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.

This product is terrific. It has a nice colour backlit screen. It imported all my Skype contacts from my computer. Sound is excellent. First class service from Ligo too.

Good points Easy to use

Bad points could have added more features like answer phone

Other thoughts

very happy with product,

I was really anxious to get this phone having read the reviews - However, it has been a real failure since i purchased it. Callers call, but phone handset does not ring on every occasion, only sometimes! Terribly frustrating, as you only see the 'missed calls' when you return to computer. Returned phone, got new one, but same fault. Very disappointed, as it cost me £100.00. An expensive mistake indeed!

Excellent piece of kit. Easy to set up, picks up your existing contacts held by Skype and does just what it says on the box. If you use Skype I would strongly recommend this item.

I must make a point about the sound quality of this phone which has suffered a little criticism of late but which I cannot fault.Some may encounter difficulty trying to sign in as I did when the phone would not accept my username and password.It would be of great help if this problem and it's remedy could be included in the F A Q section.A really good phone which I thoroughly recommend