TFTS Hands On Review - 3 Mobile’s SkypePhone Brings VOIP to Your Pocket

Last Monday the UK mobile network 3 launched their new, much anticipated SkypePhone and although, despite receiving our invitation, we were unable to make the event, we did manage to secure two review units from 3 which (following some delivery hiccups) we have now put well and truly through their paces with one thing squarely in mind – does 3’s new Skype cell phone deserve all the hype it’z\s been receiving?

First Impressions

First impressions were better than we expected as, from the imagery we had already seen of 3’s SkypePhone we were, in all honesty, not especially enamoured with the unit’s styling but, once unboxed, we were pleasantly surprised with, primarily, the phones compactness – measuring in at 100 x 44 x 13.6 mm the unit fits very comfortably in even my wife’s diminutive hands and, in weighing in at a mere 86 grams is weighted beautifully (its light, but not light enough to feel flimsy).

The box contains the unit itself, a charger, USB cable (for connection to your PC), manual, driver CD (offering file syncing via the supplied USB cable and mobile modem software allowing for connecting your laptop to the internet via the handset) as well as some ear buds for listening to audio which plug directly into the units USB/Charger port (there is no standard headphone socket on the device, so you’ll be stuck with these).

The Hardware

From a hardware perspective the SkypePhone, which is manufactured by Chinese company Amoi and is available in three colour schemes – white/blue, white/pink and black - is a 3G device sporting a 2” 176 x 220 resolution 262K TFT display that, whilst hardly offering screen pixel counts that will blow you away, proved to be clear, colourful and, above all, bright. I often struggle to see the display on my own N80 handset in bright daylight but the SkypePhone certainly doesn’t suffer in this department.

Additionally, the SkypePhone comes with a not unreasonable 256MB of memory out of the box, which can be further supplemented with a MicroSD card, Bluetooth connectivity and a 2 megapixel camera which, as one would expect, produced results – both in still picture and video formats - that were fine for casual use but proved grainy and rather uninspiring. That said, with the competitive pricing of the unit in mind, it would be wholly unfair to expect this phone to compare in any shape or form with dedicated camera phones and, in all honesty, when it comes to image quality we have seen worse.

As far as battery life is concerned, the SkypePhone offers a very reasonable 270 minutes of talk time and up to 320 hours standby and, whilst at the time of writing we have been unable to corroborate these figures, based on the time we spent testing the device, and the corresponding impact on battery drain, we see no reason to doubt them.

Another point of interest is that, though the keys are small, even my large, somewhat cumbersome digits found them easy to operate and their tactile response proved reassuring whilst texting. The only downside we came across was with the main navigation key, which is basically a silver frame surrounding the main Skype button, which proved easy for the wife to operate but rather less so for my spade-like thumbs - that said, none of my fumblings resulted in an accidental depressing of the Skype button (it was more that I have to actually look where I was pressing).

The Software

The SkypePhone comes complete with a media player that put in a sterling performance for a phone within this price range, (the SkypePhone retails at a mere £49.99 on a pay as you go basis or is free on contract). And, though we would have preferred a little more definition of lower frequencies, its hard to tell using the phones in built speaker and the supplied earbuds how the device would fair if we had been able to plug in a decent set of headphones – though the fact that you are limited to using the earbuds supplied thanks to the lack of a standard headphone socket renders such speculation wholly redundant.

One area the SkypePhone certainly impressed us in was the ease of internet browsing – with navigating around even fairly bloated websites proving a breeze. Needless to say that page load speeds, as you would expect from a 3G device, were impressive and, curiously, this device felt faster than browsing on my N80 (though I’m quite uncertain as to why this is). We also liked the addition of a quick launch menu that offers immediate access to a host of online services such as Yahoo and Google search engines as well as 3’s Music Store and even MSN Messenger (though this proved to be unavailable via my review handsets at the time of writing), Ebay, Facebook and YouTube (access to and watching YouTube videos proved to be an especially stress free experience).

Interestingly, it should also be noted that, whilst the resolution of the SkypePhone’s screen is very much less than that of my N80, web pages looked very clear, with both text and imagery appearing crisp and well defined.

The Star of the Show – Skype Functionality

Not withstanding the above, the main draw of this device is undoubtedly its Skype functionality and it cannot be argued that this device excels as a mobile VOIP handset – to the point where even my mother felt at ease calling me at TFTS central over and over just to ‘test it out’ (and this is testament indeed to its ease of use).

If you are already familiar with the Skype service then using this handset for Skype calls is so intuitive that we’ll warrant that you won’t even need to scan the instruction manual in order to get started – and we cannot stress this enough. Simply depress the large Skype button to access your contact list, select the contact you wish to call and you’re away – it’s a breeze.

In fact it’s so simple that even those who are wholly unfamiliar with Skype and have a particular aversion to all things seemingly technical will find using the service via this device decidedly intuitive – you type in your required username and password and, if you username is available, you’re done.

Of course, a great deal of this is down to Skype being so intuitive to set up and use in the first place, but where 3 have to be wholly commended is that, in bringing the service to a mobile device they have not, in any way, placed any barrier in the way of usability. This phone, then, positively oozes the very spirit of Skype – and that is to bring crystal clear VOIP technology to the masses - in a package that is as simple as dialling from a landline (if not simpler).

Of course, as the phone offers pretty much the full Skype service (sans video calling) you can also engage in instant messaging with the SkypePhone’s predictive text proving both solid and reliable (and, yes, it does recognise the word ‘Skype’ in case you’re wondering).

Final Thoughts & Conclusion

Whilst we would be the first to agree that, from a base-level hardware perspective, this phone will hardly dazzle you with gimmicks, this, in a sense, only serves to underpin what this phone is all about.

If you want a cell phone that comes with a plethora of functions designed to impress that, in reality, you’ll hardly ever use, then this is not the phone for you. If, however, you want a capable device that swings open the doors to VOIP on the move, ushering you in with a reassuring pat on the back, 3’s SkypePhone positively excels.

In being neither overcomplicated nor pretentious 3’s SkypePhone, when paired with the device’s pricing plan (which results in 4000 free Skype talk time minutes & 10000 free Skype messages per month – either on pay as you go or on a contract basis) undoubtedly blazes a trail that other mobile networks will ignore at their peril.

Agreed, there are other devices that will allow you to make Skype calls by logging on to the net and accessing Skype but where this phone sets the standard is in embracing Skype, and the very principals behind it, in full (as well as in spirit) leaving you to make calls the world over, wherever you are, for free – all by pressing a single button.

3’s SkypePhone has just been made available in the UK with further releases pending in Australia, Austria, Denmark, Italy, Ireland, Sweden, Macau and Hong Kong during the remainer of ‘07. Unfortunately, our US readers will not be catered for on account of the phone being a dual band 900/1800 Mhz GSM/2100 MHZ UMTS based device.

If you are interested in learning more concerning 3’s SkypePhone and the available pricing plans you can do so by visiting the official SkypePhone site.