The 3 Skypephone has all the functions you’d expect from a modern mobile, but with a useful twist: Skype on the move!

This teeny-tiny lightweight handset is actually pretty nifty. It’s got a 2 mega pixel camera, FM radio and can download MP3s. You can watch telly on it and browse the internet, and you can connect to a PC through Bluetooth and USB.

• Size 100 x 44 x 14 mm
• Weight 86 g
• Talk time 4.5 hours
• Standby time 320 hours

What we liked:

This phone is on to a winner from the off because it allows, for the first time, Skype users to speak to each other for free without the aid of the desktop computer or laptop. Simply press the little Skype button and away you go.

Okay, so you both have to have the Skype function and calls to other mobiles are charged ‘at the normal rate’, but it’s a nice step forward for the market.

What’s cool about this phone is that, despite this rare USP, 3 haven’t scrimped on its standard functions. The phone is small enough to lose under a gerbil, yet navigation is intuitive and everything is easy to find.

It comes with 16MB memory which you can upgrade with a card, GPRS, 3G, a stereo headset, speaker phone, video recording, email access, java and MMS.

And while the video/television functions are pretty pointless unless you have the eyes of a hawk on a carrots-only diet, the radio and MP3 downloads will keep you entertained.

But we didn’t like:

The sound on our sample handset was very tinny, and seemed to come in only two settings: too loud and too quite.

The screen is too small to make TV watching an enjoyable experience and the phone lacks the business goodies – an MS Office-style documents package for example – of other bigger phones.

Our verdict:

The 3 Skypephone is a very welcome addition to the market, and offers real functionality in an ultra-compact casing. A very useful, and potentially cheap, talking device for people on the move; especially if all your pals have one too.

Click here to buy the 3 Skypephone Mobile Phone - Black

Rating

By Review Team  on   Jul 27,2008

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Keywords

skype    3    mobile phones    reviews    handsets    communications   

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