Customer Reviews

USB VOIP Phone, Support Skype

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I purchased the USB Phone from TangShop and this phone is great. It is clear, easy to use and best of all inexpensive to purchase and use. It was very easy to install and I would recommend this phone to anyone wishing to use the internet to make/receive phone calls.

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We have had this phone for several years and it has served us well for SKYPE calls and that is all we have used it for.

Recently I did some reconfigurations on our desktop computers and moved my old primary desktop computer to the room where we have the SKYPE speakerphone setup on another desktop computer. [one which we are "retiring" from our computer line-up!]

When I downloaded SKYPE and got it running I noticed a marked deterioration in the sound quality of the phone - bad echoes and some annoying drop outs - and realized that the BELKIN 7 port powered USB hub, a 1.1 version, that the phone was connected to, might not be "talking to" the 2.0 sound card inside the computer that had replaced the older one, which had a 1.1 USB card. Since the phone has a longish 5 or 6 foot cord I remedied this by connecting directly to one of the USB ports on the 2.0 card on the back of the computer and that cleared things up and we have good quality speakerphone capability again.

As another reviewer noted, there are a lot of buttons on the phone that the typically abysmal owners manual does not explain. [at least the manual does inform that the phone works on USB 1.1 or 2.0] However, since the phone does what we want it to do - and very well indeed - I have fairly rated it a FIVE STARS. And keep in mind that this unit has given us bulletproof service for 5 or more years now.

BOTTOM LINE: If you enjoy having "family chats" via SKYPE with friends and family who are traveling or located far away, you will probably not be able to improve on the capability of this unit due to the excellent speakerphone. [my background is telephony, both landline and cellular and I can safely say this is an excellent speakerphone]

CAVEAT: Based on my experience with the USB connection described above, I conjecture that sound quality is very, very dependent on getting the "path" to the phone's microphone and speakers optimized. If you aren't reasonably facile with computer setup you might want to consult a family member or friend who is before dissing a highly technical device such as this telephone if it fails to meet your expectations.

DO NOT PURCHASE SKYPE « COMPATIBLE » PHONES ANYMORE. THE RECENT CHANGES MADE BY SKYPE MAKE THEM IMPOSSIBLE TO OPERATE. DON'T THROW YOUR MONEY AWAY. TAKE A LOOK AT THE RESPONSE I GOT FROM THEM BECAUSE MY 150,00 EURO PHONE IS NOW OBSOLETE: "Hello Victoria,

Thank you for contacting Skype Customer Service.
We understand your concerns regarding your feedback.

We appreciate your feedback and will definitely look into it.

However, implementing changes and creating new features can take time, which means that the suggestions you make today might not be available in the near future.

Please be patient while we work to make Skype even better.

Should you need more assistance, feel free to contact us again.

Regards ,

Samir H .
Skype Customer Service .

I am very happy I read the previous review which stated you need a POWERED usb port to use this. I had switched wires around on my computer, and suddenly people complained of a noise from my end (I could still hear them fine). So I switched the USB plug from an add-on card to the motherboard's built-in USB ports, and it worked fine again. Aside from that, the only real problem with the phone is the lack of good documentation and support; there are buttons on the phone which aren't that useful...or maybe they are and there's no way to find out how to put them to use. But I can pretend this phone is like a normal one, it bypasses the computer speakers so it rings itself, without worrying about your speaker volume on the computer. For use with Skype, I'm happy with it, it does what I need it to do.

I used this phone for about a month, but had several minor problems with it. When I plugged the phone into my USB jack with the provided cable, I almost couldn't hear my self over the static when I called the skype call center to test the sound quality. It sounded like my voice was being squelched and run through a metallic sound filter.

After much trouble shooting with this product, I was told by the supplier that requires a powered USB port to work properly. I returned the phone and got an IPEVO Free-1. It works well, but I miss the speakerphone capability.