Video review: 3 Skypephone S2

For the past week, I’ve been getting to know the 3 Skypephone S2, the second-generation of this Skype-enabled mobile phone which goes on general sale in the UK today.

As I also tried out the original Skypephone launched in October 2007 – what mobile operator 3 is now calling the 3 Skypephone S1 – I wanted to see what was different, what was new and what had improved.

It’s a pretty smart phone. If you want an immediate look at screens and packaging, take a stroll through this collection of photos I took when the phone arrived last week.

Rather than write a review, I decided to record a video of what I experienced with the 3 Skypephone S2, starting with a look at it, turning it on and going through its features.

You can read plenty of written reviews already, so this audio-visual review might add something a little different.

In the 28-minute video, I run through each of the major features showing how you interact with the phone, focusing on what you actually see and do when using its built-in applications or access services online – Skype, Windows Live Messenger, Facebook, Google mobile applications, RSS feeds, and more – as well as the mundane like manage contacts and create text messages.

My overall conclusion? It’s a terrific device, greatly improved on its predecessor in areas like usability and network connectivity, the latter a poor experience for me before.

As a phone, it works as you expect it should. Skype seems to work better than before, judging by the high quality of audio on Skype calls I made and received.

The only significant negative I experienced with the 3 Skypephone S2 concerned connecting the phone to my laptop PC when I wanted to see how the phone performed as a broadband modem.

In short, I couldn’t try that out as the phone and my PC – a Sony Vaio SZ4XWN/C running Windows Vista Business edition – just didn’t get on.

“Driver is not intended for this platform” was the key message in the error dialog that resulted each time I connected the phone to the PC via its USB cable.

I also tried to connect via Bluetooth, but the phone wouldn’t let me, insisting on the cable connection.

I have no idea why this error occurred, or what the error message actually means, as according to 3mobilebuzz the phone has all the drivers it needs to configure itself with Windows and Mac computers.

So I couldn’t try out the PC connectivity feature, and thus see how the phone worked as a the equivalent of a broadband dongle,  which was pretty disappointing.

Still, the 3 Skypephone S2 is a nice piece of kit. I think it will especially appeal to passionate users of the first-generation Skypephone who use it as their primarily mobile device and can now upgrade to a superior model.

Finally, a tech note about the video:

• Video recorded in native MPEG-2 with a Sony DCR-SR52 camcorder, sat on a Nokia DT-22 tripod.
• Edited with Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum Edition and output file saved in WMV format. File size about 385Mb.
• WMV file converted to FLV using Xilisoft Video Converter to a file size of just under 50Mb. I had intended to host the original (WMV) video on YouTube, forgetting that the maximum video length there is 10 minutes (what I produced runs at 28 minutes). So, for the time being at least, it’s being served from my own server. Update Aug 31: The video is now hosted at Vimeo. WMV uploaded and converted by Vimeo; it looks close to the original recorded quality.

Related post:

• [NevilleHobson.com] 3 Skypephone S2 hits the UK market