Aug 25
NetGear SPH200D Skype Phone - First impression
About 2 weeks back, I was exploring for ways to save on my ATT bills and wireless minutes and came across these Skype phones. The $130+ price tags scared me initially, but I continued my exploration of Skype phones, its Unlimited plans and other features while comparing it to the regular Landline+Wireless combo.
ATT Local land phone cost me $17 per month and I could only call up Kingsville telephones. What a waste. My wireless burned my pocket with a hefty $40 tag for just 450minutes. Skype, on the other hand, had this Unlimited US and Canada calling thing for $2.95 a month. Unlimited actually meant 10,000 minutes according to its Fair-Usage policy. That was still a lot! Also, a SkypeIn number cost me about $3 per month when bought for a whole year. This means, you could use Skype to call and receive calls to and from all over the US for about $6 per month. I was impressed.
But, I live in a apartment with 3 other guys. So, I thought it would be really wonderful if our room had a unlimited calling facility like Skype, but detached from the computer. Thats when I went back to the heavily priced Skype phones. The first one to impress me was the Philips VOIP841. I have always liked products from Philips. The best price I could get was on Buy.com for $112, but it was on backorder. I waited and waited and waited for nearly 2 weeks after which I simply canceled the order. I simply went to Ebay and ordered a NetGear SPH200D Skype phone for $130. Why not the philips? Coz all of the philips phones were priced at a huge profit margin. Nowhere near the $112 that I saw on Buy.com
This Netgear phone arrived by DHL today and I was quite excited to get it after all the wait since I ordered the Philips phone. I tore open the package and quickly had a look at the contents. What I had were a Base Station, one docking station, the handset, two adapters - one for the base station, and one for the docking station, one ethernet cable and one telephone cable, and two AAA rechargeable batteries.
The first thing I did was to plug in the Base station to the outlet near my desktop computer and then connect it to my ADSL Router’s Ethernet port. My Router has 4 ports. Next, I put in the two AAA batteries into the handset which triggered it to turn itself on. I was welcomed with a colorful screen. The setup started by itself. It first asked for my Country code, then for my Area code. Then the screen where I was either supposed to Login using my existing Skype ID or Create a new Skype ID.
As soon as I ordered the phone, I had signed up for the Unlimited US calling feature with SkypeIn number.
So, I entered this information into the tiny little screen. It was quite easy doing so. The password reveals each letter while typing and then becomes an asterisk. Nice feature.
After that, the handset tell me that its signing-in and within seconds, I see my userID on the screen. All my Skype contacts were automatically imported into my phone.
I tried my first call to my own mobile. I was asked if I wanted to use SkypeOut or the Landline. Since I didn’t have a landline, I chose SkypeOut. The handset had no problem connecting to the base station and then to my mobile phone number and within a few seconds I see my SkypeIn number on my mobile phone. I cannot comment on the call quality as such, coz I’m yet to talk to anybody using the phone.
Later, I explored the Menu items. It was pretty easy navigating all the various menu items and configuration.
The handset also allowed me to set the default calling setting to SkypeOut to the phone didn’t keep asking me for the same each time I tried calling someone.
Well, these were my first impressions. I’d give it a 4.5/5 just for the lack of a stable feeling when you hold the handset. It doesn’t feel as sturdy and strong as a regular mobile phone or a cordless handset. I’ll let you know more about the Netgear SPH200D phone in a few more days once I start using it widely, in a hope to reduce my minutes usage.
Related posts:
