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RATING:

Pay Monthly

	DEAL	PRICE
	3 Skypephone S2 (3) 3 Mobile	£15.00
	3 Skypephone S2 (3) 3 Mobile	£12.00
	3 Skypephone Black/Silver (3) 3 Mobile	£18.00
	3 Skypephone S2 (3) 3 Mobile	£26.25
	3 Skypephone S2 (3) 3 Mobile	£15.00
	3 Skypephone Black/Silver (3) 3 Mobile	£12.00
	3 Skypephone Black/Silver (3) 3 Mobile	£15.00
	3 Skypephone S2 (3) 3 Mobile	£18.00
	3 Skypephone White/Blue (3) 3 Mobile	£20.00
	3 Skypephone Black/Silver (3) 3 Mobile	£15.00
	3 Skypephone S2 (3) 3 Mobile	£25.00
	3 Skypephone Black/Silver (3) 3 Mobile	£24.00
	3 Skypephone S2 (3) 3 Mobile	£20.00
	3 Skypephone S2 (3) 3 Mobile	£25.00
	3 Skypephone S2 (3) 3 Mobile	£27.00
	3 Skypephone Black/Silver (3) 3 Mobile	£20.00
	3 Skypephone White/Blue (3) 3 Mobile	£15.00
	3 Skypephone Black/Silver (3) 3 Mobile	£27.00
	3 Skypephone S2 (3) 3 Mobile	£15.00
	3 Skypephone S2 (3) 3 Mobile	£35.00

Pay As You Go

	DEAL	PRICE
	3 Skypephone S2 (THREE) 3 Mobile - PAYG	£59.99
	3 Skypephone S2 Twin pack (THREE) 3 Mobile - PAYG	£99.99
	3 Skypephone White/Blue (THREE) 3 Mobile - PAYG	£39.99
	3 Skypephone White/Blue Twin pack (THREE) 3 Mobile - PAYG	£69.99
	3 Skypephone Black/Silver (THREE) 3 Mobile - PAYG	£39.99

SUMMARY:

3 Skypephone Review

An easy-to-use and cheap 3G mobile phone with integrated Skype. Lightweight, small and well-built, the 3 Skypephone offers free Skype calls and instant messaging. The 3 SkypePhone is available on pay-as-you-go and pay-monthly contract price plans.

Design

The 3 Skypephone is available in 3 colours - black, and white versions (blue or pink on the sides). The phone is quite light - 86 g, and is nice and small.

Beneath the magnetic battery cover is the SIM card slot and microSD slot. The 3 Skypephone supports up to 1 GB - enough for let's say 333 songs (at 3 MB each).

There's a USB slot on the bottom, a camera button (for the 2 MP camera) and a multi-task switch on the right side of the phone. The keypad is fine - big enough keys. The screen only has a 176 x 220 resolution - pretty much standard for cheap phones.

Skype Key: Press the big 'Skype' key above the keypad to use Skype. You can set Skype to automatically log-in each time you turn the phone on. Your Skype presence information can be seen in the status bar at the top of the screen.

The Skypephone is manufactured by AMOI (Chinese company). Qualcomm provide the BREW operating system, and iSkoot provide the Skype interface.

Features

• 2 MP camera (no flash, autofocus, basic settings)
• 2 games (Pac-man and Tetris)
• Bluetooth (supports file transfer, headset and A2DP stereo Bluetooth profiles)
• Dual-band only - Doesn't work in the USA
• Voice recorder
• Text, MMS, Email, Skype Chat
• Web browser
• Media player

All features are pretty basic, but do the job. The 2 MP is OK - don't expect fantastic quality on a £50; handset. Take photos in good light and keep those hands steady.

Text input: ABC, T9 predictive text or 123 number input. Texting can be reasonably quick (for speedy texters). For most people, texting is slow - the 3 Skypephone has no QWERTY keyboard.

Web browsing: 3G mobile internet access - fast download speeds in 3G areas. Shame about the 2-inch 176 x 220 screen.

No 3.5 mm jack You'll need an adapter to plug-in your own high-quality earphones. A stereo headset is supplied in the box - they sound fine.

Calling: Conference calls (talk to up to 3 people), call divert, callerID, call barring and other options.

Contacts: Skype contacts are in the same list as your other contacts. You can also see your Skype contacts status (online, busy etc).

Apps: Facebook, YouTube, eBay, Windows Live Messenger.

Tools: Alarm, calculator, calendar, notepad, PC sync, world time, stop watch.

Pay Monthly

Available from 3 Mobile stores - the 3 Skypephone is free on contract plans. Price plans start at just £12 per month (up to £27 per month). You get add-on options - for example, pay an extra £5 per month to get "unlimited" data - fair usage of 1 GB per month applies.

You get a monthly allowance of 4000 Skype minutes (66 hours) and a whopping 10,000 Skype instant messages. That should be plenty for most people.

Pay-as-you-go

You can buy the 3 Skypephone on PAYG for just £49.99. £59.99 with a £10 top-up. As with the pay-monthly option, you get 4000 free Skype minutes and 10,000 Skype instant messages.

"Free Skype calls are for Skype-to-Skype calls made from the UK or while roaming on a 3 sister network and are valid for 30 days from activating any Top-up."

Free Skype-to-Skype calls on pay-as-you-go are only valid for 30 days after you activate a top-up. Top-ups are available at £10, £15 or £20. So, to get free Skype-to-Skype calls throughout the year, you have to spend at least £120 on top-ups.

Use the credit for making mobile voice over 3's GSM network. Or, use the credit on 3's mobile Internet services. Planet3 - music, videos, games - free to browse, costs money to download stuff.

How 3 Skypephone Works

A GSM call is made to 3's network. The call is then routed through the fixed line Internet to Skype. You can make Skype calls in 2G and 3G network coverage areas, since it works by first contacting the GSM voice network.

Making free Skype calls abroad: You can only get free Skype minutes when using 3's network - 3's network in the UK or 3's overseas networks - Ireland, Italy, Austria, Hong Kong, Australia, Sweden and Denmark. Roaming charges will otherwise apply.

Calling Skype users abroad: All Skype calls between Skype users are free, no matter whether that person is using Skype on another mobile or on their PC.

Call quality: The call quality should be similar to regular calls through the mobile network. 3G networks should give better call quality than 2G networks - same with all mobile phone calls.

No SkypeIn or SkypeOut

Skype is a little piece of software allowing you to make free Internet calls to other Skype users. Millions is users have it installed on their PC. Quality can be excellent on a computer - get a decent pair of headphones.

Internet voice or video calls (and Skype instant messages) between Skype users (wherever they may be on planet Earth), are free. Skype also offers SkypeOut and SkypeIn services.

SkypeOut lets you make dirt cheap national or international calls to regular numbers (PSTN, mobile phones) using your Skype account.

SkypeIn is a personal number that lets you receive calls on Skype, from anyone, anywhere in the world.

The 3 Skypephone currently does not have support for either SkypeOut or SkypeIn - although there are rumours that one or both of these features could be implemented in the 1st half of 2008.

Video calling

The 3 SkypePhone does support video calling, however there is no front-facing camera. The camera is on the back of the phone - ie you can't record video of yourself whilst looking at the display.

The 3 Mobile information sites mysteriously omit any mention of video calling in their FAQs.

Future SkypePhone Versions

Future SkypePhone versions are a possibility - depends on how well this version does. Front-facing camera, HSDPA, Wi-Fi, bigger screen, QWERTY keyboard and more.

3 SkypePhone Alternatives

3 Mobile X-Series phonesoffer Skype access. Order a pay-monthly 3G contract phone and add the X-Series add-on for £5 or £10 per month. 5000 Skype minutes per month fair use.

You have to launch the Skype application with X-Series. Skype isn't integrated into the handset's core features - as it is with the 3 SkypePhone.

Summary

Good value cheap 3G phone targeted at regular Skype users. Very easy to use and Skype features are well-integrated into its design. Basic features and does the job.

The 3 Mobile shop has more on buy 3 SkypePhone, latest 3G phones, £15 mobile contract deals and more. PAYG, SIM-free and cheap 3G contracts.

TAGS: 3g, bar phones

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