GE - SKYPE - Dect 6.0 Cordless phone

I have owned this phone for about 3 weeks now, and my review is based on my experience with it in that time.

First off, the setup was a snap. It took less than five minutes to get the phone up and running (and perhaps another 20 to complete the optional firmware update). Setup consists of connecting the base station to your internet router and to an electrical outlet, then configuring the hand unit for your Skype account. Additional tinkering was necessary to customize the features to my liking, but I found the interface fairly user friendly and this process was also easy.

While user friendly, the interface is definitely the weakest aspect of the phone. It is slow and a bit clunky. There are noticeable pauses while switching between screens and especially when scrolling through contacts. The refresh rate on the color LCD screen is slow enough that when it scrolls a long contact name across the screen, the letters become significantly blurred and almost...Read more

I bought this phone along with the Linksys CIT 400.

Pros for this phone:


The phone works when used as a standard phone to Skype out.
It has better fidelity for the person at the other end of the line than the Linksys.
The speaker phone is louder than the linksys.

Cons

Poor design and ergonomics. Program takes a perceptible irritating pause between each keystroke to recognize keystrokes and respond. Phone makes really ugly low key buzzing/moaning sound each time key is pressed. I'm sure this is supposed to be helpful, but would go nicely on the shelf with a bunch of the home appliances in the movie Brazil.
Occasionally the phone will lockup and not respond to key presses. Fix is to remove and replace battery.
There is no volume control for this phone.
Volume is adequate when used as a handset, and just barely adequate when used as a speaker phone.
Volume is NOT adequate when external...Read more

I would initially have given this telephone a 4-5 star rating, because at first it seemed pretty good. The interface worked, and it was really nice to have a phone that could call in and out on skype and our landline without leaving a computer on. I also bought 2 additional handsets and was ready to ditch our old phones. Good thing we didn't!

A little over 1 month into our use of the phone, it went on the fritz. The base station refused to communicate with the handsets, despite resetting, both hard and soft, and various efforts to manipulate the phone. I finally called Support, which is hard to reach, and they laboriously walked me through everything I'd already tried before finally conceded defeat. I had to send it in.

It is now over 2 months since I sent it in and we have seen neither hide nor hair of the thing. I finally got really impatient 2 weeks ago and called to see what had happened. Apparently, they had some migration of their service...Read more