|
|
|
Versatile cordless phone for both Skype and landline calls
There are plenty of Skype handsets around at the moment – and most of them seem rather overpriced, often coming in at £100-£130.
Philip’s VOIP841 phone is in the same bracket, but it does have another trick up its sleeve to help justify that rather high price tag.
Neatly designed in glossy black, and more solidly constructed than most of the rival rival Skype phones phones we’ve seen so far, the VOIP841 works with both Skype and your existing landline.
This means you can make cheap calls using your Skype account, but can also receive incoming calls to your landline number as well.
To install the phone you use an Ethernet cable to connect its base unit to your broadband router, and an ordinary phone cable to connect it to your landline telephone socket.
The phone will then ring when it receives an incoming call on your landline, and for outgoing calls you simply use the menu on the phone’s small LCD screen to switch between Skype and landline calls.
The phone works perfectly well, and should have broad appeal – particularly to small businesses and home workers who can save money on Skype calls during office hours while also being able to take incoming calls on their normal landline.
The only fly in the ointment is the fact that the VOIP841 doesn’t have a built-in answerphone. This means that it can’t entirely replace your existing landline telephone and answerphone setup.
Philips includes a voucher that entitles you to a year’s use of Skype’s Voicemail service, but this only works for Skype calls and can’t record calls made to your landline.
To be fair, the VOIP841 is more versatile than comparably priced rivals, such as the Netgear Skype Wifi Phone. It’s just a shame that the lack of an answerphone prevents it from being the ideal all-in-one phone system that it could be.
Read more reviews
Our verdict
Pros: Works with both Skype and landline calls; attractive design; good build quality Cons: Expensive; lacks built-in answerphone Overall: The Philips VOIP841 Internet Phone works well, but the lack of an answerphone is disappointing
Best price on the web
Make a profit from your unused gadgets
Run Windows and Ubuntu on the same computer
Hide private folders
Save up to 40% on the price
Exclusive subscriber website
Our price won't be beaten
|
|
|
|
|
Computeractive Excel (2010) Online tutorialPrice: £19.99 |
Computeractive Word (2010) Online TutorialPrice: £19.99 |
Computeractive Powerpoint (2010) Online TutorialPrice: £19.99 |
Angry BirdsPrice: £9.99 |
Back Issue CD-Rom 14 (2011)Price: £15.99 |
Philips VoIP841
Been waiting for this phone for ages. This was supposed to be the first, but now there is others from RTX and Netgear. Still bought the philips, even though a bit more expensive, because I expect the quality to be higher. So far very happy.
Posted by Daniel, 18 Mar 2007
Posted by victoria semproni, 01 Oct 2007
Connecting it to PC and phone line
I've just bought the VOIP841 and am struggling to get it to work. I've hooked up the base station to my ADSL router so have got the skype part working, but not the landline The router is connected to the phone line, but do I also need to connect the base station to the actual phone line that I was using for my old land phone as well. If so, that's a problem as my PC/ASDL router is upstairs and the phone socket is downstairs. It's a shame the accompanying instructions don't provide a diagram of how it all connects, rather than relying on some imprecise text. Otherwise it looks cool and I can't wait to sort it out. ANy ideas ?
Posted by Nick, 07 Oct 2007
Specification conflict
Philips own website indicates that this phone can make ougoing calls via the landline, not jsut take incoming calls (from the landline) as suggested in the vnunet review. Can someone please clear this up?
Posted by Ian Fullerton, 08 Jan 2008
phone will not register
it is just saying "system is starting up" what can i do to make it register ???
Posted by frederick metcalf, 17 May 2008
great phone when it works 100%
I have this phone, the call clarity is great compared to another Skype phone I have had in the past. The call list on the handset is clear and well lit and reception excellent. The only 'bug' I have is, that this phone sometimes will not 'ring' when a call is incoming! For 90% of the time it works fine - but sometimes, i can be in front of the screen on the computer and I will see a 'incoming call 'calling appear on my screen and my phone is 6 inches from me and remains silent! I pick it up, call party back it works fine. Next incoming calls work for 1 - 2 hours maybe - then it fails again. The battery is new - less than 1 month old and so is the phone - as it is a replacement one, with same problem again! I cannot find any way to remedy this - and this is my replacement phone!
Posted by Dee, 27 Feb 2008
Skype Conference
How do you do Skype conference calls on this phone? Cant do it from handset and I cant seem to get Skype on my PC to recognise and control the phone?
Posted by Adrian Liddell, 15 Jan 2008
info unavailable on voip841
My philips voip841 will not let me access any info from it ,ie contacts "unavailable" etc,etc.and people can not call me on it. Can you help?
Posted by Donal Kennedy, 02 Dec 2008
philips 841 voip pgone
just move house lost some cables.tried philips, noluck. need mains cable, cable to router. any help please
Posted by John, 10 May 2011
re philips 841 pgone
Have now sorted it out and phone is brilliant, no problems.
Posted by JohnCole, 14 May 2011