I recently had my new Skype Mobile phone on Three delivered and early impressions are good. The handset is very compact (even more so than my Samsung D-900, which I previously thought to be quite svelte) and weighs next to nothing.

Out of the box you get the handset, charger, hands-free kit and PC software. Your SIM card is actually a USIM which looks like a regular one but I’m advised should not be placed in a non-Three handset as there are enough differences to make that a very bad idea.

The screen is bright and clear, offering enough area to view a lengthy SMS message or an ample section of a web page. There is also a nicely backlit keypad that I’ve had no problems using despite my reasonably long fingers and clumsy touch.

One thing that stands out straight away is the centrally located Skype button. You really can’t miss it. Pressing this from the main screen will fire up Skype for Mobile very quickly. I’m an existing Skype user so I was able to log straight in - total time from pushing the button to being logged in was minimal, a matter of seconds. On first load, it attempts to synchronize your contacts so that you have access to them in your phone contacts list (a nice feature in my mind). The synchronization took a fairly long while in comparison to logging in, perhaps 4 - 5 minutes - though my 3G signal was not at full strength so this may vary for others.

New users to Skype can create an account straight from the phone which is a very useful option - and to anyone who has yet to discover Skype, I fully recommend it. I intend to place a detailed article about the merits of Skype here soon, but the gist of it is that if you have friends, relatives or business contacts in other countries, Skype will be a lifesaver for your budget.

At this point I should note that Skype to Skype calls are free of all charges - and that extends to this phone. Three will not charge you data access fees for your Skype time, so talk as long as you want for free with any other Skype user. At time of writing, the official word is that SkypeIn and SkypeOut services do not work with this phone. I note that my SkypeOut contacts do not appear so I can verify that, however I have yet to receive a SkypeIn call since activating the phone so I can’t say for sure that doesn’t work yet.

So beyond the real attraction of Skype (this was the main reason I chose this phone in the first place), what does it offer?

You get a 2.0 Megapixel camera capable of decent quality photographs. You rotate the phone to a camera-like pose to take photos as well, which is a feature I like.

The phone also records Video in 3gp format, length dependent on the amount of space remaining. Quality in a reasonably well-lit environment appears to be good though extensive testing of this feature has yet to be performed.

There is a Voice Recorder for taking verbal notes and the usual array of quick apps to help you out like a Calculator, Word Time clock, etc.

Windows Live Messenger (formerly MSN Messenger) is included and is again free to use, incurring no data charges. Signing in was quick (<10 secs) and initial set up (retrieving contact list, etc) took less than 20 seconds. One quirk was that it set my display name to one that I last used in August and have changed several times since, but at this time I cannot say whether the quirk lay with the phone’s implementation of Messenger or the Messenger service itself.

Deals

I received this phone for no initial outlay (save for a £0.01 security authorisation charge to confirm I was submitting a valid payment option) and it was delivered less than 24 hours later - I placed the order in the evening and received the phone the following early afternoon. Delivery was also free. I was able to select a free gift as part of my deal and chose to receive an XBOX360 Arcade.

Free gifts are dispatched 28 days after your contract starts, to ensure that you don’t return your phone for a refund after receiving it!

This was all done through foofar, an e2save store. e2save are an established mobile provider based in Loughborough, England. After searching around several sites and looking in stores, I deemed this to be the best option for me. With regards to the free gift I chose, there are several other options - I’ll link below to to the various options so you can check them out for yourself.

I chose the Black handset, but it also comes in White. To view the various options available to you for your free gift, click “Change to Bespoke Deal?” on the page(s) below. Dependent on your deal, you could choose an XBOX360 (Arcade or Elite), Automatic Cashback, a Dell Laptop or any of several other options that seem pretty good to me.

Black Skype Phone

White Skype Phone

Don’t forget - if you’re upgrading your handset or have an old phone lying around, do the right thing and have it environmentally recycled - you can get cash back to do so! How? Through Envirofone - click the logo to find out more:

Comments are open, your input is welcomed!

Edit: Please also see my addendum to this review with some extra features I’ve now successfully tried.