The Vonage F1000 is a WiFi based (802.11b) handset that is capable of connecting to any open WiFi hotspot or to a secured network assuming you know the authentication credentials. It primary use is within the home or business environment, it can connect to an existing WiFi router enabling it to connect with the Vonage service over IP. Connecting the F1000 is the first challenge we encountered, firing up the handset presents you with 2 options, to either search or enter a menu. The search seems like a logical step and sure enough after a brief scan we fond a network and were able to select it and enter the WEP key when requested, however putting in a long WEP key using a phones keypad is not something you'd want to do on a daily basis.

We'd read some earlier reports saying the F1000 not connecting to the network even after the key was entered, but we are pleased to say that this worked right out of the box and we were hooked up to our network and able to place a call via Vonage. Calls seemed reliable as long as we stayed in the middle of our network and didn't venture out to the edges! However call quality seems variable, the sound did go a bit "Metal Mickey" on a few occasions with the callers voice sounding very robotic and unintelligible, weirdly this did not relate to signal strength. Apart from these strange moments audio quality was ok is not stunning and on a par with a DECT handset or an average mobile phone.

The handset boasts a 200 name / number memory and is a bit mobile phone like in its design, the LCD screen is only greyscale and is on the small side but this again compares favourably with a DECT handset. For us a key difference here is the ability to take your Vonage F1000 out and about, something your DECT handset (even a Skype enabled one) just cannot do. So off to find some public WiFi hotspots, a task which is much easier to think about than actually do.

Eventually locating an open one we managed to find the SSID and scan and eventually lock on, then it was just the same as making a  call as if we were in the office, all at VOIP prices! (essentially free). Buoyed by this success it was time for a celebratory coffee in Costa, of course they also have WiFi (for a charge) and in the name of reviews we decided to give it a whirl. That's where we hit the Achilles heel of the F1000 as Cafe Nero like Starbucks and may chargeable hotspots require you to enter details and a password via a web page, something the F1000 cannot display.

So in short you can use the Vonage WiFi phone on a home or business network as long as you know the WEP key and even on an open free hotspot but don't expect to use it on any network where you have to log in, like coffee houses and sadly BT Openzone.

Perhaps this disability when working al fresco isn't too bad a thing as the F1000 is styled straight out of a retro mobile phone collection. In mobile phone land retro is anything over 3 years old and the design of the Vonage handset is more like a Sony Ericsson phone of 15 years ago than the latest in VOIP technology.

On the upside the battery performance of the handset is quite good, with a talk time over 5 hours before needing a recharge and a standby of a few days assuming it stays within a WiFi network, this really falls off if the phone is hunting for signal all day long. Perhaps the only option is to switch the phone off when you leave a hotspot, it really needs some mechanism that stops it hunting for a network after say 5 minutes and then requires the user to re active for a new search.

All in all the Vonage F1000 reminded us a bit of the ill fated rabbit phones, like those we had to hunt out a zone to make a calls from and like those you can use them at home or anywhere with a rabbit base station. However the rabbit failed when mobiles showed you needn't hunt out a hotspot to make a call and VOIP will probably evolve to be the defacto standard but over the same bandwidth as mobile phones of today send digital audio.

Until then the Vonage F1000 makes a good DECT phone replacement for Vonage users in home or at work with the added benefit of using hotspots, presuming that if you can find them you'll be able to log on! Availability and price for the UK was unavailable at the time of writing.

Review by - James Cotton

Published - 07/01/2006

Pre Release Gadgets-

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