The Skype client has been customised for use on the 3 network and has had 2 of it’s most useful features removed, namely SkypeIn (your choice of numbers in many countries so your callers only pay local charges) and SkypeOut (cheap calls to loads of countries), despite this I have found in invaluable.

On Pay As You Go you get 30 days of Skype usage (up to about 60 hours worth) with each £10 top you activate. Calls to landlines and mobiles are charged at 12p per minute and texts are also 12p. They have a range of add-ons, including TV, Internet, and Mobile Broadband. I mostly use the phone this way, but when I expect that I will be making a lot of calls I buy a Stretch pack for £15 which gives me 300 minutes any network any time and an additional 100 minutes of 3 to 3 minutes. If the 300 minutes run out you can continue to make calls at 5p per minute until the 30 days runs out.

My only reservation so far has been regarding talk time which does seem to run out sooner than I would like, though it does charge via a USB (Mini B to A) cable so this has never really been an issue for me. This handset works with everything I have connected it to (ie used it a a Bluetooth modem with my iBook), in fact the only problem I have had is getting it to sync with iSync which is notoriously finicky about new products.

For the money (£39.99) it is easy to recommend, though I will probably end up replacing it with a Sony Ericsson or Nokia handset sometime in the near future for the sake of compatibility with iSync.