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RTX Dualphone 3088 Review

Author	Andrew 'Spode' Miller
Published	18th Dec 2006
Manufacturer	RTX
Supplier	savastore.com
Price	£76.62 (Exc VAT)
as reviewed	£88.11 (Inc VAT)
Latest Price	Click here

Design & Features
Performance
Value
Overall

7 comments Email

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There does seem to be general consensus that Skype is the best thing since Sporks were invented. In our office, people regularly make calls all over the world, both Skype to Skype, as well as Skype Out (to standard lines). I haven't had quite as much luck, with intermittent performance when trying to contact my parents in Italy. Much of this, I believe can be blamed on NTL and my World of Warcraft loving house mates, but that is hardly an uncommon combination and does prove that you can't always rely on Skype.

We've seen our fair share of Skype phones come in and out of the office, but none of them have quite hit the spot for me. Although the Netgear and SMC have come close, as these don't require a computer – just a WiFi connection. But these can't do standard land line phone calls, so you'd be carrying two phones around the house. Although the VoSKY starts to go in the right direction, using a standard telephone for connectivity, this lacks portability and requires connecting to your PC via USB.

With models as cheesy as the ones above, this phone has to be good – right? The RTX Dualphone 3088 doesn't require a PC, doesn't require wireless, and gives you a cordless phone that will place Skype calls as well as standard land line calls.

The base unit is where most of the action happens. Into this, you plug in an Ethernet cable which connects to a switch or modern combination router. A telephone cable can also be plugged in (although of course, not mandatory), for land line use. These two reasons mean that keeping this unit near your ADSL router makes sense – as hopefully there is where your phone line connection is, and your corresponding Ethernet connection.

The unit itself uses a Conexant CX8101 ARM processor, which is a fairly powerful CPU that coupled with other VoIP specific processors on the PCB help turn our voices in to that digital stream that costs us so little.

Communication between the phone and the base unit is the standard DECT communication, which has not been used in a Skype phone yet. One of the benefits of DECT is that using a single base unit, you can have multiple handsets. At this stage, I don't think this is the case for the RTX Dualphone 3088, but it will apparently be added in with a new firmware release.

Latest 4 of 7 Comments

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Rinfrance said on 15th September 2008

I have had mine for a while now, the updates all worked automatically, and the machine works quite well. The received audio is a bit down or maybe its the position I hold it but pu... more

Mark Stronge said on 22nd June 2009

Does this phone have backlighting on the keypad?

Ian Johnson said on 1st August 2009

This phone is quite honestly a piece of junk, after initial purchase the first thing i noticed was that caller display would vanish, the only way to get it back was to reboot the b... more

Mark Stronge said on 8th October 2009

I bought this phone and have been using it for a few months. It has worked flawlessly and the menu is excellent. No backlight on the keypad but screen is very good and clear to rea... more

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