The Belkin Skype phone is a far more stylish offering than the early attempts from far eastern manufacturers at WiFi enabled Skype handsets, it has far more in common with a modern mobile phone than a Dect handset or retro eighties mobile. It can connect to any 802.11b or g network both secured using WEP, WPA and WPA2 with PSK support or an open network with no security set-up. The only thing that stops it is a browser authenticated network where you are required to click a button at accept connection, these are commonly used at cafe hotspots like Starbucks.

Set-up is a simple enough affair with a logical menu system and easy, after powering up and accepting the Skype disclaimer the Belkin phone searches for open or secured WiFi networks. Available networks are listed on the phones LCD display and you can select one to join, should this network require a key the on screen prompt asks you to enter it and then attempts to join the network.

We had the Belkin Skype phone connected in just under 5 minutes including changes on the wireless access list on our Linksys router. You can then sign in with you Skype username and password as normal, the screen then changes to show you a list of your Skype contacts with those who are online shown at the top. One criticism we have of the Belkin interface is that the users are always shown in alphabetical order whereas we'd prefer to be able to set favourites to appear at the top as you can with MSN messenger, this would really help make the most of the limited screen.

Although Belkin have made the unit look like a mobile most mobile features are strictly limited so don't expect a plethora of ringtones or screen backgrounds as there is clearly a drought of these items on Skype WiFi phones at present. instead we have to be grateful of the miracle of Skype over WiFi. To be fair to Belkin this innovation has been a long time coming and a week of solid use proved that with even a weak WiFi signal calls were reliable and of good VoIP quality.

The range of the handset depends very much on your router, our tests found that the Belkin unit worked very well with MIMO (multiple in multiple out) enabled WiFi equipment and managed a good distance before the sound quality started to distort and drop out. We made several calls through 4 solid brick walls where a laptop also connected to the same router was down to its last bar of signal strength. Should you lose signal it takes about 10 - 20 seconds for the handset to regain lock once you are back in range.

Many other Skype features work with the phone, Skype voicemail and Skype in both function perfectly but things like Skype chat and Skype video calls not possible for obvious reasons. Battery life is a touchy subject, when we were within close proximity of the router on day 1 of our review the battery lasted a full business day, however a day with the phone fighting for signal meant it died a bit too early after just 10 hours on standby and a few calls. Charging is achieved by plugging a lead into the base of the handset as with the Netgear unit we tested. However the changing slot cover is very flimsy and barely survived a week with our team, we'd really prefer a charging base unit to a charging lead, but as with most devices this is likely to be a extra cost!

We did find a strange bug whereby if the handset is on standby for more than about 12 hours it locks up and and despite the screen looking fine the unit is in fact dead to the world and requires the battery to be removed and reinserted. Although it will be rare to get this far in normal use it is a serious problem and one we hope to be addressed by new firmware versions posted on the Belkin website.

Overall a good attempt at an early WiFi phone, for someone used to a Dect handset the Belkin Skype phone will be quite a comedown both in terms of call quality and battery life, however for a first attempt it is quite good. WiFi is very power hungry and both the Belkin unit and Netgear unit we tested a month back suffer from poor battery life. Toe to toe with the Netgear we'd plump for the Netgear SPH101 which just seemed more rounded and bug free compared to Belkin's offering which feels like a beat device. However with the Belkin being under £100 and the Netgear still up at £140 the two sit more evenly.

Published - 02/12/2006

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