Netgear Skype phone sits between two stools

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Product: Cordless Internet Phone with Skype
Website: NETGEAR
System Requirements: ADSL line, POTS, Skype account
Price: Varies

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INQ hacksters in general are Skype fans. Take your lightweight notebook to Old Taipei, for example, along with a Skype headset and €10 worth of Skype Out, and you can call just about anyone at a fraction of mobile (cellular), landline and especially hotel prices and still end up with spare change and happy spouses.

So of course we volunteered to test a cordless phone which lets you use Skype as well as plug in your POTS landline. Why the heck not?

But after three hours using this jellybone we think it's for the homebound who must seek cheap calls at any price because it's only half portable.

The thing does what it says on the box but that's not really good enough, we feel. You plug a basestation into a spare Ethernet slot on your router and if you want to plug a landline cord in as well, power up the handset and before you know where you are, all your Skype contacts are on your handset.

That means you can leave your deskbound computer and wander downstairs, all the time ready to ring up your Skype mates or receive calls from them - and also, of course, answer the normal jellybone too. You can't call 999 on Skype - don't throw away your landline quite yet.

The big disadvantage of this system is the basestation - which needs AC, and the handset, which has rechargeable batteries and obviously needs AC too every so often. The system is for the deskbound. If we go away with our Skype account we only need one headset or microphone/speakers, and one AC plug to connect from anywhere that has a wi-fi connection.

There is nothing at all wrong with the system as reviewed - it works perfectly - but the two AC power points and the Ethernet port make it far less portable than a notebook with wi-fi and a free Skype headset. If you haven't got a notebook and you are deskbound, the system could make you very happy, because Skype is a remarkably cheap jellyphone system which we've tested for two years and which is rock solid. ?

The Good
Skype is good - this thing worked straight away. We called several INQ staff near and fair - sound quality over ADSL of the handset was excellent. And Skype is very, very cheap

The Bad
Unless you have a big tote bag it's far from portable. You don't really want to be that much of a Geek, do you?

The Ugly
Too many plugs and not enough handsets makes Jack a dull boy