Linksys WIP320 Linksys Wireless-G Skype iPhone
by Linksys
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List Price: Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Linksys WIP320 Linksys Wireless-G Skype iPhone
Customer Review: WiFi skype phone
Summary: 5 Stars
The set up was very easy. Work fine, inclusive in 70 kbps up speed service.
Good.
Customer Review: very useful new age long distance phone
Summary: 4 Stars
Some reviews already exist, so I'll be brief and to the point.
If you're not technology literate and expect things to work out of the box, stay away from this. Really - it's not plug_and_play. If you like to fiddle and take pride in having next gen technology work for you, you may like it. Even love it. And hey, if you have family in Europe (like I do) you will save money using this, despite the fact that long distance bills aren't what they used to be...
You *know* what Skype is, right? If you haven't used it on your PC before, forget it and stop right away. As a Skype user, for long I have wanted to replace my house landline with a Skype phone. And since I am moving out of my house for a year or more, this is a chance to set things up with next generation technology. No phone in the house. My cell and the Skype connectivity ought to be more than enough.
The phone is well packaged and appealingly designed. The cool white color and overall minimalist design display represent highlights. The packaging is simple - instructions (which you may just as well toss away, as we shall see), the phone with battery and battery cover you assemble together quickly, and finally a charger with a USB connector - simply to charge the battery. The phone itself is remarkably easy to navigate and naturally intuitive with people who have used Skype and with cell phones, it's a hybrid between the two, but geared to simply connect to a wireless router and become a stand alone Skype handset. The keyboard layout is simple, and the menu easy to navigate with the little navigation pad and the 2 softkeys.
From here, I thought things would be easy, power the phone up and then the menu seemed simple and intuitive - and my wireless setup is simple (WEP 64) and I know it by heart. But the WIP320 refused to connect. There are not many connectivity options to try, and I knew the wireless network just works.
So I had to be off to the Linksys.com support area. Lo and behold, hidden in there is a new firmware section that you *MUST* download. You *MUST* - go there right away. This required a USB cable from computer to WIP320 that is not included in the box, but if you're like me you have plenty of them around (they come with every second USB gadget).
The software update is quite fundamental. You have to download 24MB, not an unsubstantial upgrade package. You have to start with the phone turned off, and the a secret and awkward key combination that will get your WinXP computer to find a driver caller Gadget or something like that (not very intuitive) and then the upgrade process will go on and take 20 minutes or so. Not a gentle get-to-know each other phase, as you may have gathered. I am used to first generation gadgets, but this one had eve me whistling though my teeth a little.
Now to the good news: With the upgrade, the phone connected to my wireless network.
So with the installation complete, how does it work? Nicely. Very decent voice quality (which admittedly one should expect from a $80+ phone) and familiar Skype functionality. It just works.
I have not experienced any functional issues, the phone does not get warm, and the wireless functionality seems stable. Battery life seems a tad inconsistent - it will be OK at times, then again go down in big steps very quickly. But I have not run out of power.
The build quality of the phone seems somewhat flimsy, though, with key press and such feeling "cheap", but that is just an opinion and a matter of taste. I am also a tad surprised that ring tones are so limited in an expensive phone. And while having a compact cell phone format is nice, I'd prefer this phone to be a big bigger and substantial, since it is my home phone. Perhaps less plasticky feeling. But I understand other users may carry them around from Hotspot to Hotspot, and demand portability - and probably in a few years we basically all will.
Some limitations... inconsistent battery level indicator, and the power budget is definitely on the tight side - keep the phone next to your bed overnight, and the battery will be near empty the next mornin - without having made a call. Probably another firmware release away, but then again WiFi is always going to be powerhungrier than other technologies, I guess, part of the price you pay for next gen technology.
Also, for some reason I would have expected the phone to be more configurable when it came to ringtones and such - Skype allows one to import tones into the application, this phone does not. Vwery configurable it isn't. But Linksys seems to release open source code for it, so probably one will find more personalized stuff over time - a wake-up function would be nice, for example.
All in all, I am glad that Linksys presents me with this alternative to traditional telephony - it just works (after some initial fiddling that may be too much for the average user).
Customer Review: Very Good Phone, But Only Real Geeks Need Apply At This Point
Summary: 4 Stars
I really have found all the negative user reviews about the WIP320 to be funny considering almost all of them were from "early adopters", AKA people who bought this gadget "as soon as it was available". 90% of these people have to have known what they were getting into, and yet they're still so upset with Linksys because there were bugs in this product which is not just a new product, but a new product in a new product segment.
Anyway, I did a lot of research on WiFi Skype phones, and found the WIP320 to be my best bet considering Linksys has the best reputation of all the manufacturers I looked at as far as all the products I've used at work for the past 16 years. We use a lot of Linksys wireless products because they are just better than anything from Netgear, SMC, Philips, etc.
So, I've only had this phone for one day, but it was obvious it had some problems, although it worked great most of the time. The firmware version was 1.1.0.0, so I figured at least that's better than 1.0.0.0. The first problem I noticed was that after a full charge, the battery was almost dead after sitting unplugged next to our "old" phone at home for one hour. It was also pretty hot, much more than it should've been considering that it hadn't been touched for an hour, so I thought something must've been wrong with the battery or power saving features. The second, more minor problem was that the menu navigation was lagging and freezing for several seconds sometimes. It was annoying, but didn't happen most of the time. The third problem was that I didn't see a way to use the speakerphone feature all the reviews talked about. Actually, a fourth problem was that the voicemail "On" setting kept going off for some weird reason and calls wouldn't go to voicemail.
OK, so one big problem with the battery, and a few relatively minor problems. So, I saw a menu item on the phone about updates -- hmm, said there were none. So, I checked Linksys' support site looking for some other way to fix the problem. I saw a firmware update to 1.1.0.16 released only a week or so ago. Looked like a minor update, but the comments said it added the speakerphone feature, so I downloaded it.
The firmware updater is an EXE installer that, at some point, tells you to plug the phone into your computer (luckily I have a mini-USB cable I use with my digital camera, because the phone didn't come with one!), then it says to hold down the right soft key, power button, and "#9" keys. OK, so I tried that repeatedly while the phone was powered up, and it just kept shutting down. The instructions didn't say to power the phone down BEFORE pushing all those buttons -- thanks. After figuring that out, got it up in some kind of update mode where it said "USB not ready" instead of "Download" as the updater said. But Windows Vista saw it now, and I told it to auto-install the driver (crossing my fingers it would work). 5 minutes later (thanks, Vista), the driver's installed and the phone says "Download". I continue with the updater after it finds the phone, and 15 minutes and a phone reboot later it's back up with the latest firmware.
Speakerphone feature, it's there and it works fine, problem fixed. Voicemail "On" setting is staying on long after I turned it on, problem fixed. Menu navigation now works fine and the phone is generally much more responsive than before, problem fixed. Last but certainly not least, the battery. Right now, after fully recharging the phone which was nearly dead earlier today, I'm two hours into testing battery life (standby), and the battery still shows a FULL CHARGE! YAY! It's still cool, too, so problem fixed as far as I can tell.
All I can say is that this phone as it exists even with these fixes is still not for the average home user, because it took way too much effort to get it to this point where it seems to be working well. I'm sure most average early adopters gave up very early on and just returned it, but being an I.T. pro for almost 20 years, I'm no average user (and I know very well to wait 6 months before buying a new type of product like this).
Look, if you're going to buy a such a new kind of product like this IMMEDIATELY after it's released, expect some bumps and tech support calls. It's a part of being a gadget freak. Or, be like me and just wait 6 months while all the true "early adopters" take the brunt of the pain.
Customer Review: Could be the best WiFi Skype phone currently in the market...
Summary: 4 Stars
I have been using WiFi Skype phones for my phone calls almost exclusively for the past 6 months. I had a SMC WiFi phone for most of that time and luckily it got stolen. Don't get me wrong, the SMC is a good phone, but it is definitely a first gen (feels like a toy in your hand). The Linksys iPhone feels like an actual product. The Linksys iPhone is great once you upgrade it's firmware. Even with this upgrade I would still place SMC's software better as far as connectivity, but the Linksys' again feels like a more refined product with the software interface.
As far as I can tell the call quality is also much better. With my SMC there was a bit of an echo and lag on the receivers end. Calls on the Linksys iPhone are just as clear and feel more like traditional telephony calls. The speakerphone is a nice feature, but activating it is a bit cumbersome.
Battery life is about the same, but for me I am able to make it through most days with no worries. Taking it from home to work and out and about with no worries of a dead battery during the course of a day (depending on how popular I am on a given day).
Screen quality is also drastically improved over my SMC phone. The screen is crisp and plenty bright. I usually run it at half brightness and it is more then enough. The SMC's brightness I always felt was too high even at it's lowest setting.
All in all the Linksys iPhone is far better then the SMC, and seeing as most other WiFi Skype phones seemed to be based on the SMC phone, I would have to place this one at the top of the market currently. The only real issue currently with WiFi phones is their lack of browser support. This way trips to panara and other hot spots that require browser authentication wouldn't leave me so withdrawn from the world.
side note: While ditching a cell phone might not be for everyone, I have enjoyed not being tethered phone 24/7. 90% of the places I go have open WiFi so it is really not that bad, but if nothing else a WiFi Skype phone makes a great home phone replacement.
UPDATE: So I have had my phone for over a month now, what do I think? Battery life is about the same, and have yet to get to the end of the day and worry my phone will die in mid-call. I will say that I am really impressed with the call clarity on both ends as well as the interface like the call waiting notification actually works (SMC not-so-much). All in all, a month in and I am still very happy and would definitely recommend this phone to any skype user.
Customer Review: Great Product - Just Follow my Pointers
Summary: 4 Stars
I Bought 2 of these phones so that i can Keep in contact with my Fiancee while she's at school out of town. this handset is a great little device, and what i have learnt from using it for the last month is;
1.)Firstly, upgrade to the latest Firmware from Linksys, they have sorted a few major flaws with it.
2.)You have to understand that the theory of operation for 'connection' is that the phone is constantly in full duplex communication with the Wireless Router/Access Point, so the battery life isn't as great as a regular Cell phone. i have actually found that wether the phone is used for calls often, or stays in standby, the battery life is pretty much the same! mind you, this is with both phones, so it isn't a fluke observation!
3.)Pay attention to the 'call Log', if it gets too full, then the phone seems to go crazy when accessing the logs, so frequently clear out the logs, i do mine every 2~3 days (about 15~20 calls worth). if you do have the problem where accessing the clear log menu causes the phone, go directly to the 'Reset' option in the 'General' menu and reset the handset saving the wireless access details of course.
4.)regarding the complaints of no speaker phone as advertised, this phone does have the speaker phone option; while on a call, press the 'Options' button, and scroll to the 'Handset/Speaker phone' option, BINGO!!
one other side note, because of the frequent charging, i don't think the battery will have a life as long a as a typical cell phone battery, so i really think Linksys should offer replacement batteries sold separately. i WOULD certainly buy spares.
Enjoy a wonderful product, the original iPhone!! :P