Netgear intros SPH200W WiFi phone with Skype

If you can reach back into the archives of your brain, you may be able to recall an elusive Netgear WiFi Skype phone that was previewed in May. Unless our eyes are seriously deceiving us, that very handset has now been launched, and it's been titled the SPH200W. Sporting 802.11b/g compatibility, around four hours of talk time (or 48 hours in standby), WEP / WPA / WPA2 support, and most importantly, the ability to take and make Skype calls wherever there's an open WiFi signal, this device also allows you to manage up to 500 contacts and touts a built-in speakerphone. Unfortunately, there's no word on how much this unit will cost you just yet, but feel free to indulge in a few extra photos waiting after the jump.

[Thanks, Dean]

[Blacksheep @ Aug 24th 2007 9:04PM]

Here is one form of technology I know little about, so if someone wouldn't mind answering this one question for me, are these phones free to use? I.E. is there no monthly phone bill because it utilizes wifi? Or do you still have to pay for a phone number and service?

[yelohbird @ Aug 24th 2007 9:20PM]

As long as you have access to a free wifi network, and limit your calls between skype users, it will be free. Additionally, you can also purchase skype credits to make/receive calls to/from normal landlines and cell phones.

[Dank @ Aug 24th 2007 9:25PM]

Go to http://www.skype.com for rate info.

Essentially, you can call other Skype users for free. From 1 WiFi/computer connection to another for example. However, you have to pay ~$40 PER YEAR to get a phone number that people with regular phones (cell phones, land-lines, etc.) can call. You also have to pay to place calls to regular phones. It works out to be way way cheaper than using a regular phone, and you can make international calls for cheap too.

[I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY @ Aug 25th 2007 4:10PM]

Just search newegg.com for Skype and it reveals they have dozens of similar phones.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Description=skype&x=0&y=0

[DR PEPPER @ Aug 24th 2007 9:12PM]

I hope it's cheap because it sure looks it.

[Jake @ Aug 24th 2007 9:18PM]

Who freaking cares? We need a Skype with an iPhone design. That would sell.

[dave @ Aug 25th 2007 1:54AM]

"We need a Skype with an iPhone design. That would sell."

We need an iPhone with Skype. But AT&T is forcing Apple to keep developers locked out to avoid this very thing.

[Jake @ Aug 25th 2007 9:21PM]

So that give an OEM an opportunity to improve on design. The Netgear phone looks like a Fisher Price toy.

[Bernie @ Oct 20th 2007 5:04PM]

A summary of issues found to date and reported to netgear under case# 5879445, on 10/17.

After no response, thursday afternoon I called 1-888-NETGEAR, option 4. Argued with a useless Indian (who spoke very poor English) for over 2 hour. He kept going away for 10 minutes at a time to "check with his senior engineer", leaving me on hold.

He clearly didn't understand anything I said to him and kept saying "don't worry I will take care of you".
He was clearly following a script and wouldn't escalate me to level 2, so I played a long, did a reset, wasted more time. When I finally got to an American engineer at level 2.

Now, saturday 10/20, I am on the phone again, and another moronic Indian has had me on hold for yet another 60 minutes, theoreticaly waiting for level 2 support?

1. SPH 200W does not reliably detect headset (which works fine with several other devices, including my cellphone and the GE DECT Skype phone).

2. On the few ocassions that I have coerced it to detect my headset (without turning off and back on again - which takes about 2 minutes!), no speaker or microphone audio comes out of either the headset or the phone itself.

3. If I boot phone with headset plugged in, it is recognized, and speaker audio is correctly routed to it, but microphone audio is not. Called parties hear NOTHING!

4. Unit did a "System error - please reboot" on me once - 5 minutes out of the box when trying to make my first Skype call.

5. Unit takes around 60 seconds to boot.

6. Skype contacts status is not updated correctly - often showing contacts offline, who are in effect ONLINE!

7. When dialing an incorrect (too short) number - not 1+ area code + phone number, you incorrectly get an error of "You need to buy more Skype Credits". Clearly the wrong error message.

7a. My GE DECT Skype phone has a "default" area code, that gets prepended to 7 digit numbers - where is this on the SPH200W?

To date, Netgear hasn't even admitted that these are issues that they intend to fix!

We have a long log under case# 5879445, running on Netgear's support web site. They keep promising to
contact me to resolve this and noone actually does call me!


Very very unhappy with this, my first Netgear product. Should Netgear actually respond to these issues I will post updates.

Best Regards,
Bernie

[yelohbird @ Aug 24th 2007 9:24PM]

"The SPH200W is compatible with leading hotspot providers that support the WISPr (Wireless Internet Service Provider Roaming) protocol, including T-Mobile USA"

"Wi-Fi hot-spots requiring browser-based authentication are not supported."

I thought T-Mobile required browser-based authentication?

When can these guys get the point and give us a phone that allows browser-based authentication? So that this phone will function in a starbucks, kinko's, university, etc. environment?

[Eric @ Aug 25th 2007 9:55AM]

Check out the linksys wip330 voip phone. It has a limited browser built in for getting access to public wifi nets that require some sort of authentication.

http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_Product_C2&childpagename=US%2FLayout&cid=1175229513457&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper&lid=1345757023B05

The only real problems I see are that the thing is expensive and runs SIP (although I was told at a conference last year that they were testing the firmware with Skype. I'm holding out for the US N95 myself (which can run Skype as well as make real phone calls).

[Dan @ Aug 24th 2007 9:43PM]

Great name... NOT.
Haven't product people learned ANYTHING from Jobs?

d

[Jean-Michel Decombe @ Aug 24th 2007 11:12PM]

I have the Panasonic, which looks way better and has been offering full-featured wifi Skype support for a while now. However, the Panasonic does not have a charging cradle, a major flaw (speaking from experience) that this one does not seem to have. Keep that in mind when you make your choice.

[Bogdan @ Aug 24th 2007 11:49PM]

Make Skype work on cell phones (read GPRS data connection) so I don't have to rely on Wi-Fi networks. Until then I'm not sold.

[sukatoro @ Aug 25th 2007 1:40AM]

i would kill to use something like this w/ my Vonage softnumbers... i guess that isn't possible (?), its depressing to me to see so many cool devices built around skype while vonage seems to languish when it comes to these sorts of options.

if these things can be used for vonage a clue for me would be most welcome friends..! :)

[mark @ Aug 25th 2007 12:29PM]

you can - there are a number of wi-fi SIP based handsets that will work with Vonage
the Linksys WIP330 mentioned above is one ( aparently )

I have a WIP330 working with SIPGate and have no problems using browser based authentication

Enjoy

[Filip @ Aug 25th 2007 3:13AM]

To Bogdan: have you ever tried Skype on GPRS network? It will not work because of multiple issues. Latency to start with. I tested Skype even on EDGE ("Enhanced GPRS") and it was unusable. Hope that helps...

[Roger Singh @ Aug 25th 2007 5:22AM]

Is there a phone like this that supports SIP? I'm not really interested in skype, because of its closed protocol.

I know some new nokia cell phones have VOIP support with SIP. But I think you need some third party software. I don't know, i haven't exactly looked into, since the phones are still a little pricey for me.

[Stephen Lai @ Aug 25th 2007 7:47AM]

Bogdan: if you use a S60-based mobile (e.g. Nokia E and N-series phones), you might want to try Fring (http://www.fring.com). Fring works with GPRS or 3G, and connects to Skype, MSN, GTalk and ICQ.

[dj-kenpo @ Aug 25th 2007 12:12PM]

it's cool and all, but my buddies wifi/bluetooth enabled pocketpc that he picked up for $150 cdn (dell axim) does the same thing. my point: if these are cheap sign me up, if they're greater than $100 though no thanks.

[nimlet @ Aug 25th 2007 2:36PM]

this phone won't work on many hotspots. wispr is a poorly implemented standard and the whole idea of logging in to use a phone is a big waste anyway. seriously if they want this to sell vs dual-mode cellphones with fring or similar they need to solve the problem of connecting automatically to hotspots of all types.

[Saint Dumb Ox @ Aug 26th 2007 9:21AM]

But does it have a camera. Why hook up to Skype and not have a camera onboard? If it has a camera then I am buying one.