GE - SKYPE - Dect 6.0 Cordless phone

Comment: Phone worked well for a while. I am in an area overseas where the power and internet are off and on constantly. Maybe that has something to do with the fact that it signs out and won't let me sign back in to skype (simply doesn't give the option). Tried resetting, tried unplugging everything including bateries. Unless I do it for days, it won't work then only works for a few days if I am lucky. Friends have phones that do not have that problem.

Comment: STAY AWAY!!!!

Good in theory but terrible execution: low quality materials, slow response, full of bugs, constant freezes, unintuitive menus, non-existent support.

This unit will work wonderfully for approximately 3 weeks at a time then lock up. Removing the batteries will reset the unit for a while until the unit finally quits responding and continually returns the user to the home screen with no explanation.

When it does work, buttons have a cheep & awkward feel, a beep reminiscent of the 80's, and a painfully slow response.
Menus are setup unintuitively and require altogether too many steps to reach the desired setting.
Volume is too low. Belt clip is useless. Headphone jack has poor connectivity.

Save yourself countless hours of headache and STAY AWAY!!!

Comment:

The good:
- Reception around the house was good (20+ meters)
- Sound was good
- Speaker-phone worked well
- easy to set-up

The not so good:
- Died after 1.5 years in service
- batteries would slowly discharge over the course of two months and need to be recharged in a separate charger
- Occasionally the phone would lock up and need to be reset

Comment: I must preface this by saying that I do enjoy this phone much more than the Skype wifi phones that I have tried so far, both of which I had to send back because they were so buggy that they were unusable (Belkin and Netgear). This actually stays connected to the router for long periods of time and does not drop calls constantly. However, this model is not without its problems.

For one, if the phone loses connection with the router, such as if your internet goes down for a moment or if you need to reset your router, the phone automatically switches itself online. Because of this, it is not enough to simply have your phone set to offline when you're not using it because it may just switch itself on if your internet goes off for even a split second, and then you may receive Skype calls terribly early in the morning or really late at night because people will see you as online (this has happened to me). So the only option is to either log completely out of Skype on your phone and be forced to type in your password every time you want to use it, or do like I do and leave the phone on all night with my Skype status set to away and mute the ringer on the phone.

Another issue I have, and this may not be an issue with the phone itself but rather a Skype issue in general, is that you cannot be logged in on the phone and on the computer at the same time and have Skype function properly. If you are logged in in both places and someone calls you, Skype will ring twice or perhaps three times (but certainly not the 15 second default) and then go to voicemail. So when I want to use Skype on my computer I have to always make sure to switch the phone offline, and of course hope that in that time the phone does not even for a moment lose connection with the router or else it will switch itself back online, thus causing me problems if someone calls me because they will go to voicemail after the second or third ring. This is a problem because, when I'm on the computer, sometimes I cannot answer a call right away if I am using a program that uses a fullscreen mode. I have to minimize the program and then answer the call because, even with hotkeys enabled on Skype for my PC, it rarely works when I'm in a game that uses fullscreen mode. It would be nice if the phone had an actual "off" feature where you could just completely power down the phone when you aren't using it, but it does not. The instructions say it can be done by holding down the red button that you use to hang up the phone with, but it doesn't work. So to ensure it stays offline, you have to either log completely out of Skype and be stuck with the hassle of re-entering your password (even though there is supposed to be a feature to save your login information, it only saves your name, not password), leaving the phone logged in all the time and muting the ringer, or just taking the batteries out.

Then there's the issue of call waiting on Skype. The phone is a dualphone, which means you can use it as a Skype phone and a landline phone. The instructions explain how to switch lines and answer call waiting if you are using the phone as a landline phone, and it explains how to switch between a Skype call and a landline call, but as far as I can see there is no way to answer another incoming Skype call if you are already in a Skype call. I've tried pressing the green "answer" button and that doesn't do it, I've tried putting the person on hold and that doesn't do it. All that does is put the person on hold, but it doesn't answer the other call. The only way you can handle another incoming call is to quickly tell the person you have to go, hang up from the call completely, and then answer the other incoming Skype call. If there is actually some way to answer call waiting on Skype with this phone, please someone respond to this review. I have posted this question on the Skype forum and no one responded, which I assume means that no one else knows either.

Also, there is a major reliability issue. Sometimes for no reason at all, the phone will just not ring. You can have the ringer on and everything and sometimes you will receive a call and it will not make a noise at all. I presume the screen at least still lights up, but I'm not sure though since I usually have it clipped to my pant pocket which means if it doesn't ring, I have no idea I got a call. The only way I find out is if I by chance unclip the phone from my pocket, look at it, and realize that it is blinking which means I have a missed call and/or voicemail. I've been waiting on someone's call before and sat there for a long time before I realized they had already tried to call twice and the phone didn't so much as make a sound of any kind.

For the price of a Skype subscription, I guess this phone is fairly decent. I mean, it is much cheaper than a landline or cellphone subscription, but the fact that you have to fuss with the phone so much (switching it offline when you're on Skype on your computer, logging out, muting the ringer, etc.) and there being reliability issues makes it not that good of a replacement for a landline. I suppose as long as you go into it not expecting landline or even cellphone quality, you won't be that disappointed.

Comment: I just sent in my unit for warranty service after 11 months of usage. About once every two months, the wireless connection between the handset and the gateway simply breaks, necessitating a reset. These breakages will occur a few times over one to three days, requiring resetting each time. Being a poor graduate student, I was willing to tolerate this inconvenience for cheap Skype service. But last week after its most recent breakdown, no amount of resetting and unplugging would cure the problem.

A caveat about battery recharging: you must press the handset very firmly into the base station after each use, until you hear the beep-beep, otherwise in about 24 hours, the battery'll be dead.