Review: Linksys CIT200 Cordless Internet Telephony Kit : Introduction

By TG Publishing Team, published on October 19, 2005
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: review, cit200

Contents

1. Introduction
2. Features
3. In Use

4. Closing Thoughts

1. Introduction

Linksys Cordless Internet Telephony Kit

Linksys Cordless Internet Telephony Kit
Summary	Cordless DECT phone to make Skype use more convenient. Win XP and 2000 only
Update	None
Pros	• Doesn't interfere with 11b/g WLANs • Supports up to 4 handsets with handset-handset calling • Clear color display
Cons	• No PSTN connection • Win XP and 2000 only • Mostly annoying ring tones

Linksys' Cordless Internet Telephony Kit (CIT) recently started hitting store shelves. The product puts Cisco / Linksys' seal of approval on Skype, lending it further legitimacy - as if Skype needs that in light of its purchase by eBay. It looks like our preview was pretty much dead-on as far as it went, so now that I've actually got one in-hand, this review will focus more on the user experience and performance. I'll also be making frequent comparisons to its closest competitor, the Olympia DUALphone, which I looked at a few months ago.

The first thing that struck me was the CIT handset's size, which is smaller than I had expected. It is sized more like a largish candy bar style cellphone than a typical cordless phone. Figure 1 shows it side by side with the DUALphone, but still doesn't fully convey the difference in size.

Figure 1: CIT and DUALphone handsets front view
(click image to enlarge)

You can also see the difference in the CIT's 98 x 67 CSTN color display which supports graphics good enough to clearly display Skype Online status logos vs. the DUALphone's monochromatic 16 character by 3 line display which is only alpha-numeric.