Panasonic KX-WP1050 $400 Skype Phone
by DJ Neawedde | 5th March 2007
This is Panasonic’s new venture into the Skype market - the KX-WP1050 Panasonic Wi-Fi Phone. It features a 65k colors 1.8inch TFT screen, an easy to use menu-driven operation, and a loud handset speakerphone, as well as a built-in headset jack.
Another great thing - it’s only 0.62-inches thick and weighs just 4 ounces, nice and light. The Li-Ion battery gives you a nice 72 hour standby time, and 3 hour talk time. Oh yes, and don’t forget the automatic 256-bit AES encryption setup (WPA) for those calls you don’t want your neighbors to hear.
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I have been looking for a Skype phone for my home. This one is great but Panasonic needs to fix a few things. First, they should sell the handset separately as an option (something like $99 or less). I have an Apple Airport Base Station and I do not need theirs. Even if I did, I still want to have multiple phones for my several Skype accounts and buying the whole package several times is too expensive. They would sell thousands of handsets if they sold them separately, because this is a great phone. Second, they need to offer a charging cradle/dock. The battery life is very short and it is a hassle to have to hook up the handset to the base station or some computer through USB every other day. Third, they should upgrade the software on the phone so that you can have a list of identities and easily flip between them to check/enable your various accounts. You should also be able to set each identity individually so that no password need be reentered every time you switch to that identity. Overall, a very nice phone but be mindful of the limitations described above, especially as pertains to the charging cradle. I will be waiting for the second iteration before I buy another one. Panasonic, are you listening (there is zero possibility of customer interaction on your black box site)?
April 27th, 2007 at 6:58 pm