Trendnet ClearSky Bluetooth VoIP Phone Kit review

If you're going to use Skype instead of a normal landline, it makes sense to buy a dedicated handset. Should you want the freedom to walk around while on the phone, Trendnet's ClearSky wireless phone could be what you need.

The kit comes with a Bluetooth dongle, a handset and the necessary software to get the phone working with Skype. The Quick Start guide wasn't very helpful when it came to pairing the phone with our PC. It said to press the phone's Configuration button, but didn't show where it was. The phone also took quite a while to connect.

Our first phone calls were marred by poor quality and jittery speech, which we assumed was because the Bluetooth dongle was connected to a USB hub. We moved the dongle to a port on our PC and tried to re-pair the phone with the PC. After several failed attempts we opted to reinstall.

This time around, the call quality was very good and we could hear little difference between ClearSky and a standard telephone. However, we still had to configure Windows not to use the phone as its primary audio device, which is something the manual fails to mention.

The LCD shows your PC's Skype contacts and their online status, so dialling a friend is easy. You can also dial standard telephone numbers using the number pad. As Skype accepts only international dialling numbers, pressing 0 first quite sensibly enters a '+' on screen.

Unfortunately, the keypad is unresponsive and the buttons spongy, so you need to press quite hard to dial. It doesn't help that the screen updates so slowly that you don't spot a mistake until three or four number presses later.

The frustrating process we had to go through to get the phone working, combined with the high price and poor number pad, make this phone hard to recommend. You can buy Linksys's much better Cordless Internet Telephone Kit for around £30 less.