5. Belkin Wi-Fi in “Use”
We consider land-line replacements in the form of Skype-compatible desktop phones and mobile phones. 7 phones are evaluated, but fewer than 3 make the cut.
This was nearly the shortest page I’ve ever written. It would have been this: “The Belkin Wi-Fi phone does not work. At all.”
For proof, listen to this.
For each of the handsets I tested, I stood in various places around the house. My first test was always in my office, standing about five to ten feet away from my Linksys WAP4400N access point. After turning off my Logitech wireless speakers, there should be very little wireless interference in this environment. I use a Logitech wireless keyboard, and across the room a wireless Microsoft mouse and keyboard, but neither of these should interfere with 2.4 GHz devices.
The Belkin Wi-Fi connected with no problem to my open AP, showing five bars and properly displaying my account information, although every hour or two it would drop the connection with a sound reminiscent of a tired sigh. As part of my testing, I called the Skype Echo / Sound Test Service and somehow recorded the call so that you could compare the devices for yourself. There was no way to have a consistent recording method all the way along. On handsets like the Belkin, I used my Olympus voice recorder and held its microphone up to the handset’s earpiece. This yields tinny, relatively faint results at best, so I couldn’t hope to let you compare fidelity between devices. With this unit, though, I realized that fidelity was the least of my worries. Network latency and audio drop-outs were a far more pressing concern.
The recording shows that the Belkin Wi-Fi phone was unusable. You can barely make out the Echo service’s words, and it’s almost as if my speech never even reached the phone. It’s all just a mixture of garbled nonsense and dead space.
Just to see if I was crazy, I looked up some prior reviews of the phone, and no one seemed to be reporting this problem. So I walked a couple of blocks to a friend’s house, stood in his driveway, got three bars on his AP, and the sound quality was excellent. I mean top-notch. No garbling. No drops. No silence. It was exactly what I’d expected from the beginning. When I called my wife, there was relatively little latency, meaning the gap between when a sound gets made at one end of the call and heard at the other. Excessive latency messes up the natural timing of our conversations and causes participants to trip over each other.
I can’t explain why the Belkin phone hates my house. Perhaps it’s an incompatibility with my Linksys AP that no other Wi-Fi device seems to have ever suffered from. In any case, I can’t recommend this phone, and even at $100, it’s still twice as expensive as it should be. When you can get a digital cordless phone for $30 with speakerphone capability and charging cradle (Belkin’s phone has the bottom-side leads for a cradle but no cradle ever seems to have been produced), it’s obvious that we’re being charged a massive premium for the Skype name and functionality, even after figuring in the color LCD. My guess is that Belkin would have followed Linksys and Netgear out of the Skype phone space if it didn’t have so much inventory from 2007 left on hand.
- 1. The Road to Skype
- 2. Skype Details
- 3. Phone Quest
- 4. Belkin Wi-Fi Phone for Skype
- 5. Belkin Wi-Fi in “Use”
- 6. Belkin Internet Phone for Skype
- 7. Belkin Internet Phone in Use
- 8. ASUS Videophone Touch AiGuru SV1T
- 9. ASUS Videophone in Use
- 10. IPEVO TR-10i Speakerphone for iChat & Skype
- 11. The TR-10i in Use
- 12. Nokia N900
- 13. Nokia N900 in Use
- 14. HTC Pure
- 15. HTC Pure in Use
- 16. Skype: Are We There Yet?
- Smartphones,
- Nokia,
- HTC,
- Ipevo,
- AsusTeK COMPUTER,
- Skype ,
- Phones ,
- Video
You can also use google voice to control the flow of phone calls. Get a google number then have it go to skype and cell phone at the same time. Answer where appropriate.
I think one of the devices that you should have checked out was the PSP. Skype on the psp using Wifi is great. The only bad part is that you have to purchase the headset, but if your playing socom or something like that you already have the headset. When I went to Korea on business, they have free Wifi at the ariport and I called home for free on my psp and it was frreeeeee!
why the nokia n900 phone wont reconize #* when you have to use it to top up you cell ph
Perhaps Tom's can do a similar comparison for the open standard SIP based phones? They can carry both audio and video depending on capabilities of each phone and would be a goood read for those of us who already have a SIP based phone server (Like me
).
I have to keep in touch with my long distance fiancee who lives in the middle east. If it weren't for Skype, we'd have to go for many weeks without seeing or hearing each other. The money that I saved through Skype I am spending on plane tickets.
My Skype setup is your standard laptop, webcam, headset setup. But on the go I use a Nokia E71. I use Fring, the other apps were dire. Fring does the job of having all of my IMs and phone calls in one place. Thanks to a relatively good 3G coverage near me, I only lose calls in the countryside. And, well, I can put up with that...
You're forgetting Ooma, another Voip company that doesn't require a PC to work, and NO MONTLY CHARGES
You're forgetting Ooma, another Voip company that doesn't require a PC to work, and NO MONTLY CHARGES
Ooma has some benefits (and also remember that Skype has no monthly charges for pc-to-pc calls) but the trouble is that if your friends aren't already using Ooma it is tough to get them to switch. Skype has the installed base for now...
We use a Zoom 5900 with our old Dell 700m with a set of Panasonic Dect 6.0's. It works fairly well.
In response to Tomsguiderachel, concerning Ooma, there is no need for others to be on Ooma to use it yourself. Once you've installed it to your router and plugged in your normal telephones (wired or cordless), it works just like any other phone. The people you call don't need to have an Ooma device. All domestic calls are free and international calls are similar and even slightly cheaper than Skype.
In response to Tomsguiderachel, concerning Ooma, there is no need for others to be on Ooma to use it yourself. Once you've installed it to your router and plugged in your normal telephones (wired or cordless), it works just like any other phone. The people you call don't need to have an Ooma device. All domestic calls are free and international calls are similar and even slightly cheaper than Skype.
Thanks for the info. Might be worth a try for some people!
Haven't done any research, but i'm pretty sure there are Skype compatible USB to RJ-11 connectors that would allow you have a home server type box set up in a closet hooked into the house's telephone wires and let standard phones hook in as usual. Seems like these could be a great solution for many homes with existing corded/cordless phones. I may be dreaming though.
I don't live there but we manage to get an Ooma device here in a country in Asia. It works well considering no monthly charges, good as our Vonage phone. It is also a bit better since has more features.
It was either Phillips or Panasonic had an excellent Skype phone, but they quite making it. I really want a Skype phone I can plug into my router so I have access to Skype without my PC running. But I have yet to see a phone that isn't either way over-priced, a piece of junk, or looks very uncomfortable to hold.
Great article(s)!! What about using Skype over GSM/3G/4G on the cell phones? For me the huge killer in my cell phone bills is when I have to call outside the USA (Canada or Europe). If I could use Skypeout, that could lower my costs significantly but I am afraid of what the quality will be like and I can't seem to get a straight answer (surprise, surprise) from any cell phone provider.
benzimidazolone I've used Vonage to make over seas calls, and it was clear as bell, I have never used my skype to make any overseas calls, but VOIP pretty much works the same regardless of the app. About the only negative thing I can say about VOIP is using Magic Jack, lot complaints of drop calls and cut-outs.
dude, you are missing the point...what I mean is using the Skype app with the iPhone or other smart phone over the GSM/3G/4G network, not[uover a conventional internet connection (wired or wireless).
I use Skype with my Linksys CIT200 Skype cordless phone. I have been using it since 2006 and it is just great. Works like a land line phone since it is cordless and has a 2.5 mm headphone jack, I can roam around the house while on a call! This phone has a base station and I am amazed at the clearness of the calls and distance I can go. Why did they stop making this phone!
I had Belkin desktop phone but the problem with those are you cannot enter number after a call is made. Like, when you hear "Dial 1 for English" and you try to enter 1 nothing happens. I called Belkin and they said the chips on those phones do not allow this feature. I returned the phones and got Linksys phone and all is fine now.