Philips VoIP Dual Dect Desktop Phones review

Philips' VoIP Dual Dect Desktop Phones kit is designed for use with Windows Live Messenger and its new landline calling service; see our review on page 53 for more information.

It comprises a USB base station, which also connects to your telephone line, and two Dect cordless handsets.

The handsets come paired to the base station. Their default mode is to dial out using your current telephone line. Call quality and range are both excellent, while the handsets are comfortable to hold and feel well made. The maximum ringer volume is a bit quiet, but the phones have a good hands-free mode. The phones can also be used to make internet calls using Windows Live Messenger.

Unlike Skype phones, you don't need any drivers to get it working. As long as you have Windows Live Messenger 8, you need only plug in the base station. From the handsets, you can access your online contacts by pressing the Messenger button on the phone. The 98x67-pixel colour screen isn't very good, but you can still read text and see the icons well enough.

To make a free Messenger-to-Messenger call, you just have to select your contact and hit the dial key. Making a call to a standard telephone number is trickier, and the manual doesn't explain how. Pressing # while in Messenger mode let us type in a telephone number. There's a choice to dial using Messenger or your standard phone line. Annoyingly, pressing the hang-up button in Messenger mode switches the phone back to its standard mode. If you want to make another VoIP call, you must press the Messenger button again, which is cumbersome. While you're on a VoIP or standard call, you can't pick up the other handset to listen in, but you can use it to make or receive another call using the free line.

Despite the cumbersome interface, this kit is a good way of using Live Messenger's new features, and considerably cheaper than the nearest cordless Skype equivalent.