Skypegear is no stranger to Linksys devices--We've done roadtests of the CIT400 a while back and the WIP320 more recently. The Linksys CIT300 Cordless Dual-Mode Internet Telephony Kit is another member of the Linksys family that I've had the opportunity to use around the house for the past week. It's a solid device for people who want to make their Skype calls and landline calls on the same phone but don't want to spend a ton of money to do it. Read on for my review.

First Impressions

The CIT300 looks and feels like a regular cordless phone. It's a good size and weight and has a clip on the back so you can wear it on your belt if you like. In the box is the phone itself, its charging base, the base station that connects to your phone line and your computer (via USB), and all the necessary cables.

The screen on the CIT300 isn't as pretty as some of the other Skype phones we've seen, but it gets the job done. The phone has a color screen and menu icons; it's fairly crisp and displays up to five lines of text at at time. It lacks some of the graphical touches you see in other more expensive Skype phones, but I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing. The buttons on the phone offer a good amount of tactile feedback and are backlit for easy use in the dark.

Functionality

Steve recently gave a great rundown of different types of Skype phones--the CIT300 falls into the 'Cordless Handset' category. It's definitely useful to think of these types of phones as extensions to the Skype on your computer. They let you access your contacts and make and receive calls, but you need to have the base unit plugged into the computer and the computer on and running Skype. Not a problem for most of us, but if you don't have a computer that's on most of the time, you might be better off looking at a 'Cordless Phone' (like the CIT400 or Netgear SPH200D) that plugs directly into your router and runs independently of a computer.

Setup for the CIT300 was straightforward. I generally always check the manufacturer's website before installing new devices to see if there's a newer version of the software than the one included on CD, and this was the case for the CIT300. I installed the software, plugged my landline into the base unit and then plugged the base unit into the computer's USB port. The computer immediately recognized the base unit, installed it, and then the base unit connected with Skype. After I confirmed that the CIT300 software was allowed to access Skype I was ready to go.

Well, almost ready to go. The link to Skype was working fine, but during the installation process the installer made the CIT300 the default audio device for the computer. This was slightly annoying because the CIT300 only needs to be the audio device within the Skype application; otherwise it effectively disables the computer's sound. But it was quickly fixed by going into the Control Panel into Sound and Audio Devices and re-selecting my normal computer audio.

As I said before, the interface on the CIT300 relies less on graphics than some other Skype phones, but it still isn't difficult to figure out what everything does. To make a Skype call you can browse your contacts or type in a number and press the Skype button. The phone allows for a good amount of integration with Skype--you can check how much credit you have remaining, check your voicemail, change your status, and even look up your contacts' profile information. Like many other Skype phones out right now you can't conduct a text chat within the handset, however you can set the phone to alert you with a little beep when you receive a text chat so you know to go check your computer. This is quite a useful feature, however the phone doesn't tell you on screen that you're receiving a chat, so you might not know why the phone is beeping if you're not expecting it.

The phone also functions well as a standard landline phone. It has a large phonebook (separate from Skype) to which you can add numbers from the list of calls you've made and received. The phone has 15 different midi-style ringtones, and you can set different rings for incoming Skype calls and incoming landline calls.

I found the sound quality for both Skype and landline calls to be very good. By default the volume was turned up pretty loud, but it was easy to adjust it using the arrow pad during the call to make the call more pleasant.

The CIT300 also has some other interesting features that you might not expect in this type of phone. It has an alarm clock, a stopwatch, and a timer. I kept the CIT300 in my kitchen while I was testing it and can confirm that the timer does indeed work (but it didn't fix my hard-boiled eggs). It's also possible to create a network of these DECT phones around your house, which is pretty cool.

Conclusion

The Linksys CIT300 is a solid choice if you have a computer that will be on most of the time. The interface does take some getting used to, but before long I was Skyping on it like a pro. For the couple of features that weren't immediately obvious to me (such as what 'auto answer' did exactly and in what contexts it worked), the CIT300 does have a nice PDF manual that quickly sorted me out. You can get the CIT300 at the US Skype store for $129.95.