Skypephone 2 announced

[3GScottishUser]

3 have announced an upgraded version of the Skypephone.

Its a similar design to the original but with a 3.2MP camera and HSDPA facilities. It'll be available on contract for free and PAYG for £69 from late August.

Full details and pics can be found here: http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/3_unveils_latest_Skypephone_device.html

[Ben]

I'm glad this is about to surface, it feels like it has been bumbling around for ages! I hope it can build on the success of the original.

[3GScottishUser]

It is apparently going to be offered as a dongle alternative so that users can access the net and also make use of the voice services.

It'll be interesting to see what they offer as the tariff. Flat 12 with a mobile broadband add-on?

[Ben]

The dongle approach is an interesting one... though they're trying to flog a feature that's about a million years old! What on earth is one supposed to do when a call comes in? :p
I think they're trying a little too hard to trade in on the success of Mobile Broadband there.

[Hands0n]

Is it still from Amoi? One of my two original Skypephones died on me, well it does all of its stuff but no longer registers on the network - no matter what SIM is used in it. I tried to sort it out with Three but they were their classic self in Customer Service, so I gave up and chucked it in the box with the other disused handsets.

If they have the capability of concurrent use of HSDPA and Voice then the Dongle-substitute approach has some merit. Not otherwise.

Would I buy into one? Yes, from any other network only.

[3GScottishUser]

It is another device by Amoi, an updated version of the original I understand.

Its interesting that whilst they have retained the Skype branding that they have chosen to remove the skype logo from the device. They seem to be playing down the Skype facility perhaps because they have found it may be confusing for many potential customers who simply want to buy a cheap PAYG handset and use traditional services.

At £69 it deserves to do well but my experience of the network lately has been very poor. Voice calls have been pretty unreliable and I have just about given up on the 3 portal as more often than not it cant find the host and I cant be bothered rebooting!

I think many of here get excited about new products but its everyday practical use that counts. On holiday I mainly used a basic Nokia 1600 (Turkish) connected to Turkcell and it was 100% reliable for voice and texts. meanwhile with all the high tech 3G etc in the UK I'm struggling to maintain a conversation.

[Hands0n]

To venture slightly off topic for a moment - I want to pick up on those interesting comments about Turkey there.

I have just returned from Turkey where I carried my trusty Nokia N95 (T-Mobile) and even trustier Apple iPhone 2G (O2) with me wherever I went. Out there the N95 latched on to T-Mobile's partner network Avea (I think that is the correct spelling) and the iPhone to O2's partner Turkcell.

Throughout the two weeks, and wherever we travelled, we were not without signal once! And we did move around the mountainside quite a bit. It really did put the UK networks patchiness to complete shame, and this from a nation that is supposedly backwards compared to us in the glorious west.

At one point I had to use my iPhone to contact O2 in the UK (using a free-from-Turkey 0870 number!) and spent 1hr 14min on several calls in one sitting. Friends had lost both their mobile phones on the journey over. At all times the voice quality was spot on, even if the signal strength may have been on the low side.

For me it is never about the product but more about the network, its coverage, capability and quality. I only wish that the tariffs for calls, text, MMS and data were affordable. As it is, they are not, and so Turkcell/Avea/T-Mobile/O2 lost this punter's business that they could have had (the perennial lesson that all mobile network operators refuse to learn and have to be legislated to perform).

Back on topic - regrettably my own [repeated] experience of 3 in particular and the Skypephone in general have not been entirely positive for reasons that I will not repeat now. I am not entirely sure why I have a fondness for 3 and will them to succeed despite their bet attempts to fail at the hands of their after-sales support. Perhaps it is because they shook the UK operators out of their appalling complacency. But that is not enough to acquire and retain my business, and they still seem very capable of generating ill will from their customers. As such I find them a very hard company to recommend to potential customers.