Asus have managed to produce some good kit recently in the Eee range including the Eee PC but this Asus SV1 Eee Videophone to give it it's long and gangly name is a bit of a departure. We've tested Skype phones before, ranging from Dect / WiFi handsets and stand alone Linux powered units but all have been calls only and hardly any support the text feature making them of limited use.

We spotted the Asus SV1 on the coming soon list and soon we had one sat at Lordpercy towers, priced at around £200 this isn't cheap but when you look at what you get it is very good value. Comparing the SV1 to Skype on a PC isn't a fair comparison but the problem is there is no real comparison as this is the first Skype approved Videophone unit. So our Skype / Branded box arrived at the office and soon drew a small huddle of techies who couldn't wait to see what we got.

Measuring 123 x 202 x 253 mm the SV1 stands on a desk and really looks like a professional Video and the build quality is surprisingly good. It ships with a plug top power adaptor and a battery, the battery is the same as the Eee PC and slides in the base of the unit. Then you get your choice of wireless connection or wired, our first test was on cabled via the RJ45 socket on the rear of the base.

We were connected to the office network within 2 seconds as it quickly saw the DHCP and acquired an IP address, you can easily set a fixed IP, subnet, default gateway etc although the 4 way navigation pad is a bit painful to use when entering lots of data. As we had a Skype account it was simple enough to enter our login credentials and connect, its worth telling the unit to auto login otherwise you'll have to use the 4 way navigation to enter your user ID letter at a time each time you power up!

It took about a minute for our contacts to download the SV1 the first time but after that we were all set. As with most things Skype we opted for an echo test call. The anticipation was a killer as we heard the surprisingly rich and warm tone of the speaker and horray it was plenty loud too! Then came the playback of our voice and amazingly it was crystal clear and very impressive, so time for our first real call.

We opted 1st for an audio call to a contact who was based in central London, it's easy to navigate on the contacts pane with an icon for each contact showing their online status and also if they have video or not. Simply select a contact and choose video call or voice call. Our call went through quickly and we were connected to Jim who sounded perfect and as good as the standard phones we use in the office when you switch them into conference mode. being fair the audio quality isn't quite as good as a £300 audio only conference phone but we didn't expect it to be. The conversation was as good as wearing a headset and using a PC but we had a great hands free unit which was able to go so loud we ended up turning it down a notch.

The interface in calls is intuitive and very similar to the Skype interface, you can mute calls, see profiles and even start Video midway through an audio call. We couldn't resist any more and had to start the video, you get to see your own camera (which is mounted at the top of the unit) in a small window on the right and the incoming video starts with the navigation to the right side but stretches to fill the screen after 10 seconds. The 800 x 400 LCD screen does a good job of displaying the video and seems to be just the right size for the job, sadly the camera isn't as good and seems to have real trouble with a strong backlight and has no obvious compensation, so you really need to set it up right. There is a "see myself" option to help you set up with a few controls like brightness and contrast, again if the sun streams in it doesn't auto adjust and you'll have to lower the blind or dial down the brightness.

The video is webcam quality but this doesn't seem to matter when you are using a £200 Videophone with no monthly fees! In fact some of the calls that followed that afternoon were fantastic quality and more than adequate for us as a business let alone a home user. We did encounter a few disconnects (like normal Skype) but nothing severe, however one bug does seem to be the occasional reboot mid call, this seems to happen in the first call we made on each test unit and then once a month after that.

At this point we must point out that the Asus Skype Videophone is a personal device and for a number of reasons its not really a conferencing system. For a start Skype does not allow multiparty Video calls, so you can only do person to person calls, you also need to be aware that sitting one on a meeting table with 8 people around it isn't going to work, we managed to get 2 people side by side but that's about the limit of the camera. We do think Asus have missed a trick by not letting the SV1 start (set-up) audio conferences, you can participate in one that someone has started from the PC version of Skype but you cant start one from the Asus, this really needs to be added in the next software version.

We had read random web postings saying that Asus were going to abandon support for the SV1, which is daft and as far as we have been able to ascertain this is not the case, so the software update feature should come into use soon with some bugfixes and we hope better camera control? and audio conference initiation.

By this point we were really hooked and soon our 2nd , 3rd and even 5th unit had appeared, this showed another little issue which we'd never have found until we put one in the open plan office. The SV1 has a headset connector on the rear (along with a USB) the connector is a pair of 3.5mm jacks and sure enough connect a headset and the audio switches to the headset and mutes the speaker. Sadly it mutes the ringtone too and unlike the PC version of Skype there is no option to tick that will still ring the speaker, meaning if you use the headset you will miss calls! Another fix for the Asus team.

Asus SV1's 6 - 10 were connected wirelessly in the office and this seemed to go well, configuration was easy enough and we were connected with full signal, then only difference from the wired units was the odd extra dropped call but nothing shocking. however on a unit where we had only 2 bars showing of signal strength the unit became highly unreliable and we switched back to being cabled, this suggests the effective range of the wireless is way less than the 50 meters stated.

While we are on the subject of wireless, Asus have equipped the SV1 Videophone with a battery (god knows why), we cant see why you would cart the 1.6kg unit around with you its hardly portable to wander around the office or home. then you find out it barely lasts 20 mins and we have to say that Asus should remove the battery, save on weight and cost!

By now some 4 weeks in there are 30 units in operation and also many more spreading around as colleagues and friends see them often rushing to a PC to buy one. The uses vary hugely from sitting on the desk at work to hold Videoconferences with remote offices and suppliers to keeping in touch with relatives around the world. One chap has bought one pre configured it and sent it to his gran, plug and play, amazing Skype for the non PC literate!

Overall we can ignore the little faults and niggles, we'd recommend  using a wired network if you have one or making sure you are close to the wireless hub, we'd like to be able to run audio conferences and have the PC speaker ring. but all this is frankly minor given the ground breaking nature of SV1, we can honestly say that Asus have a winner on their hands here, its spreading faster than Swineflu! even without any marketing spend that we've seen so far.

Priced at around £200 including VAT the Asus Skype Videophone is probably our gadget of the year and its only May!

Published - 03/05/2009

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