Skypephone S2 mobile phone review

Comments

• those are some sexy hands, maybe you should put nsfw in the title :) Posted by entry level laptop, uk
• i have the S1 which is unable to sync with my mac address book, any ideas if this one can Posted by Ian, UK
• I have the same question as Ian. Of course, a plug-in won't exist yet, but if this phone supports SyncML (like the rest all day) then it will work. Do you know if it does? Posted by Antony, United Kingdom
• "Pay-as-you-go customers will have to top up the phone every 90 days (it was every 30)" -- Stuart, can you give any more detail about this change, it's the first time I've heard about it. Does that apply to all 3 PAYG customers or only those with the S2? Posted by Tony, UK
• I'd like to know the same question as Tony as well. What is the amount you need to top every 90 days please? Posted by Mark, UK
• At present you can have your free Skype calls on any 3 network around the world, provided you are on the appropriate 3 network, of course.
  
  The only exception is, if you're UK PAYG, you can't skype when you're in Australia.
  
  Are you saying this is being withdrawn or is it an error in the review?
  
  PETE UK Posted by Petee, UK
• Except for the 30/90-day topup, which is the first I've heard of it, most of these questions are answered in Skype's knowledge base pages at http://support.skype.com/index.php?_a=knowledgebase and with reference to multiple SkypeIn numbers (Australia) see http://support.skype.com/index.php?_a=knowledgebase&_j=subcat&_i=15
  Posted by Chris Killingbeck, UK
• Can someone tell me what the cost is for using SkypeOut on the S2 phone as compared to the PC? Thanks. Posted by kryszek, UK
• I just ordered 3 Skypephone S2 to replace my old Sony Ericcson as £10 montly payment. All the review I read confirmed that S2 cannot be used as a normal mobile in US but the staff from 3G said this is Tri-band and that I can use it in US.
  
  Is it true? Posted by athena, UK
• I am using Skypephone S2 at the moment, I like it simple and cost effective.
  I list the pros and cons for this phone as below.
  
  Pros:
  1, Cheap, I bought Twin pack for £99.99, so each is less than £50.
  2, Simple design, easy to use.
  3, Support up to 4GB microSD card memory, and if you connect it to a PC, it appears like a USB drive.
  4, Skype usage, PAYG £10 for 90 days, Pay monthly you need to pay £5/Month for Internet Max Add on in order to use Skype service.
  
  Cons:
  1, No front facing camera, so does not support video calls.
  2, 3.2 Mega camera but the picture is not sharp enough.
  3, Few software support this phone. I use Mobireader to read ebooks, but the reader software does not support this phone so far. Posted by Jeff, UK
• For clarity three PAYG credit does not expire unless you go for the current Stretch plans. See extract from 3 website.
  
  * Pay As You Go General Terms and Conditions
  
  * Top ups
  * Where a Top-up is bought in store and a 16-digit code provided, the Top-up
  * needs to be activated within 90 days of buying it. Once activated, Top-ups have
  * no expiry date.
  
  * Stretch and Add-ons
  * To convert a Top-up to a Stretch or Add-on, you need to have an active Top-up.
  * Once a Stretch or Add-on is activated, it is valid for 30 days. Activation starts as
  * soon as you have converted a Top-up to a Stretch or an Add-on. After 30 days,
  * any inclusive value will be lost. Posted by Tim Hall, United Kingdom
• This isn't going to be a feature review as such, more of a "having had it for 3 months, these are the bugs three deny the phone has and apparently have no plans to fix". It's also to let you know "you're not alone" if you had the same bugs or experience trying to get support from 3 customer services.
  
  It's not all bad - I think the phone itself, an Amoi 8512 is actually a well-made, robust and fast phone. Also, the built-in modem works excellently via bluetooth and the cable - I easily get a sustained 1.3Mb down and 400k up, and it works fine for downloading BBC iPlayer stuff. It also allows me to use the "£5 for 3Gb" package, rather than the "£10 for 1Gb" package with other "mobile modem" users appear to be stuck with (correct me if I'm wrong) and with a 2-pack for £99 I'm not complaining on price!
  
  Major Bugs:
  Phone rebooting - I think this is a problem with the battery voltage sensor, because I was on the verge of taking both back and giving up (3 CS had "never heard of this" before!!) when they started behaving. I assume a few cycles of battery charge had done the trick (it was rebooting even with full battery).
  
  The Gmail application was one of the selling points of the phone, and there is actually an inbuilt preset to download it. Until very recently, it didn't actually work (just giving square blocks for text). There is finally a working download of gmail and google maps, but before, When you called three CS, all you hear is that "no-one else has reported this problem" or "please reboot the phone" or "your signal is poor" or "please send it back for reflash" - and yet, both handsets are identical and I can find over 20 other forums posts with the same problem. Just me, eh? Maps still has a problem in that after about 600k, it says "out of memory", despite having 20Mb of phone memory and 1.8Gb of card memory left.
  
  Other little annoyances are the lack of testing - when using the inbuilt browser, the error messages are less than helpful - how about:
  
  "Received response with status code other than 200 that does not have body part However, notification is not given of redirection unless settings is to display body part when dialog is canceled."
  
  When you send a message, it says "message has been sent to...", but when the other person reads it, it says "message has been sent to...", so it's difficult to know whether it has actually been received - it should, of course, be ""message has been received by...". Also, when selecting multiple items for deletion (pics, messages etc), it says "delete the marked?", which is poor English. Spelling mistakes pepper other areas of the phone, too. Not a problem, just not very polished.
  
  When in text message function, the message count takes 20 mins (to do 400 messages)
  
  You can't uninstall the useless pre-installed junk that clutters up the applications menu, and you can't remove Sky Sports from the feeds list. It also won't accept passworded feeds.
  
  Java rendering problems - one of the first things I did was download Opera Mini which beats the pants off any other mobile browser, however they phone has a java graphics rendering problem with causes vertical stripes one pixel or so wide down the screen, so although it's readable, K for example would end up looking like <
  
  Strange phone book error - or perhaps it's just me not understanding how the phonebook works:
  I have set the phone to display "contacts displayed on SIM and phone", and I have copied the phone contacts to the SIM. However, there are just a few contacts which don't show in the contacts list, either when browsing or adding to an sms. But when you try and add the contact again it says "contact exists - overwrite?" (or something) and when you get an incoming call, it displays that caller's name. BUT I can't find it in the phone book!
  
  Back button "bug" - I've seen several posts with people complaining that the back button is broken and causes the screen to break into blocks - actually, that's the way it's meant to be - the "blocks" are preview windows of page history, and this is quite a good feature, although it caught me out at first.
  
  Here's an annoying which has nothing to do with the phone, but Yahoo and ebay FORCE me to use crappy mobile versions based on my IP! I've tried several suggestions, but if I'm using my home PC connected by the mobile modem, it is absolutely infuriating to be forced into a mobile version of the site. But that's not the phone's fault, just something I thought I'd mention if someone had a solution!
  
  Other questions:
  How can I mass-delete loads of rubbish from the T9 dictionary?
  How can I backup text messages?
  
  Overall, the phone has potential, but I'm very disappointed by the lack of support for both applications, and from three themselves. Almost every category you browse shows "sorry, there are no applications for this phone". It needs a firmware update and some support, although there is a forum at
  http://www.3skypephone.com/forum/ Posted by digitaltoast, United Kingdom
• I have a question on the S2 if you could help me out here. i'm want to use my Wireless LAN when i'm in the house as i'm based in the UK and i speak to many Skype users all around the world. My problem here is if i have paid for a monthly subscription and i call the US when using this phone in the UK it will cost me.
  
  Surely there should be a way of accessing the wireless LAN at home and using that connection to speak to those outside. Otherwise i would have to use my VOIP wireless headset with my laptop. Posted by Darren Fry, UK
• I bought one just for the free Skype, they currently are on offer in 3 shops for £39.99 and that's brilliant value for money. As a basic mobile phone they are OK, if you expect it to match a Nokia at 3 or 4 times the cost you'll be expecting too much.
  
  The Skype interface is fairly basic, but it works better than most cordless "WiFi" Skype phones and has excellent voice call quality on hands free. It even works via Bluetooth on Skype and the 3 voicemail works on Skype for free as well.
  
  Battery life is reasonable and it will charge via a mini USB connection from a PC or laptop, so charging isn't difficult.
  
  Two main problems:
  1. The web browser is tedious to use.
  2. The text input defaults to predictive text every time you use it.
  
  I'd give it a 5* rating for a cheap Skype cordless phone, anything else you get with it is a bonus.
  
  Posted by Dave, UK
• You can now get a spare battery for the 3 Skype phone at batterytrader.com, UK based but they ship worldwide, here is the link http://www.batterytrader.com/skype-internet-phone-wps1-battery-replacement-p-19611.html Posted by Masterwest, http://www.batterytrader.com