Philips VOIP841 PC-Free DECT 6.0 Wireless IP Phone
by Philips Accessories
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Our Price: $499.99 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $115.00 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Philips VOIP841 PC-Free DECT 6.0 Wireless IP Phone
Customer Review: Not Bad, But Falls Short
Summary: 3 Stars
The Good:
The phone really is plug and play. I received the phone at work, unpacked it, plugged it into power and our un-blocked internet connection, and it worked. I was amazed at how it pulled my contact list from Skype, and I was making calls in under ten minutes. Unpacking time was longer than setup time.
I've paid more for a good quality cordless phone, so I was okay with the price for this unit. My long distance bill should be next to zero after getting this phone.
The Bad:
The phone doesn't have a good feel in my hand. It feels thick, narrow and slippery. I'm sure I'll get over this, but it looks and feels more like a thick remote control than a phone.
The keypad is also on the small side, and doesn't have great "feel". People with fat fingers will be frustrated.
The audio quality is disappointing. Using my computer and a headset, it's as if the person is next to me, or inside my head. The audio on this phone is tinny, and the person I'm talking to says the sound is okay, but not great. I bought a headset with a boom-mic for the phone, which helped, but the audio quality is still under-whelming compared to the computer experience. This is really too bad since great audio is available, but not over this phone.
I only use this phone for Skype-Out calls. Sometimes I have to originate the call two or three times before it goes through. I never had this problem on the computer.
Finally, when calling someone, the audio is missing for the first second, which leads to "hello... hello... hello". I'm not sure if this always happens, or just occasionally. I never experienced this on the computer.
Summary:
I've had this phone for less than a week, so take that into consideration. Even with the shortcomings mentioned above, I'm satisfied with my purchase. I have a cordless phone that allows me to call anywhere in the US for "free", and I don't even need a computer, or to be at home. I only need a CAT-5 internet connection.... Cool.
Customer Review: skype is great, phone is ok.
Summary: 4 Stars
I've had this for a couple of years. At first I was thrilled to have a cordless skype phone -- like a regular phone at Skype prices. What was not to like?
As I got to use it, I realized a couple of things were not to like.
* The touch tones are flakey. If I just have to dial a "1" then a "2" to navigate a menu tree, fine. But if I have to key in a 16 digit credit card number for some transaction, forget it. I've keyed in the same number a dozen times and the tone-recognition system at the other end got a dozen different versions. I don't know if it's the timing at which the tones are emitted, or the frequencies being slightly off or maybe the keyboard is just not reliable (press a 1, get a 2). Whatever it is, for any call involving touch-tone dialing, I use skype on the computer, not this phone.
UPDATE: I was recently reading an article about FAX over Skype, and discovered that the Skype encoders are such that neither fax nor DTMF (touch-tones) will work. So it's not the phone, it's the underlying G.729 encoder in Skype. Learn something new every day! That explains why dialing numbers works fine (because it's not actually touch-tone dialing) but touch-tone when the call is in progress does not work (because it's going over a digitally encoded voice channel).
* I really have to think about what keys to press. Depending on whether I am receiving or dialing a call, I use the green button or the select button to initiate a call. When I've just run up the stairs to pick up the phone, I shouldn't have to stare at the screen and figure out, is it the green button or the select button this time. It should be the green button every single time, like a cellphone.
* Looking up contacts is painful. Sometimes it will take 10 sec to download the list of contacts from the internet, and then there are only 5 on the screen at a time. In practice, I look up the number on my mobile phone and then dial it with the skype phone. But I have a qwerty cellphone, maybe I've just gotten spoiled.
Customer Review: Phillips VOIP841 Works Well and is Risk Free
Summary: 5 Stars
I've owned this phone for a week and am immensely impressed. I've long used Skype for long-distance calls using a headset with my computer. Skype is great because the voice quality is generally excellent and long distance calls are free.
I paid Skype the $30 for a year of service and bought the Phillips Voip8411 B/37. It's wonderful. Now I can pace while talking or sit on the patio. The phone's range extends from my bedroom, through 1 wall and out 200 feet to the front yard or through 3 walls and 100 feet into my back yard. Thus this phone will easily serve a house and yard just about anywhere. The key to this performance is the Dect 6.0 international standard using the 1.9ghz band.
The phone offers numerous setup features much like a cell phone configuration and uses similar type keys to do the tasks. I have mine set to always use Skype for outgoing calls. I can answer incoming calls via Skype or my landline. It even shows the caller ID information and call history.
The phone is attractive and nicely balanced and includes a speaker option plus intercom. It does not feel cheap. It has an attractive color display.
And, this phone is risk free. If you decide to cancel Skype for any reason, the phone can still serve as a wireless extension for your landline system. If you use it in addition to a landline system, you now have a 2nd independent phone line so two people can be using the phone system at once.
I highly recommend this phone. In fact, we're going to use it for 6 months and then may cancel our landline. This would only require paying Skype an additional $30/year to get a phone number. Thus, for $60/year you can get an interent phone with a phone number vs $360/year for a basic landline. (The Skype service does not offer 911 service, but you can program those numbers in as quick-call contacts.) My advice is to get this phone and test if for yourself.
I have Qwest DSL broadband operating at 1.5mb which is more than adequate to support this phone.
Customer Review: Great Skype Phone
Summary: 4 Stars
Overall I am very satisfied with this phone. It was extremely easy to setup, has very good voice quality for both landline and Skype, and is sleek. This essentially makes one use Skype as if using a normal cordless phone with a landline (bought one for my dad too!). I bought this phone after having returned the Linksys iPhone since the latter had annoying problem of going into startup mode very often and within a month got locked up in the startup mode.
One of the reasons I have not given the phone 5-stars in the review is that Skype calls made using this phone do have a tendency to get dropped more than when using the computer and a headset. I live outside US and have to regularly participate in long (1.5+ hour) phone calls with US. With the Philips phone, there is a much higher probability of the call dropping unexpectedly after about 30 to 45 minutes of the call. I have not (very very rarely) had the same problem when using my computer with a head-set (Plantronics DSP 400). On most casual, non-office calls, a dropped call is not a problem; however on a business call (especially conference calls) a dropped call is very annoying. So if you do not intend to use this Skype phone for long business conference calls, this should not be an issue for you. It would be good if Philips could figure out the issue and fix it. So I use this Philips Skype phone for most of my personal long-distance call and Skype on my computer for business-conference calls.
Also, would appreciate if power converters for both the handset and the base-station could be dual 110/220V mode, instead of just being made for 110 V power outlets.
Overall a very good phone; excellent value for your money. Fewer dropped calls would make this phone excellent.
Post Script: After a few months of use, I learnt of a way to reduce the number of dropped call by using static IP address allocation on both the Philips base station and my DSL router. This significantly reduces the number of dropped calls.
Customer Review: Excellent for first time/long time VOIP Users. Exceptional Value.
Summary: 5 Stars
With Skype's $29.99 1 year unlimited skype out and this products included 1yr voicemail and $5 USD skype credit one could easily replace their home phone. Once setup the phone downloads all your contacts however adding new ones is done with greater ease and less time on the Computer.
We use Skype for our small business and got one of these for each rep (customer and sales). In a small office the phones don't compete for each others frequency however there is a buzzing sound when more than 3 phones are on. The phones are synced to the base, Sync one at a time turning off the base you DO NOT want to sync to.
Cost savings for today's home and small business is well over $200 a month using Skype and Skype Business gives you the power to manage your costs and track your phone calls to match your CRM software.
The phone iteself is elegant, simple, easy to use, and could easily pass off as an Apple's Johnaton Ive designed product. It's very modern design complements any monder office.
Range is VERY good. Our office has both a Lanai and Deck for staff. Staff have portable's (MacBooks) that have 4hr battery life. We let our staff take thier units anywhere in/around the office and the phones go anywhere the laptops go without loosing signal strength. With the base unit's on a shelf just below the router we suspect they both have similar range. Battery life is also quite good and charge time is quicker than expected.
All in all I would give this unit double thumbs up for both Home and Business. If your looking for a PERFECT PC FREE Voip Phone to use with Skype, this is it. It works as advertised and also permits the use of BOTH Skype/LandLine at the same time in one package.
Speakerphone performance is also quite good in a quiet office but ambient noise outside drowns out the device but then again nothing works in the same enviroment so it's not expected.