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Linksys Internet Telephony kit
Price: £99.99 inc VAT

Features
Performance
Ease of use
Value for money
Overall

Reviewed By: Andy Shaw

This review updated: 30/01/2006
Featured in magazine:
Issue 123
Manufacturer Contacts:
Supplier: Linksys
Tel: 0800 020 0101
Web Address: www.linksys.com


Cordless phones have been around for years, with modern digital versions proving very popular in British homes. Now that VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is letting us make cheaper and even free calls via our computers, USB handsets offering an experience akin to making a traditional phone call are proliferating. But unlike our regular phones, most of these have had to be tethered to our computers by a USB cable. Linksys's new phone sets you free from these shackles, so you can make cheap VoIP calls from any room in your house.

Features
This new handset brings the internet phone right up to date, with features that put most modern conventional cordless phones to shame. It comes with a USB adapter to plug into your computer, which uses the regular DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications) phone standard to transmit your call wirelessly from your PC to wherever you're wandering in the house. The handset itself comes with a speakerphone, a colour screen and a variety of ringtones and options, but is also fully integrated with popular VoIP service Skype (www.skype.com): as long as your computer is running it'll show you which contacts are online so you can call them free of charge at the push of a button, even if you're in a different room to your computer.

Performance
We tested the phone in a domestic setting across a three-storey house. The phone worked adequately, with occasional breaks in the connection but nothing that would kill a conversation. The handset battery promises up to 10 hours of talk time or 120 hours if left away from its charger, which is separate from the USB connection and requires a spare power socket.

Ease of use
Needless to say, adding more wireless devices to a house already crammed with them (regular DECT phones and a Wi-Fi network) made us nervous. But despite scaring us by forcing our regular digital cordless phones to reconfirm noisily their link with one another, the installation was seamless. However, you might have to fiddle with your computer's sound settings to ensure your speakers still work while the phone is connected – key information that's set out in an easily missed supplemental sheet.

Value for money
If you want to be old-school you can get phones far cheaper than this, which work in a similar way but are tethered to a USB port. If you're thinking of trying Skype for the first time, Linksys's cordless option might be too big an investment to make on something you're not sure you'll use. But if you're one of the millions who has already joined Skype's telephone revolution, and either don't already have a specialised handset or are looking for an upgrade, this unit is worth paying the extra for. Just to get you going there's also 60 SkypeOut minutes (for making calls to regular phones and mobiles) and a month's trial of the voicemail service included in the package

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