Belkin WiFi Phone: the good - the bad - the ugly

It's difficult to find anything either bad or ugly about the Belkin WiFi phone. It's a good looking phone and it does the job for which it was intended. It may have the appearance of a cell phone, but it shouldn't be confused with one. It's a desktop or cordless phone replacement.

A key feature of this phone is that it's simple to use. It's does one thing and does it well.

Home and Small Business Users

The Belkin WiFi phone targets the home and small business market. It's a plug and play package pre-configured to Skype straight from the box.

Road Warriors

The Belkin phone is not for the road warrior or residents of Starbucks. It doesn't have a Web browser, which makes authentication a challenge at WiFi hotspots unless you are also carrying a laptop.

Belkin doesn't need to apologize for the apparent omission of a Web browser from their WiFi phone. There are at least two very prominent red flags that should signal the real purpose of this phone to potential customers:

1. Cost and Specs.

2. WiFi - as a pure WiFi play these phones were not intended for roaming. It's a limitation of the technology that will be lifted in the future, but even when it is WiFi roaming will not equate to cell phone roaming.

Road warriors may need to look at an investment 2-3 times greater to fulfill their WiFi ambitions. Their ideal solution is a dual-mode WiFi cell phone such as a Nokia E71, Blackberry Storm, iPhone or Google Android.

3. An Alternative

Conclusion

The Belkin Skype phone fulfills its mission at an attractive price. Most users will achieve a return on investment within a few months. In the case of a SOHO business a payback can probably be achieved within weeks if not days.

It's unfortunate that whoever writes the promotional copy for the product has gone for the big sell. They are doing the product a disservice by ignoring the realities of using a device such as this from a WiFi hotspot "anywhere in the world." Undeniably it can be done, but there will be a lot of frustration along the way.

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