jkontherun give Netgear’s WiFi Skype phone the once-over

We looked at Netgear’s SPH-101 Skype phone last December, praising it for the convenience of cheap or low-cost VOIP calls and remaining silently critical of the whopping MRSP.  Well, my favourite cam-whore Kevin Tofel has grappled with the handset itself and finds it comes up trumps if portability floats your sexy boat.

Two hours of talk-time and 20hr standby might please Kevin, but I’m obviously a tougher cookie and can’t quite bring myself to praise Netgear for their choice of an 840mAh battery since it obviously won’t manage even a full day.  Similarly, the lack of web browser on-board means that logging on to pay-per-use WiFi networks at places like Starbucks is an impossibility.

I can’t get too excited about the SPH-101, because I can’t quite see why you’d pick it over a wireless-enabled Smartphone.  Yes, the interface might be more streamlined than something running, say, Windows Mobile, is the target audience really likely to be too put off by that?

Netgear SPH-101 Skype Phone Review [jkontherun]