Buy Philips VOIP8411B VOIP And Skype Compatible Digital Cordless TelephonePhilips VOIP8411B VOIP And Skype Compatible Digital Cordless Telephone Product Description:
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44 of 44 people found the following review helpful.
Slightly underwhelming
By Julie Brazier
We bought one of these phones recently and for the price, I really wanted to love everything about it. It's a fairly neat looking phone (I don't have any major problem with the plastic or the look), and like other reviewers mentioned, it was a doddle to set up after plugging it into our router.Unfortunately, the phone itself has a few drawbacks that I can't just gloss over, although to be fair, some are just minor niggles. I think the following points are all worth considering before spending the money:1. The battery life: Philips have designed a lovely, light, slim handset here but the size and shape come at the cost of staying power. With just 2 x AAA batteries in it, the handset just does not go the distance.The manufacturer claims that the batteries will support up to 5 days of standby, but any kind of use just eats up the power. And it takes up to 6 hours to fully charge the two tiny batteries when the phone is in its cradle! (Can be up to 10 minutes before you spot any signs of life at all if you let the batteries get flat enough!)I can see that soon we will be permanently leaving this phone in its cradle between calls; something that we might regard as normal if we did not already have an older cordless Panasonic phone whose battery life (in 2 x AA's) is just phenomenal in comparison.2. The concept: What a good idea to have a dual-phone. Except that this particular phone has not really been implemented with that in mind - it is just too "Skype-focused". Preferably, it would be marketed as a Skype phone that, by-the-by, can also be used for landline calls. That would have set my expectations better. (And personally I might have been a bit reluctant to spend that much on a Skype phone... )For example, the description above that the phone "stores all of your regular and Skype contacts" is VERY misleading. The phone does not have an independent internal "phonebook" at all. It looks up all your contacts from Skype. So, if you add a landline number as a "Contact" it immediately becomes a SkypeOut contact -- which also can be reached using the Landline option. I found that these added contacts now also showed up (and cluttered up) my regular contacts list in my Skype account on my PC. (Never mind the privacy implications of my entire phone book being online.)That might not generally be regarded as a particular problem, but if for any reason the Internet connection is down, then you just can't see any of your "Contacts" - Skype or otherwise. Or the recent call history - those are all cleared. To me it seems like a ridiculous design decision not to give the phone itself a little more independence in this regard. It also means that if you've added all your contacts and then want to use an alternate Skype account to log into the phone, all the contacts disappear because they go with the account not the phone.3. The interface: Mostly clear and reasonably intuitive with a few minor niggles. One that particularly irked me is the entering of contacts. Can you believe that it is not possible to edit a contact's phone number through the phone once it has been saved? Seriously, I tried everything and scoured the manual! In the end I had 2 options: delete the contact and start again, or do it through Skype on my computer.4. Login confusion. When I am logged in on the phone and I run Skype on my PC (to send an instant message or to fix a broken contact number, for example), my PC rings if someone places a Skype call to me. I know another reviewer didn't have this issue, so perhaps it is random, but either way, I don't see any means of telling it which login takes precedence.5. Speaker phone: The speaker phone is MUCH louder and clearer for Skype calls than for landline calls. People on the other end of landline speakerphone conversations complain that they can't hear me properly and I can't hear them as clearly either.Lastly, SkypeOut has its own set of "hang ups" (some quite literal) which shouldn't really bias me against the phone except that this is so VERY much a Skype phone. After using up our free sample, we bought some SkypeOut credit. And yes, it is reasonably good value to make overseas and even local daytime calls. However, it only seems to work about 80% of the time. The other 20% of the time it just cuts off or neither party hears any sound. Nevertheless you ARE charged for the call time and connection. And there's no human operator to call and gripe to, as there is for some of the other cheap overseas call services.So in conclusion, I'd say that you should weigh up carefully what use you would put this phone to. If your usage is primarily Skype calls, and you want to spend this amount on a wireless Skype phone, then it would be a great choice. If you're looking for a new landline phone that also does Skype for occasional usage, then perhaps you'd be better off evaluating some of the other options with this functionality.
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful.Good, but could be better.
By Renato Gomes Ferraz
I have purchased this phone a few weeks ago, and although there aren't any major issues with it, I did expect more for the price it costs.The finishing looks a little cheap. From the shinny pictures provided by Philips it does look very nice... I don't know what kind of lighting was used or retouching that was done, but in my opinion the real thing could be better.Setup was a breeze. Just connected it to my router and inserted my login/password. Skype works well. I was afraid there were going to be problems since I am always also connected on my computer and I wasn't sure how Skype would handle 2 simultaneous logins. But there weren't any issues.The phone's interface could be more intuitive and responsive. Also I was disappointed that you are not able to send skype text messages by using the phone.Voice quality is the same as using a headset connected directly to my computer. This means that skype calls are very good, skypein calls are good and skypeout calls are average (at least for the countries I call).One other thing is that before purchasing the phone here in the UK, I contacted Philips support by E-mail asking whether this phone worked only on Europe's 230V / 50Hz or if its power adapters (it comes with 2) also supported 120V / 60Hz. A lot of electronics do nowadays, including my wireless router. I am currently living in the UK, but intended to use it abroad as well. Philips UK support answered me saying that it did work with both. However, upon receiving it saw it didn't. I contacted Philips UK again, they apologized for the mistake but said that the only solution would be for me to buy new power adapters from Philips USA. They were unable to say how much it would cost or how I could do it.But I am still happy that I am now able to use Skype without having to be connected to a computer.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
Great phone
By David Southern
Only using the phone for skype in and skype out calls so cannot comment on the landline side. This phone is just what i've been looking for, freedom from the PC.The base unit plugs straight into my router which allows me to position the phone cradle in a more convenient location. Range between headset and base is good, call quality is crystal clear. The user interface is easy to use and the setting up took minutes.My only gripe with these type of phone is the inability to include the messaging side of Skype, which would negate the need to have Skype on your PC at all, I'm sure this will be addressed in future models.
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