Belkin WiFi Skype phone review: Gizmodo

I haven’t been too keen on these single-purpose WiFi phones for a few reasons. Right off the bat, most of them are priced way too high, as in the $200 to $350 range. For that amount of money, you could spend less on a more capable device and add Skype to it. Still, Belkin’s model due out next week comes in a little less; around $180 over at Amazon, making it a little easier on the wallet (but still too high IMO).

Gizmodo has a thorough review of the unit and seems like what they see and hear. The connectivity seemed relatively pain free as did the setup, although Skype itself is a no-brainer, which is a testament to the simplicity of the service. Reports of some SkypeOut issues are concerning since not everyone uses Skype on a PC. The real question is: were the problems due to some quality issue of the phone or a bad WiFi signal? I’d love to see someone test the signal reception of the phone to gain some insight.

-kct