Skypephone thoughts...

Three colour options, very good idea!

It just struck me how good an idea it is that the 3 Skypephones will come in three different colours.  Sure, many phone models come in different flavours but not always at launch.  And sure there's usually a wide array of fascias but then they're often really expensive (genuine) or cheap and nasty (fake or simply just rubbish).

What's so good about having different colour options?  Simple, as I've said before, these would be ideal for families and you simply can't have a bunch of phones that look exactly the same lying around the house!

Mini USB for both charging and headphones, not such a good idea!

Don't get me wrong, I like the simplicity of having just the one socket on the device and mini USB is ideal.  However, I can't be the only person in the world that's ever listened to the music on their phone whilst charging it.  I'm probably not the only person to fall asleep whilst listening to the music either.  Sometimes I'll even choose to listen to something in order to get to sleep (believe me, if you're ever stayed in a hostel and the girl in the next bunk is gnawing her teeth for hours and there's no end in sight you'll need all the help you can get getting to the land of nod!)  But you can't listen that long without charging.  Nobody wants to wake up with a dead battery or have to wait for it to charge before they go out.

Bluetooth stereo audio support (aka A2DP), ummm, good idea!

This kinda makes up for the last point.  Okay, you're likely to run down your earphones instead of the handset but still a really cool option that is pretty damn good on a phone at such a low price point (£49.99 PAYG is low, 'free' on contract, even lower!)

I've actually got a pair of Sony bluetooth earphones (very cheap, found thanks to a post on the bargain forum over at The DVD Forums) and they don't work properly on my Nokia N73 even though it's a good deal more expensive and feature packed than 3's Skypephone.

I've not received my review pair yet so I can only go on what I've read, the specs and the online manual that's provided - as far as I can see there's just the one camera.  That camera seems very good for the price but unfortuantely, at least for video calls, it's on the wrong side of the phone.  Skype video would've seemed like an excellent future addition and a great headline feature.  Normal 3G calls may still be possible though, just like they were on Nokia's 6630 - you'll just need to talk whilst looking at a mirror!