Product Reviews

Skype might be brilliant for making phone calls over the internet, but it just doesn't feel right if you have to use a PC headset. US Robotics' USR809600 is a USB phone for use with the service. It feels comfortable and it's just like holding a decent mobile handset.

Considering the low price, we were surprised it has an LCD screen. Other Skype phones we've reviewed, such as Linksys' Cordless Internet Telephony Kit (What's New, Shopper May 2006), use this screen to display Skype contacts. The USR809600 doesn't have this feature. Instead, the screen displays the current date and time in standby mode. The phone is tethered to the PC by a metre-long cable, so this isn't a problem as you can see your contacts onscreen. The phone's cursor keys can be used to navigate through Skype contacts, which saves time messing around with the keyboard

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and mouse.

If you use SkypeOut to call traditional landlines, the LCD screen works exactly as on a cordless telephone, displaying the numbers as you type them, so you don't have to reach for your keyboard or mouse when you want to make a call. However, Skype requires you to dial full international numbers when you make SkypeOut calls, so it knows how to route them, and the USR809600 doesn't display the leading '+' before the country code. This means you can't tell if you've misdialled a number until you hit the call button, which meant we had to redial a lot of numbers. You can simplify things by adding all your phone numbers as contacts and giving them quick-dial numbers that you just key into the handset.

There are a couple of other annoyances. First, pressing the hang-up button minimises the Skype window but pressing the call button doesn't just bring Skype to the foreground, it also dials the currently selected contact so prepare to talk to a few people by mistake. Second, the USR809600 becomes the default sound device on your PC. In fairness, this is a problem with all VoIP phones we've reviewed. US Robotics' manual at least addresses this point and tells you how to correct it.

Sound quality from the phone was excellent and distortions in quality were down to the speed of our internet connection. Despite the little problems that we found, the USR809600 is excellent value and great for any traveller.