Customer Reviews

Linksys WIP320 Linksys Wireless-G Skype iPhone

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(24)

 

 

The prices of Skype-certified phones or other VoIP phones are expensive. This is one of the lower-priced phone you can get your hands on.

The convenient feature about this stand-alone wireless Skype phone is that you don't have to be tied to your computer to make calls. In fact I use it as my house phone for outgoing calls and it works just fine. The sound quality is more than okay as expected from internet calls.

Set up is straightforward. No need to read the manual as the screen will guide you sign in, if you already have a Skype account, or sign up, if you are new.

If you are an existing user, it just carries over all the contacts to the phone. Give it time to update from the internet and your contacts will appear. No need to type all over again.

However, if you are a new user I strongly suggest signing up and entering or importing your contact from your computer. That way you have your contacts from your address book or email account ready to be imported. If not, it's easier typing from a full keyboard. Once updated, this will also carry over to the phone.

Pros:

1. Free up your computer resources and electricity by using a stand-alone Skype phone.
2. Good design in a light-weight package loaded with user-friendly controls. Normal and advanced features are readily accessible on the phone menu. Just read thru the display and navigation will be straight-forward.
3. Relatively cheap compared to other Skype-certified wireless phones.

Cons:

1. Battery life is horrible. A few hours of use and it will need charging. If mobile phones can last more than a day of normal use, this should be able to as well. Linksys will need to investigate and release a firmware update on this issue.
2. NO SPEAKERPHONE! Despite the iPhone having a loud speaker that announces it's own boot up, this phone surprisingly does not have a speakerphone. This is definitely a design flaw and needs a software update.
3. The time and date resets itself to 01-01-2006 and 00:00am whenever the phone is shut off. While all other settings are saved. That's plain stupid. Furthermore, you have to manually set the correct time. While all internet devices are able to connect to the...umm...internet and sync with any server for correct date and time. This phone - that depends on the internet for functionality - is not able to sync with any time server at all. Mwahahaha! Seriously, Linksys has got to do something about this feature. In fact I have to set my own Daylight Saving Time whenever it is in effect. This has got to be updated.
4. Relatively slow response time. A few milliseconds of lag when won't hurt. But it is there and regular users will notice it. And I don't know if this is due to the nature of internet calls, Skype structure or the device itself having a slow processor.

All in all it serves its purpose of making wireless internet calls without the dependency for a computer. But it is an apparent version 1 product that seriously needs firmware and software updating if it wants to be known as THE iPhone rather than be trumped in name by Apple's iPhone.

By the way, my household is all Mac and this phone connects flawlessly to my Apple Airport Extreme Base Station (b/g device, not the latest n model) without any wireless disconnection at all or interference from other wireless base station in my apartment building. I have been on calls for as long as 30 minutes and I have not encountered intermittent audio quality or drop signals. I am using WPA authentication and this phone was able to detect and join to the router without any problems.

So despite it's shortcoming, it's still a respectable phone and enables me to make free and cheap calls.

UPDATE:

Feb 23, 2007 - The phone has twice been returned and I just asked for a refund. I haven't patronized a Linksys product in a long time and I was hedging on the fact that any kinks on the phone and further customer feature request would be quickly incorporated into the phone. As it stands, the phone hasn't received any software revision AT ALL. The phone is still at hardware version 1.0 despite numerous flaws mentioned here and especially at Linksys' own customer feedback forum.

I have spoken to their customer and technical support with great disappointment. I was on hold for most of the time for issues they are aware of, but have no solution. In fact when I complained about the lack of speakerphone function despite pointing out that this has been explicitly mentioned on their website the solution was the easy fix - REMOVE ALL MENTION OF SPEAKERPHONE FUNCTION FOR THE PRODUCT. Good thing I saved the web pages mentioned about it so I could show the Tech what I'm talking about. She did see it herself in her own documentation. Then a few days later Linksys' position is "what speakerphone?" This is what ultimately turned me off. They were releasing a first generation product, but providing no future support and cheap-shot fixes to customers. If this was how the company is monkeying with the patrons, I don't want to even be their customer. So product has been returned.

UPDATE 2: MAY 26, 2007

Linksys has FINALLY issued a firmware upgrade as of May 24, 2007 which is version 1.1.0.16 (from the only existing previous version of 1.0.0.0). Among the long list of new feature, bug fixes and enhancements - A SPEAKERPHONE. After months of silence they only decided to provide their first ever firmware upgrade. This may come a little too late as lots of customers have jumped ship by now to other brands. Damage to phone reputation has already been done. Evidence is the drop in price.

I'm surprised Linksys/Cisco has allowed this to happen to them. Hopefully they have learned their lesson and will focus their attention back to the customer.

The product description in January 2007 is inaccurate:
batery life in the standby mode is about 20 hours, not 60;
there is no hands free speakerphone;
if you use a standard plug-in headset, the microphone does not work (tested two units).
There is more:
the headset is very loud (you have to listen with the phone an inch away from your ear), but there is no volume adjustment;
the microphone has low sensitivity, so you find yourself yelling into it;
the clock resets itself when the power is turned off.
I returned mine.

For a phone that costs $169, the lack of any features is pretty disturbing. But the one that Linksys actually points out in their documentation is actually not available on this phone. That feature would be a speakerphone, a mainstay of about every phone sold today. The phone works, but the speaker is apparently only to play the startup noise.

Also, it feels pretty cheap when using it. I was afraid I was going to break a button. This one went right back to Amazon.

I really have found all the negative user reviews about the WIP320 to be funny considering almost all of them were from "early adopters", AKA people who bought this gadget "as soon as it was available". 90% of these people have to have known what they were getting into, and yet they're still so upset with Linksys because there were bugs in this product which is not just a new product, but a new product in a new product segment.

Anyway, I did a lot of research on WiFi Skype phones, and found the WIP320 to be my best bet considering Linksys has the best reputation of all the manufacturers I looked at as far as all the products I've used at work for the past 16 years. We use a lot of Linksys wireless products because they are just better than anything from Netgear, SMC, Philips, etc.

So, I've only had this phone for one day, but it was obvious it had some problems, although it worked great most of the time. The firmware version was 1.1.0.0, so I figured at least that's better than 1.0.0.0. The first problem I noticed was that after a full charge, the battery was almost dead after sitting unplugged next to our "old" phone at home for one hour. It was also pretty hot, much more than it should've been considering that it hadn't been touched for an hour, so I thought something must've been wrong with the battery or power saving features. The second, more minor problem was that the menu navigation was lagging and freezing for several seconds sometimes. It was annoying, but didn't happen most of the time. The third problem was that I didn't see a way to use the speakerphone feature all the reviews talked about. Actually, a fourth problem was that the voicemail "On" setting kept going off for some weird reason and calls wouldn't go to voicemail.

OK, so one big problem with the battery, and a few relatively minor problems. So, I saw a menu item on the phone about updates -- hmm, said there were none. So, I checked Linksys' support site looking for some other way to fix the problem. I saw a firmware update to 1.1.0.16 released only a week or so ago. Looked like a minor update, but the comments said it added the speakerphone feature, so I downloaded it.

The firmware updater is an EXE installer that, at some point, tells you to plug the phone into your computer (luckily I have a mini-USB cable I use with my digital camera, because the phone didn't come with one!), then it says to hold down the right soft key, power button, and "#9" keys. OK, so I tried that repeatedly while the phone was powered up, and it just kept shutting down. The instructions didn't say to power the phone down BEFORE pushing all those buttons -- thanks. After figuring that out, got it up in some kind of update mode where it said "USB not ready" instead of "Download" as the updater said. But Windows Vista saw it now, and I told it to auto-install the driver (crossing my fingers it would work). 5 minutes later (thanks, Vista), the driver's installed and the phone says "Download". I continue with the updater after it finds the phone, and 15 minutes and a phone reboot later it's back up with the latest firmware.

Speakerphone feature, it's there and it works fine, problem fixed. Voicemail "On" setting is staying on long after I turned it on, problem fixed. Menu navigation now works fine and the phone is generally much more responsive than before, problem fixed. Last but certainly not least, the battery. Right now, after fully recharging the phone which was nearly dead earlier today, I'm two hours into testing battery life (standby), and the battery still shows a FULL CHARGE! YAY! It's still cool, too, so problem fixed as far as I can tell.

All I can say is that this phone as it exists even with these fixes is still not for the average home user, because it took way too much effort to get it to this point where it seems to be working well. I'm sure most average early adopters gave up very early on and just returned it, but being an I.T. pro for almost 20 years, I'm no average user (and I know very well to wait 6 months before buying a new type of product like this).

Look, if you're going to buy a such a new kind of product like this IMMEDIATELY after it's released, expect some bumps and tech support calls. It's a part of being a gadget freak. Or, be like me and just wait 6 months while all the true "early adopters" take the brunt of the pain.

The headset jack which other reviewers say is broken or
non-functional is in fact a non-standard 4 connector jack (most
headset jacks are 3 connector, one for earphone sound, one for mic
input, and one for ground).

Some mobile phones have stereo sound for MP3 playback, and use a 4
connector jack, but Skype is not a stereo service. There is no
documentation from Linksys on what the pinout of that 4 connector jack
is.

If you use an adapter cable such as the PPC Techs XDA/SX56 2.5mm STD
Mono Headset Adaptor, it allows you to use a standard headset with the
WIP320.

MobilePlanet sells that adapter, I have tested it today, and it
finally allows me to use a standard Plantronics headset with my
WIP320.

After buying this phone and having it for a few weeks, I was forced to return it due to the following reasons. All I tried to clear up with Linksys technical support in India. Not one tech support agent had ever touched the phone.

1) Locks up after a Skype call of 5 minutes or more and requires reboot
2) Clock and Date resets after any power off
3) Speakerphone does not work
4) Bad customer service

Other than that, the phone would make calls via Skype fairly easily.

As a Skype phone, the WIP320 is pretty dang nice. It's much smaller and lighter than I thought it would be. The menus are reasonably well laid out. The audio quality to cell and landline phones via SkypeOut is quite good.

After reading one of the reviews here, I checked and my microphone input via the headset jack also doesn't work, but I haven't contacted Linksys support yet. I may not do so, since I almost never use a headset.

The clock has the annoying habit of resetting to midnight on 1/1/2006 whenever I power the phone off and back on. Booting the phone is pretty slow as well. These two together mean that I rarely turn the phone off, but leave it on even when charging. I also haven't figured out how to use the "Wi-Fi Finder", despite actually reading the user guide. :-) The regular network scan is easy enough to use.

I haven't pushed the battery life to its limits, but I have left the phone on my desk all day and still had charge left at the end.

I Bought 2 of these phones so that i can Keep in contact with my Fiancee while she's at school out of town. this handset is a great little device, and what i have learnt from using it for the last month is;

1.)Firstly, upgrade to the latest Firmware from Linksys, they have sorted a few major flaws with it.
2.)You have to understand that the theory of operation for 'connection' is that the phone is constantly in full duplex communication with the Wireless Router/Access Point, so the battery life isn't as great as a regular Cell phone. i have actually found that wether the phone is used for calls often, or stays in standby, the battery life is pretty much the same! mind you, this is with both phones, so it isn't a fluke observation!
3.)Pay attention to the 'call Log', if it gets too full, then the phone seems to go crazy when accessing the logs, so frequently clear out the logs, i do mine every 2~3 days (about 15~20 calls worth). if you do have the problem where accessing the clear log menu causes the phone, go directly to the 'Reset' option in the 'General' menu and reset the handset saving the wireless access details of course.
4.)regarding the complaints of no speaker phone as advertised, this phone does have the speaker phone option; while on a call, press the 'Options' button, and scroll to the 'Handset/Speaker phone' option, BINGO!!

one other side note, because of the frequent charging, i don't think the battery will have a life as long a as a typical cell phone battery, so i really think Linksys should offer replacement batteries sold separately. i WOULD certainly buy spares.

Enjoy a wonderful product, the original iPhone!! :P

I have been using WiFi Skype phones for my phone calls almost exclusively for the past 6 months. I had a SMC WiFi phone for most of that time and luckily it got stolen. Don't get me wrong, the SMC is a good phone, but it is definitely a first gen (feels like a toy in your hand). The Linksys iPhone feels like an actual product. The Linksys iPhone is great once you upgrade it's firmware. Even with this upgrade I would still place SMC's software better as far as connectivity, but the Linksys' again feels like a more refined product with the software interface.

As far as I can tell the call quality is also much better. With my SMC there was a bit of an echo and lag on the receivers end. Calls on the Linksys iPhone are just as clear and feel more like traditional telephony calls. The speakerphone is a nice feature, but activating it is a bit cumbersome.

Battery life is about the same, but for me I am able to make it through most days with no worries. Taking it from home to work and out and about with no worries of a dead battery during the course of a day (depending on how popular I am on a given day).

Screen quality is also drastically improved over my SMC phone. The screen is crisp and plenty bright. I usually run it at half brightness and it is more then enough. The SMC's brightness I always felt was too high even at it's lowest setting.

All in all the Linksys iPhone is far better then the SMC, and seeing as most other WiFi Skype phones seemed to be based on the SMC phone, I would have to place this one at the top of the market currently. The only real issue currently with WiFi phones is their lack of browser support. This way trips to panara and other hot spots that require browser authentication wouldn't leave me so withdrawn from the world.

side note: While ditching a cell phone might not be for everyone, I have enjoyed not being tethered phone 24/7. 90% of the places I go have open WiFi so it is really not that bad, but if nothing else a WiFi Skype phone makes a great home phone replacement.

UPDATE: So I have had my phone for over a month now, what do I think? Battery life is about the same, and have yet to get to the end of the day and worry my phone will die in mid-call. I will say that I am really impressed with the call clarity on both ends as well as the interface like the call waiting notification actually works (SMC not-so-much). All in all, a month in and I am still very happy and would definitely recommend this phone to any skype user.

I bought the phone just before the Holidays and it works ok when it's connected to the network. The battery lasts just over 6 hours in standby so I leave it connected most of the time to the charger.

I have a problem with it rebooting after some failure modes, and then not being able to connect to my network unless I change the network's broadcast channel. Linksys support isn't able to help much (so far).

Nice looking phone, sounds great when it works, for the short periods of time the battery stays charged.