This is the most useful piece of equipment that I’ve purchased this year.

I am engaged in business with people from several different countries. Skype has the option of using local geographical numbers (SKYPE IN) that are routed to your Skype profile. I’ve never used this feature until now as having a telephony service running through a PC is at best unreliable. Now with Philips VoIP841 I can make and receive crystal clear calls through Skype. What is also great is that I’ve effectively got an extra telephone line, as I can use Skype even when the landline is in use.

The handset is smart and works well as a phone. Cleverly the charging cradle does not connect into the phone or broadband, but they plug into the base station. So I’ve got the phone on one side of the house in my office, and the base is near the telephone socket and broadband router on the other side.

Although it is a pricey handset, it does work well. In addition the cost is easily offset if compared to the setup and rental cost of a second telephone line. What’s more it gives me the ability to have local numbers around the world, dialling my phone in the UK at local rates.

I have bought 3 of these and have had problems with 2 of them stuck in "system starting up" mode. This renders phone useless and is a hassle to reset (for non-techie mother on other side of world) and can occur randomly. Looks beautiful but not reliable as a desktop solution. Also doesn't support more than one caller. I wouldn't recommend unless you are tech savvie.