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Netgear SPH101 Skype WiFi Phone

SPH101 Skype WiFi Phone

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* Total cost includes estimated tax and shipping in the continental US. Prices and availability are subject to change by merchant without notice. Sales taxes and shipping costs are only estimates. Please check with merchant for details.

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Most recent User Reviews for

Netgear SPH101 Skype WiFi Phone

  • Reviewed by: pricegruba

    02-27-08

    Duration of ownership:

    Strengths: A stand-alone phone to make Skype calls without a PC

    Weaknesses:Battery gets warm quickly; clock is not accurate

    Overall Evaluation: This Skype phone works very well with my WEP wireless network and serves its purpose of making wireless VoIP calls without the dependency for a computer running Skype software. The setup is easy with my Netgear router, but can be difficult sometimes with public wireless network. I had less number of dropped calls using this phone, compared with the combination of a PC and bluetooth headset. Most of time the calls are clear. The phone has a large LCD, but the buttons are not as good as those on a regular phone. The overall material and quality is sub-par, not comparable to a good cell phone. I wish it had a much better build quality. The battery get warm quickly. The clock does not work well.

  • Reviewed by: cliftonious

    09-18-07

    Duration of ownership:

    Strengths: Makes use of Skype, awesome if you don't want to use your computer 100% of the time for Skype... mobile

    Weaknesses:Battery-life, firmware sucks, no browser for web-based authentication(can counter this, read more in my comments)

    Overall Evaluation: Overall, this phone is pretty cool and is great if you have people frequently calling you using Skype while in range of your home router. However, it had some major cons that caused me to make the decision to return it to newegg: handoffs between routers happen successfully rarely, contact list downloaded successfully once out of many many tries, have to relog yourself in sometimes to Skype because it forgets your information(even with a charge), battery life is actually quite awful. You may ask why I didn't complain about the web based authentication: I figured out a way around it. I cloned the mac address of the phone and logged onto my college network using my laptop's web based authentication. Once logged in, I turned my laptop off and then turned the phone on and wall-la, access.Overall, it is a cool idea, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone due to the fact that it has not been well developed.

  • Reviewed by: dupes88

    06-29-07

    Duration of ownership:

    Strengths: Easy to use, quick to set up, very reasonable price if you think about it

    Weaknesses:No html logging for authentication systems, limited battery life (1 hour of talking...); no SMS options

    Overall Evaluation: I bought two of these phones and send one to my girlfriend in Austria so we could talk to each other unlimited for free over wi-fi. As long as you're not expecting a $500 smart phone, this is a very handy gadget. It connects extremely easy, and gets a better signal than when I use Skype wirelessly through my laptop. Using one of these you can travel around the world and call US numbers for extremely low prices, and as long as you have WI-FI access that doesn't require HTML authentication, you're fine. I use it with my WEP at home and it works great. One other bonus is that the resale value of this phone is decent, so if you can purchase one for around $100 after rebate, you can get your money back when you're done travelling, or whatever.

  • Reviewed by: SC4SHURA

    02-05-07

    Duration of ownership: 1 Years

    Strengths: Good sound quality between Skype users

    Weaknesses:Bad sound quality when connected to landlines.Expensive.

    Overall Evaluation: I purchased two units, one for myself and the other for my parents abroad. It's convenient between skype users, but a little bit pricey. Battery life is so short that it lasts less than 24 hours even when it's not used at all.So I need to hook it up to power all the time.Network automatic login function sometimes fails to work and I have to do it manually. When I called to landlines abroad, the sound quality is bad and sometimes it's hard to keep talking due to noise.I don't think it is a good idea to pay $200 for this phone.

  • Reviewed by: Derek

    01-17-07

    Duration of ownership:

    Strengths: Works as advertised, durable, good call quality, picks up wifi signals no problem, stores wifi connection.

    Weaknesses:Would be nice to have a cradle charger along with the AC adapter since advertised battery life is 20hrs idle/2hrs in use.

    Overall Evaluation: I am pleased with the SPH101 Skype WiFi Phone, and it has lived up to my expectations. I've found the call quality to be at least as good as using Skype on my computer or with my Linksys CIT200 (which requires connection to a computer). As soon as I plugged it in and turned it on it was picking up wireless networks. We've been using Skype as our primary phone service for some time now and phones like this not only complement Skype's cost effectiveness but also eliminate any hassle of being tied to a computer.Would-be-nice-to-have's: Charging cradle, web browser authentication to connect to wireless networks that require it, ability to text message via Skype Chat.

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