So the Netgear Skype phone was born a handset that connects using WiFi to your wireless router directly without need for any other devices to be powered up, no USB, no laptop, no nothing. Opening the square Netgear box the SPH101 to give it its model number is surprisingly mobile phone like in its design and size. Instead of re inventing the wheel Netgear have taken a common mobile design and changed the innards. Measuring 110 x 46 x21mm and weighing 110 grams the Netgear Skype phone is quite an acceptable size for a mobile from any of the UK networks, it is well built and feels sturdy although we are not massive fans of the off white and silver colour scheme.

Inside the square box aside from the handset there isn't much else just a USB mains charger, battery, resource CD and manual. So leaving the manual firmly in the box we inserted the battery under the rear flap and powered up the Netgear Skype phone for the first time. Once you get past the splash screens the first task is to join the Netgear Skype handset to an open or secured WiFi network. This is fairly easy as the unit searches for all network signals and offers them up via the LCD screen for you to select one to join, then it will either connect to an open network or more likely ask you for the credentials for a secured one.

Attaching to our network was a simple affair with the selection of the SSID from the list of available 802.11 b/g networks and entering our WEP key (either 64 or 128bit) you can also use WPA-PSK encryption. Once you are attached to the network you can set this as your preferred network and start the Skype login process, which if you already have an account is very easy and quick. Within seconds the familiar Skype joining sounds comes from the loud external speaker and the green Skype icon on screen shows you are connected along with the cash balance of your Skype account.

The two menu buttons lead you either into the sub menus or the contacts list which shows the Skype status of all your friends and you can even set your status, in fact you can do almost everything that you can on the PC client version on the Skype handset. We started with a fully charged Netgear handset and made some Skype to Skype calls with moderate signal strength shown on the handsets screen, calls were connected quickly, at least as quick as the PC client and the audio quality is also on a par with if not slightly louder than our mouse based PC handset.

We continued using the handset for a weeks worth of office calls, our main number is a Skype In service and found that as long as the Netgear unit had two bars of signal strength calls were clear and uninterrupted. However drop to one bar and the audio quality would break up making calls difficult. You do have full access to Skype voice mail and most Skype services excluding Skype IM and Cam chat.

Battery life is something of a concern, Netgear claim 50 hours standby but we never managed more than 24hrs, we can only presume that this battery life is obtainable if your phone has 100% signal strength, in a real world situation you'll need to top up every day even if you do not make calls. A heavy user can expect to need to charge at the end of a normal 9 - 5 day by plugging in the mini USB port on the base of the unit to either a host PC or to the supplied AC adaptor. Perhaps battery life will improve as this is the first mass market WiFi Skype phone to appear and WiFi is a renowned battery eating technology as we have found with many PDA's and WiFi enabled Smartphones.

Netgear do also make a rather nice looking phone dock for your WiFi phone but as of yet we can't find where to purchase one from. Another note of warning with regards to battery life, when we let the unit run totally flat it seemed to forget our network settings and we had to re enter the SSID and WEP key and set-up our Skype details again. Reading the manual this shouldn't happen but it did and was quite a pain having to enter all those numbers again with the phone keypad and predictive text.

Our last downside is that we found that hidden SSID's cause problems, it is common for home users to hide or switch off the TX of the network SSID (or name) however when we did this the Netgear Skype phone couldn't find our network despite having an advanced menu option to cope with just this situation.

Netgear make a big play for being able to work with "open" or unsecured networks which would mean free or very cheap calls using public hotspots around the UK or for that matter the work. Sounds great so we set off to try it out on an open (free) hotspot, however we quickly found that this is going to be a hit and miss affair. You see many Hotspots even through free put up a joining page for you to accept some basic terms and conditions (we won't hack or pish using it etc) but the Netgear screen has no browser and cannot see the page unlike a laptop or PDA. So you can't accept the T&C's and therefore cannot use the free hotspot, the same is repeated for hotel WiFi or chargeable hotspots like Starbucks as you cannot enter the access codes!

Until Skype WiFi phones have a web browser they will all suffer from this and there use away from known networks will be limited at best.

Despite these niggles we loved the basic function of the unit and it made Skype so much more accessible without needing to be tied to a PC or even have one powered on, the speaker phone is good and powerful and the ringtones while limited (and pants) are loud plus there is a vibrate option too. Clearly Netgear's decision to go with a standard mobile and then change the innards has paid dividends as they are first to market with a swanky new phone that finally set's Skype free.

Priced at a slightly expensive £150 the Netgear Skype Phone SPH101 is the worlds first mass market device to free Skype from the PC and mean you can take calls without a computer at all. However expect to see this price tumble as others like Linksys, and Belkin get in on the cat pre Christmas 2006.

Published - 28/10/2006

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