The 3 Skypephone

The Three network in the UK launched their Skypephone in November of 2007, with the promise of an integrated Skype client, and 'unlimited' Skype minutes. The hype led to the phone quickly selling out in the UK, and the phone continues to be a best seller for Three, helped in part by the fact that it only costs £39.95.

I bought one a few months ago, being a heavy Skype user, and having put the phone through it's paces I thought I'd write up my experience to share with others.

The phone itself is available in black, white and blue or white and pink. There have been some issues with the black paint peeling off the battery cover when the phone gets hot, but the white phones seem to be immune to this.

The three different colours for the 3 Skypephone

Skypephone Features

The phone has a 2" 176x220 colour display, with a 2 Megapixel on the back of the unit. It has 16mb internal memory, and a microSD slot, with 2gb microSD cards tested and confirmed working. A Dual Band phone, it supports the UMTS 2100, GSM 900, GSM 1800, GSM 1900 networks.

Along with Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR it also provides USB connectivity, with Mass Storage Mode support making it appear as a USB memory device to the host PC.

Weighing only 86g and with dimunitive dimensions of 100x44x13.6 mm, it's 1150mAh battery still manages to provide 320 hours of standby time, 270 minutes of talk time, or 170 minutes of video talk time.

The Skypephone Skype client in action

Skype Functionality

Pushing the prominent Skype button on the front of the handset launches the Skype client, prompting for login details and then connecting your Skype account. The client on the phone doesn't provide true VoIP Skype functionality - instead, it's a modified version of the iSkoot Skype client, that talks over Three's 3G network to their Skype gateway. From there, the call is converted to VoIP and sent out over the Internet.

Due to this, the 3 Skypephone doesn't support SkypeIn, SkypeOut or Skype Video calling. Although this makes sense from an operator's point of view, at the initial launch this limitation wasn't immediately obvious, and has caused many complaints from customers.

SkypeChat is fully supported, however, and as Three's network is fully 3G, video chat is perfectly usable.

twitter4skype works excellently on the Skypephone, allowing you to post tweets to Twitter direct from your phone at no cost, as twitter4skype works via Skype Chat.

3 Skypephone in black

Skypephone Costs

In the UK, the Skyephone can be bought direct from Three for only £39.95, or a pair of Skypephones can be bought in a special pack for £69.95. Contract customers can get the phone for free as part of a 12 or 18 month contract, with a monthly fee from £20.

Pay as You Go customers get Three's Flat 12 rate, which provides 12p per minutes calls to any other mobile, at any time, and 12p texts - both to any UK networks. PAYG customers need to credit at least £10 per month to their account to get the free Skype functionality - failing to pay this minimum topup means the Skype client will fail to connect.

Other Software on the Skypephone

As the Skypephone has a full J2ME stack, any compliant J2ME software can be installed. This means applications like the excellent Opera Mini browser can be installed, providing a very usable web experience.

A Windows Live Messenger client is available as a free download from Three's Planet3 portal, and is free to use, which is a handy bonus. Planet3 offers a number of free to use services, like access to Yahoo and Google, as well as streaming TV and music. You can also connect out to popular sites like Ebay and Facebook.

Some of the functionality and box contents change depending on which 3 network you are on - for example, in Australia you get a 512mb microSD card, and in Hong Kong SkypeIn has been available since February 208.

All in all I've found Three's Skyephone an excellent peice of gear. It's small, light-weight but absolutely packed with funcationality. If you're even a moderate Skype user you'll find it invaluable, and with so much value being added through the Planet3 portal there's enough to tempt non-Skype users as well.

Considering the price as well, it's an absolute bargain, and I highly recommend it.