Skype Journal: Hands on the Kensington Vo300 USB Speakerphone
October 4, 2006 10:04 AMI like the new USB speakerphone for Skype Kensington is shipping the United States. 
The Kensington Vo300 USB Internet Speakerphone (product code K33378US) is small, unassuming, very fast to set up, and tightly integrated with Skype for Windows XP, release 2.6 or later, MSRP $89.99.
Designed for laptop users so it emphasizes mobility. Just for scale, I took a snapshot of it on my stove (left). It's 5 inches wide (13 cm), 4-3/8 inch high(11 cm), and less than an inch thick (2.25 cm).
Kensington's distribution muscle will make this one of the most visible products in consumer electronics. Now at Amazon
Software.
I spoke with Frederic Frapperau, the Vo300's product manager. Software was the hard part to build. They nailed ease-of-setup; it took only a minute to install the blue CD's app. This program speaks to both your Skype client and the speakerphone, living in your Windows system tray. 
In a first, from what I can tell, this speakerphone not only opens your addressbook, but also your Call History tab and Skype voicemail. This is a great use of Skype's API. One effect: the phone can show all your contacts, even hundreds or thousands of them. You can jump through a long list of names using the letters on the numeric keypad.
The little "envelope" button lights up when you have Skype voicemail waiting.
The "plus" and "zero" symbols share a button and you need to use both for SkypeOut calls. If you hold the Zero down when you're dialing, it changes to a "+" sign.
The Windows software doesn't have a user interface beyond the system tray. Wishlist: automatic update, so the Vo300 can add new features and adapt to future changes in Skype and Skype's API.
The display text is large and simple, easy to read and uncluttered.
Headphone jacks.
You can plug an analog headset (ears and mic) into your speakerphone. 
There's a button on the front panel that toggles between speaker and headset so you don't need to unplug them.
Audio
The speaker is clear and sounds good, though not perfect. I find it's more than good enough for Skype-to-Skype conversations, a higher sound quality than mobile or landline phones. Jim says it's clearer than some of my headphones. I also wind up using the speaker to watch short videos instead of listening tethered to stereo headphones.
The range fits one person, maybe two, sitting in a 1.5 meter circle. An array microphone would have increased this range, but it would also have pushed the street price over $100.
Echo cancellation is great, better than most headsets. Frapperau says his Vancouver, BC, research lab benchmarked the Vo300's echo cancellation against the Polycom Communicator and came out ahead.
Unlike headphones which use two microphones, there is no ambient noise cancellation.
Skype Certification Pending
The product just finished final packaging, so it is now in Skype's queue for hardware certification.
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Comments (2)
This thing is so big i would never ever use it!!!
Posted by: Gonzalo at October 4, 2006 11:25 AM
But you still have to be connected to your PC via USB, right ? So unfortunate that it is not a stand-alone device.... Leo
Posted by: Leo F at October 4, 2006 12:24 PM