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User ReviewRead All Reviews »
Very Good Phone, But Only Real Geeks Need Apply At This Point
Pros
Easy-to-use, Skype without a computer, great voicemail access, excellent audio quality
Cons
Early product with difficulties; phone doesn't come with necessary cable for updates, very few ring-tones
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
Great cutting-edge VoIP WiFi phone for so many reasons, but I'd only recommend it to technical people who don't mind dealing with firmware updates and missing cables.
I really have found all the negative user reviews about the WIP320 to be funny considering almost all of them were from "early adopters", AKA people who bought this gadget "as soon as it was available". 90% of these people have to have known what they were getting into, and yet they're still so upset with Linksys because there were bugs in this product which is not just a new product, but a new product in a new product segment.
Anyway, I did a lot of research on WiFi Skype phones, and found the WIP320 to be my best bet considering Linksys has the best reputation of all the manufacturers I looked at as far as all the products I've used at work for the past 16 years. We use a lot of Linksys wireless products because they are just better than anything from Netgear, SMC, Philips, etc.
So, I've only had this phone for one day, but it was obvious it had some problems, although it worked great most of the time. The firmware version was 1.1.0.0, so I figured at least that's better than 1.0.0.0. The first problem I noticed was that after a full charge, the battery was almost dead after sitting unplugged next to our "old" phone at home for one hour. It was also pretty hot, much more than it should've been considering that it hadn't been touched for an hour, so I thought something must've been wrong with the battery or power saving features. The second, more minor problem was that the menu navigation was lagging and freezing for several seconds sometimes. It was annoying, but didn't happen most of the time. The third problem was that I didn't see a way to use the speakerphone feature all the reviews talked about. Actually, a fourth problem was that the voicemail "On" setting kept going off for some weird reason and calls wouldn't go to voicemail.
OK, so one big problem with the battery, and a few relatively minor problems. So, I saw a menu item on the phone about updates -- hmm, said there were none. So, I checked Linksys' support site looking for some other way to fix the problem. I saw a firmware update to 1.1.0.16 released only a week or so ago. Looked like a minor update, but the comments said it added the speakerphone feature, so I downloaded it.
The firmware updater is an EXE installer that, at some point, tells you to plug the phone into your computer (luckily I have a mini-USB cable I use with my digital camera, because the phone didn't come with one!), then it says to hold down the right soft key, power button, and "#9" keys. OK, so I tried that repeatedly while the phone was powered up, and it just kept shutting down. The instructions didn't say to power the phone down BEFORE pushing all those buttons -- thanks. After figuring that out, got it up in some kind of update mode where it said "USB not ready" instead of "Download" as the updater said. But Windows Vista saw it now, and I told it to auto-install the driver (crossing my fingers it would work). 5 minutes later (thanks, Vista), the driver's installed and the phone says "Download". I continue with the updater after it finds the phone, and 15 minutes and a phone reboot later it's back up with the latest firmware.
Speakerphone feature, it's there and it works fine, problem fixed. Voicemail "On" setting is staying on long after I turned it on, problem fixed. Menu navigation now works fine and the phone is generally much more responsive than before, problem fixed. Last but certainly not least, the battery. Right now, after fully recharging the phone which was nearly dead earlier today, I'm two hours into testing battery life (standby), and the battery still shows a FULL CHARGE! YAY! It's still cool, too, so problem fixed as far as I can tell.
All I can say is that this phone as it exists even with these fixes is still not for the average home user, because it took way too much effort to get it to this point where it seems to be working well. I'm sure most average early adopters gave up very early on and just returned it, but being an I.T. pro for almost 20 years, I'm no average user (and I know very well to wait 6 months before buying a new type of product like this).
Look, if you're going to buy a such a new kind of product like this IMMEDIATELY after it's released, expect some bumps and tech support calls. It's a part of being a gadget freak. Or, be like me and just wait 6 months while all the true "early adopters" take the brunt of the pain.
Anyway, I did a lot of research on WiFi Skype phones, and found the WIP320 to be my best bet considering Linksys has the best reputation of all the manufacturers I looked at as far as all the products I've used at work for the past 16 years. We use a lot of Linksys wireless products because they are just better than anything from Netgear, SMC, Philips, etc.
So, I've only had this phone for one day, but it was obvious it had some problems, although it worked great most of the time. The firmware version was 1.1.0.0, so I figured at least that's better than 1.0.0.0. The first problem I noticed was that after a full charge, the battery was almost dead after sitting unplugged next to our "old" phone at home for one hour. It was also pretty hot, much more than it should've been considering that it hadn't been touched for an hour, so I thought something must've been wrong with the battery or power saving features. The second, more minor problem was that the menu navigation was lagging and freezing for several seconds sometimes. It was annoying, but didn't happen most of the time. The third problem was that I didn't see a way to use the speakerphone feature all the reviews talked about. Actually, a fourth problem was that the voicemail "On" setting kept going off for some weird reason and calls wouldn't go to voicemail.
OK, so one big problem with the battery, and a few relatively minor problems. So, I saw a menu item on the phone about updates -- hmm, said there were none. So, I checked Linksys' support site looking for some other way to fix the problem. I saw a firmware update to 1.1.0.16 released only a week or so ago. Looked like a minor update, but the comments said it added the speakerphone feature, so I downloaded it.
The firmware updater is an EXE installer that, at some point, tells you to plug the phone into your computer (luckily I have a mini-USB cable I use with my digital camera, because the phone didn't come with one!), then it says to hold down the right soft key, power button, and "#9" keys. OK, so I tried that repeatedly while the phone was powered up, and it just kept shutting down. The instructions didn't say to power the phone down BEFORE pushing all those buttons -- thanks. After figuring that out, got it up in some kind of update mode where it said "USB not ready" instead of "Download" as the updater said. But Windows Vista saw it now, and I told it to auto-install the driver (crossing my fingers it would work). 5 minutes later (thanks, Vista), the driver's installed and the phone says "Download". I continue with the updater after it finds the phone, and 15 minutes and a phone reboot later it's back up with the latest firmware.
Speakerphone feature, it's there and it works fine, problem fixed. Voicemail "On" setting is staying on long after I turned it on, problem fixed. Menu navigation now works fine and the phone is generally much more responsive than before, problem fixed. Last but certainly not least, the battery. Right now, after fully recharging the phone which was nearly dead earlier today, I'm two hours into testing battery life (standby), and the battery still shows a FULL CHARGE! YAY! It's still cool, too, so problem fixed as far as I can tell.
All I can say is that this phone as it exists even with these fixes is still not for the average home user, because it took way too much effort to get it to this point where it seems to be working well. I'm sure most average early adopters gave up very early on and just returned it, but being an I.T. pro for almost 20 years, I'm no average user (and I know very well to wait 6 months before buying a new type of product like this).
Look, if you're going to buy a such a new kind of product like this IMMEDIATELY after it's released, expect some bumps and tech support calls. It's a part of being a gadget freak. Or, be like me and just wait 6 months while all the true "early adopters" take the brunt of the pain.
