.
Spotting the raison d'etre for the handset is not exactly difficult because there's a big bold button in the centre of the phone's directional pad emblazoned with a large Skype logo. Pressing this starts up the Skype software and from here you can either create a Skype account from scratch, or if you're already a user, just sign in with your username and password. Once you sign in, the phone communicates with the Skype service and downloads your Skype contacts. Handily, Skype contacts appear in the phone's main contacts book as well as in the mini Skype application.
Making calls to a Skype contact is a piece of cake. You just highlight the contact and then press the call button. During our testing, the sound quality was pretty much what you'd expect to get when using Skype with your PC. Most of the time, the quality was excellent, but sometimes it suffered from the usual VoIP issues, such as Dalek-sounding voices and call echo.
Naturally, 3 doesn't want to cannibalise its own call revenue, so while Skype-to-Skype calls are free (as long as you're on contract or top up every month) you can't use Skype to call normal telephone numbers. Instead, you can only do this via the normal 3 network. Still, we have to say that we think the phone's Skype functionality is first rate and many people will still really appreciate being able to call their Skype contacts without the need for a PC or laptop.
Apart from the Skype abilities, in many other ways this is a pretty straightforward 3G handset. The menus are clean and sensibly laid out and the texting is very easy to use. There's also a decent music player and 3 has included a 256MB microSD card for storing tracks. The sound quality via the supplied headphones was also pretty good.
We've got no complaints about the quality of normal mobile calls as they sounded very crisp and clean and the handset has decent reception. Battery life isn't bad either as you'll get around 4 hours 30 minutes of talk time out of it.
Weaknesses
The phone's camera is relatively basic. It has a 2-megapixel resolution and while pictures taken outdoors in sunlight don't look too bad, there's no flash, so snaps shot indoors in less bright conditions tend to look very fuzzy, with lots of digital noise.
Also, the phone's keypad is on the small side and the keys feel squashed together, so it takes a while to get used to for texting.
The screen certainly isn't the best we've seen either. The resolution is OK, but the colours tend to look washed out. This seems to be partly due to the backlight, which even at its brightest setting isn't actually all that bright.
Conclusion
It's hard to complain about this handset, as it's relatively cheap at around £50 pay as you go (or free on contract) and provides a very straightforward way to make free calls to other Skype users while on the move. Of course, you can't use its Skype functionality to make cheap calls to normal phone numbers, but then you can't really blame 3 for partly protecting its own call revenue.
Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Jon Squire
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User reviews2
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cloggy71 26 May 2008
Good: The phone although not the best on the market does a good job for the money
Bad: The camera is average
Comment: From a personal point of view i wanted a phone that would do the basics, ie phoning out, receiving calls,text. I wasnt looking for an all singing all dancing phone, maybe im past all those things im in my late thirties.
My skypephone is on the 3 contract, i previously had a Nokia 6288 on contract which i had issues with the screen breaking etc. I have never had any trouble with this phone except occasionaly the signal isnt great but then thats maybe down to it being on the 3 network which to be brutally honest isnt fantastic.
The Skype is excellent as it allows me to call the Brother in law in the USA which is inclusive in my Skype minutes (6000 Skype minutes allowed on the 3 contract per month). Think of how much it would cost via a landline. The clarity is quite good sometimes like the initial review said the voices can sound a bit robotic. Standby time and talktime are very good.
Thephone has a camera,music player,calender(with reminders alarms etc) calculator,stopwatch,video player.To me a phone is to get in touch with people or for them to contact you.
If you want a multi function phone that has top of the range extras its probably not for you but if your after a nice little phone with a few average extras then this phone is great.
Lets face it, its only £50 and for that you get a hell of a lot.
James Cook 8 March 2008
Good: That it works, if you are blind. If you are blind consider yourself lucky.
Bad: That quality is very cheap, low. It wears & tears too fast. Some features missing.
Comment: Poor quality of it is the first thing I'll mention here. I tried to put my memory card in it and I didn't understand how and the instructions were less than no at all so I broke it. I taught it was my mistake but it wasn't cos I put my cushions on the headphones and they broke while I was putting. I thaught I wasn't careful but I tried second one and it broke too. I had Sony Ericsson w850i and the cushions for those headphones never broke even I never cared putting on and cleaned them too many times.
Little thing but if put together you can see Skypephone in a bin very soon. Coincidence? No way. Then not even first week passed and the battery cover of my black model started coming off cos it was too hot cos they don't know how to make a basic phone. I have MOTOFONE F3 and it was so cheap that I can't think how it's still like new and working compared to a skyphone doesn't deserve a big letter or none at all maybe even forget it and remember just how bad it was back then. I believe they didn't use much if any quality in making it. Then that annoying T9 dictionary is on almost everytime I write something and nowhere it says I can switch it off not even on the net. So I hate to switch from T9 to normal too many times and it's pain in the a**. Three wasn't very reliable at first maybe never. And it's screwing Skype's name but maybe there isn't such name, it had some problems like three. Same guys doing same thing, I'll be soon out of it if someone smarter than them find a better thing cos you want run for your life, what a joke. One of the worst phones I ever had. It's like that Epic movie so terrible!
Battery cover slides off while plugging charger or just touching it. Skype's voice sound's cheap and text messaging a little slow but working. It's like a new car about which you stop worrying very soon because there is almost nothing worse that can happen it's already so bad.
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