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November 28, 2006

Belkin Wi-Fi Skype Phone Reviewed

By Glenn Fleishman

Buzz Me Baby! reviews the Wi-Fi-based Belkin Skype phone: The phone can connect to a Wi-Fi network to log into a Skype account and provide the same set of features available via a PC-based Skype client. The review is generally positive about the hardware, and says that call quality is generally good. Calls made via SkypeOut, from the Skype network to the public switch telephone network, had some latency compared to computer-based SkypeOut calls when you were speaking with cell phone users.

While the review mentions that you can use WEP and WPA to authenticate to a protected Wi-Fi network, it doesn’t note that open networks that require a Web page clickthrough are offlimits; there’s no microbrowser or other control onboard that would allow this. This eliminates quite a few free hotspots that require a click to agree to the terms of service or a splash-page clickthrough, or that require viewing ads to obtain free service.

The phone runs $179 at Amazon.com.

Posted by Glennf at November 28, 2006 12:57 PM

Categories: Voice Devices

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