DU@LPHONE USB Cordless Skype Phone Review

Being a cordless telephone user for years now, I was curious as to how the Skype DualPhone would work and its future sister SIP based product which due out soon.

Packaging

You get a good feeling when opening the box - all components are nicely wrapped including: a multi-lingual manual, a little cheat card, driver CD, the telephone with its battery, base station, power supply and a set of different connectors for the different telecoms outlets in various countries.

Installation

The first thing to do, as with any cordless device is to take out the base station, plug in the power supply and put the battery in the telephone so that it can do it's first 24 hour charge as stated in the manual. The following day I took it to the office for a full test, first plugging the USB cable to my laptop before running the install procedure for the "telephone suite" on the supplied CD. When running the installer you can either download the latest version via the internet or use the CD. One smooth install later, and after allowing the telephone suite access to my Skype client via the pop-up that skype gave me, I was up and running.

Getting and making calls

The first test I made was to add "echo123" to my contact list in Skype (the Skype echo test service). Then on the telephone pushing the green horn button allows you to scroll through your online contact list and select the person you wanted to call (the telephone suite allows you to hide and un-hide different status' like Offline, Do not Disturb, Away etc. from your telephone's contact list.

All sounded nice and clear on the echo test when wearing a headset. Since initial testing with the Skype echo server, I have made several calls, some of over an hour long, which all have worked very well. I also tested my SkypeOut account which, as to be expected, worked just fine.

Now comes the handy feature of this telephone and that is that you can plug it in to your exsisting landline turning it into a combined PSTN/Skype telephone, explaining the name 'DualPhone'. Although the audio on the PSTN calls wasn't as high quality as my normal cordless, it was more than sufficient (bear in mind my normal cordless telephone had cost double the price of the DualPhone).

Skype Features

The telephone, once connected via the PC’s USB port, hooks up to the Skype API which allows you change your online status via a menu. Also any status change on your contact list generates a beep and lights up the display with a notice - handy to keep track of who's online or when one of your buddies comes on.

Range

Certainly as good as any other cordless I’ve used so far - all around my home/office, in the garden and even when going a bit further afield it all works as expected.

Battery Life

Battery for me tends to run at about 3 days, which is OK for a cordless - at least up to scratch with other such telephones.

Conclusion

I really like this telephone, have been using it now almost on a daily basis and it’s perfect for both for my wife and I (which can't be said for all my geeky toys). I give the telephone a 9 out of 10. It didn't quite make a 10 as I think it misses 3 features:

1. Not able to check your SkypeOut credit via the telephone

2. Not easy to understand why a call failed, e.g. wrong number or because there is no SkypeOut credit left?

3. A filter whereby buddies can be announced on the telephone, or maybe which buddies shouldn't be.

Apart from those 3 items, it’s a great telephone and well worth the money. Can't wait until they bring out their SIP/PSTN dual cordless.

Our thanks to Du@lphone for the review sample.

Added:  Saturday, July 01, 2006
Reviewer:  tjardick
Score:
hits: 6502
Language: eng

  

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Posted by johanhorak on Apr 10, 2007 - 08:02 PM Your rating: Hi I am using this phone and it works! But is it possible to use this phone with http://www.lowratevoip.com? Regards Johan

Posted by ltjessem on Oct 11, 2006 - 09:10 PM Your rating: I use the same phone and found a nice trick: Dial # [PC call button] and the phone will work as a wireless sound card and you can call with ex. VoipBuster (ou still have to dial on the PC tho)