Product Reviews

If you've started using the Skype telephone service seriously, you may find that being tied to your PC when making calls isn't a lot of fun. Linksys's Cordless Internet Telephony Kit makes life easier. The set comes with a USB wireless receiver that connects to your PC and a cordless phone and charger.

A wizard makes PC installation very easy. As soon as it's complete the cordless receiver connects to your phone. From this point incoming Skype calls are sent to the mobile handset. It was much easier to set up than the Dual Phone we reviewed in What's New, Shopper January 2006.

You can make standard outgoing calls, provided you have Skype Out, by dialling in the usual way. The phone also has

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an address book, which can store 100 entries.

More useful is the Skype button, which pulls all your Skype contacts from your PC so that you can dial them without having to go back to your PC. Although the colour screen isn't the best and has a very low resolution, we found it easy enough to select and call a contact.

Sound quality is very good. There was little latency in the line and it worked well on our office floor and the floor above, but it was unreliable any further away than this. The cordless phone isn't just for phone calls, as you can also use it to change your Skype online status without having to visit your PC.

As with every other Skype phone we've tested, the installation automatically changes Windows' default sound device to the cordless phone. This means that all your music, games and other sounds are automatically sent to the handset rather than your speakers. You can change the settings back in Windows' Control Panel and force Skype to use the handset, but we think this should be mentioned in the installation.

The Cordless Internet Telephony Kit works very well, and its Skype integration is excellent. It's pricy, though, and while the Dual Phone isn't quite as easy to configure, it also connects to your standard phone line and costs less.