Netgear SPH200W Official and Out

We've mentioned it while it was a rumor but now it's official--Netgear has launched the followup to its popular SPH101 WiFi phone: the SPH200W. In addition to making the phone a little smaller (and upping the battery life to a typical 4 hour talk time / 48 hour standby time), it has two cool improvements: it now includes a cradle (so you'll know where it is and it'll hopefully always be charged when you need it) and it works on T-Mobile USA's hotspot network (if you already have an account of course), so you can use it at the thousands of T-Mobile hotspots across the US (link to map here).

Being able to use the SPH200W at T-Mobile hotspots makes Skype a lot more mobile. Wherever you are in the US, you probably aren't far from a Starbucks and they nearly always have a T-Mobile hotspot inside. Getting your caffeine fix and Skype fix quickly and easily without lugging around a laptop? Sounds pretty awesome to me.

You can read more about the SPH200W at Netgear's site here, and you can purchase it from Skype's US Store for $149.99 here.

Technorati Tags: skype, netgear, sph200w, wifi phone, skype wifi phone, t-mobile, t-mobile hotspot, hotspot

Comments

Installation.
When I was first trying to install this phone at home in Madrid, I had some difficulties. On my Router control I could clearly see that an IP-adress was assigned to the phone, but in the handset itself it didn't appear, so I could not communicate. Allthough my router is using a DHCP, I tried to give the phone a ststic IP-adress, with the correct DNS an so on.
And voilá, the phone works flewlessly.
Also if You have problems installing the land-line check the following: cable and most of all the filter.
Have Fun
Claes

Where did Claes buy it from ?, I live in spain but cant buy it here.

My Netgear WiFi phone (SPH200W) has the "Ringer off" icon on all the time. I could not hear the ring when I received a SkypeIn call (note: I turned the vibrate mode off).

help!

I today received my shinny new NetGear SPH200W. I have always used a Lynksys CIT200 - it always worked very well, but kept disconnecting every time someone else in the house signed out of AOL. Having put up with that for a year, I thought something with it's own IP address would be GREAT!!

Problem is, Skype & Netgear, have made a very basic and fundamental mistake when designing the firmware. There is no control over the forwarding ports this device uses.

Ok, no use if you in a coffee shop (unless you can hack their router), but when you are at home and have control over your router, at least you can then maximize your call quality.

I have spent two hours on the phone today with Netgear, and they cannot tell me what ports this device defaults to. But they GUESS it will be 80 and 443. Even with these ports opened to Skype on the correct IP address it makes no difference to call quality (well they are very busy ports, so why would they be work). I am now waiting for a call back from a 3rd level engineer.

The result is that the call quality on this phone is pathetic, and does not do justice to the excellent service I am used to from Skype.

You are so much better off installing the free software from Skype on your computer, and using a cheap head set - do not waste you money on this device, or you will just be as disappointed as I am.

If you can put up with a massive rate of packet loss, resulting in choppy (at best) phone calls - then go ahead and by one - it does look nice after all (if that helps)! I don't even think it can send an sms – how basic of a requirement is that – Skype, Netgear, what are you thinking?

Now all I have to figure out is how to return it!