3 Skypephone: A review

I picked up the 3 Skypephone the day it got released. I figured I’d get a new prepaid number to boot. Rather than reviewing it the moment I got it, I decided to play with it for a little while, and formulate opinions on the phone. Generally, I like it, and think its going in the right direction. I can’t wait for improvements to this product line.

Size and Build Quality
Its actually much smaller than the Nokia N73. Very thin, and smaller in size. Looks very much like a toy phone, and easily slips into the pocket. The build quality is quite impressive for a cheap AUD$179 phone. I did however note that sometimes I’d slip the back cover off (the back cover covers the battery, and beneath it is where the microSD and SIM cards are stored. I’d also be very weary of the one port on the phone – its a USB port, that allows you to plug in the hands-free kit, or the charger (this phone, charges via USB just fine as well). The cover, of multi-purpose port, seems to be very flimsy, and I’m quite certain it will break eventually.

Operating System
This is a Qualcomm BREW based phone. You can write BREW apps for it, however, you actually need to run Windows as the SDK is only written for that silly OS. The phone does support Java, so that in itself must be saving grace for writing applications for the phone.

Camera
Its supposed to be a 2MP camera (supporting 1600×1200 resolution), but as with most mobile phone cameras, this one generally sucks. It doesn’t come with a built-in flash, so taking photos using the night mode has got some serious digital manipulation. During the day, shots are passable, but you won’t be making any great art pieces from it. There’s a video recorder too, but its all just as bad.

Skype
The reason this phone is cool, is because of Skype. You have an always-on Skype connection wherever you are, as long as you are within the 3 Broadband Zone. When you’re roaming to Telstra, you’re obviously out of luck – which is kind of silly at this stage, since 3’s coverage is pretty dismal if you’re not within city/metro areas. I spent last weekend in Port Pirie (3 hours away from Adelaide, in South Australia) and there was absolutely no 3 coverage there.

SkypeIn or SkypeOut calls do not work. Initially, synchronising my Skype contact list was problematic, but that’s probably because I had Skype running on my laptop as well. Quickly shutting it down and restarting the synchronisation seemed to have fixed the problem.

Audio quality with Skype over 3G is actually very good. A drop out happened once after about 8 minutes into the call, in where I saw a message that my session expired. It reconnected automatically, and I made another call, and it just worked fine.

You can’t initiate a Skype call with multiple parties. However, you can participate in a Skype call with multiple parties, and I verified this with 4 people on a Skype chat. It seemed like the audio generated from the 3 Skypephone was actually very good, in comparison to most laptops, where their mics are nowadays pretty second rate, and you can’t get anywhere without a headset.

Chatting via Skype is pretty easy, though you kind of wish you had a full-featured keyboard (like on the e61i).

When Skype is set to forward to a number with the regular client, it does seem like there can be confusion and I might get one ring on the Skypephone before it just cuts off, and gets forwarded to my actual mobile phone. This can get quite annoying, as its pretty expensive everytime a call is forwarded! Disabling Call Forwarding seems to help.

Not having Caller ID on incoming Skype calls, seems kind of silly. You should know who’s calling you, as the regular Skype client has support for this, with no issue.

USB Mass Storage Device
I like that the phone is just treated as a USB mass storage device in Linux. I’ve not trying synchronising it, as the software provided on the CD is completely Windows only (I didn’t even notice any Mac support).

Interface
The phone works very much like a Nokia. Keypad shortcuts all seem very similar, so if you’re a regular Nokia user (like of the N73 and the like), you’ll never have a problem getting used to the interface for SMS or Skype Chats.

Misc.
Its worth noting that the Skype client itself, comes from 3’s partnership with iSkoot. I know that I get 4,000 Skype minutes and 10,000 Skype chat messages, all of which, seems really reasonable. Consider reading 3’s Forum, if there are questions, and to follow the discussion. More photos at the wp-s1 tag.

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