Average User Rating: 60% (21 Reviews)
5 / 5	Easy setup and simple to use. K. MCGUIRK (London) - 3 July 2007 I've had a wireless netgear router for a few years now and its been excellent, so when I started thinking about finally ditching the skype headset for some more practical VOIP handsets I went straight to the Netgear site to check out their offerings. I was a bit concerned that there seemed to be so few reviews around on their products in this area, but decided to take the plunge with both the SPH200D and one additional handset (the SPH150D). Its taken me a while to get around to setting them up, more because I was preparing myself for a long haul installation, but last night it took me about 15 minutes to get everything up and running - superb easy installation. Mind you I did already have skype installed on the PC with all my contacts etc, so no need to run the CD and do that part of the setup. The SPH200D picked up a connection with the base station as soon as I plugged it in - you then just put in a default PIN and add country and local dialling codes and you are done. If you have skype already on your PC it synchronises your skype contacts in just a few seconds. (By the way there is no power up button with the base station - you just plug it in and it just works). With the SPH150D (the additional handset) you follow a similar process but when you register the handset make sure you are next to the base station as you need to press and hold the pager button on the top of the base station until it starts flashing. I made the mistake of just pressing it once at which point it does flash but simply pages the other handset ! (Handy for when the kids have hidden it) This should get your additional handset registered and you can now intercom the other handset (very handy also, kids love it so watch out). And so for the crunch - making calls. Well so far so good. Excellent quality on Skype and Skype out calls(had to add some more euros !) and of course with the SPH200D you don't need to sign up to Skype In because you can connect to your landline so folks can still call through to your skype handset from a landline. Range seems fine - although I've probably only been about 150 yards from the base station so far. (If you need further ask the Butler to carry you back within range) You can add up to 4 additional handsets so all the kids can have one. (Only kidding, don't even tell them about the intercom or you'll be sorry). The handsets themselves are pretty good. They look a bit plastic in the pictures but they are actually quite stylish with a good colour display. All in all very good, probably more expensive than other models on the market but if you are a netgear junkie, this could be the VOIP strategy for you ! PS Don't forget if you really want free calls you need to get your friends and family onto VOIP too !! ... Read Full Review »
5 / 5	Excellent! Mr. G. Child (UK) - 16 June 2007 This phone is the best VOIP phone I have come across. Really easy to use, intuitive navigation menu system, and the sound quality is superb. Would recommend.
5 / 5	Awesome Antony Lovell (London, UK) - 21 August 2007 This product is awesome - great skype and normal phone. 3 small problems: * no in built answerphone for the landline * no contacts held in the phone - you have to enter them all into skype * when i first set it up there was no sound. trawled the web and found out that i needed to hit the reset button which fixed it. netgear support emailed me three days later with the same recommendation. apart from the small gripes, awesome. i am also amazed that it just configured itself and i was online!... Read Full Review »
1 / 5	Do not buy this phone! D. G. Lyons (UK) - 11 July 2008 I have had this phone (with extra handset) for about a year. As soon as I bought it I identified a number of issues, some of which have been discussed in other reviews. I have raised all of them with NetGear support and none of them have been resolved. I have dealt with many 'bad service' organizations before, but NetGear's support of this product is special in that it is exists as bunch of resources (off shore) but it does not exist as support. People acknowledge the support requests but never, ever address the problem. They also have a neat trick whereby they close the request automatically after a period of inactivity (their inactivity). The phone itself has the following issues: Caller ID is supported, but the phone does not look up the caller names in the phonebook. So you need to memorize numbers in order to make good use of this feature. The phone provides support for landline voicemail, but if you live in the UK and your voicemail access is a four digit number (e.g. 1571) then the phone will not accept this number because of its US centric number validation. The phone also provides (allegedly) a voicemails present indicator (landline). This doesn't work. The phone automatically converts numbers in the history that begin with 011 to + (so a Leicester number e.g. 0116 123 4567 becomes +6 123 4567) when you dial the number from the call history (oddly this conversion is not applied for missed calls). This US centric feature is not very helpful since the number fails to connect. The phone is provided with a number of truly awful ringtones. When the phone rings, it counts the ring pulses and plays the ringtone for that number of pulses even when another non-NetGear phone has picked up the call. So, because most of the nearly acceptable tones are quite long, the NetGear phones keep ringing long after the non-NetGear phone has picked up the call. Occasionally, it is not possible to pick up calls with one of the handsets. A reset usually fixes this, but then you have to go through the pain of setting up all your preferences again. Most of these issues you might live with in the expectation that regular firmware updates would address the problems. But there is no evidence that NetGear have any interest in releasing firmware updates (just one so far) or that they have any interest in supporting the phone.... Read Full Review »
5 / 5	Finally a skype phone that does it all LB "Skype phone searcher" (UK) - 21 September 2007 I was looking for a skype dual phone that would also offer speakerphone, have a headset jack and allow for chat online (typing). Panasonic did not offer this last feature and the other brands did not offer headset jacks at a decent price. This phone has it all and is affordable too! It really is plug in and play - another triumph. Though netgear will not endorse any headsets for the headset jack - the one I have (no brand of significance) works perfectly.... Read Full Review »