3 Skypephone S2 - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The 3 Skypephone S2 is a UMTS , GSM and VoIP mobile phone. The phone is the successor to 3 Skypephone

3 Skypephone

The 3 Skypephone is a UMTS , GSM and VoIP mobile phone. The phone is a joint product by Hutchison 3G and Skype.The 3 Skypephone S1 was the first in the 3 Skypephone Series to launch...

and the second phone from the 3 Skypephone Series

3 Skypephone Series

The 3 Skypephone series is a range of 3G mobile phones made as a global project by the 3 network. The project was initiated by the 3's global handset team, some of whom later went on to found the new mobile phone company INQ...

iSkoot

The 3 Skypephone S2 runs on the iSkoot for Skype platform to provide it's Skype service. On January 20, 2011, iSkoot for Skype announced that they have shut down. While Skype functionality works for some users, many users are greeted with the message: "Sorry, this version of Skype no longer works. Click here to see if there is an upgrade available for your phone" - no option is given to "Click Here" and the Skype functionality on the phone is essentially disabled.

No warning was given by Three and visiting the Three website shows they removed the Skypephone from their product offerings. This violates Three's own terms and conditions and the "Free Skype for life" promise leaving customers very angry and unable to use the arguably main functionality of this phone.

In the box

Handset
Battery 1150 mAh. (AH-02)
Battery cover.
Personal stereo hands free kit (via mini-USB connector).
USB cable.
Mains charger (USB connector).
CD–ROM for PC connection.
3 user guide.
Quick start guide for Skype.
Additional guides

Specifications

The specifications released are as follow:

Dimensions: 102.7 x 45 x 14mm
Weight: 95g
Display: 2.2in QVGA
Battery: 1150mAh
CPU: ARM variant as runs BREW operating system (see ARM architecture
ARM architecture
ARM is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by ARM Holdings. It was named the Advanced RISC Machine, and before that, the Acorn RISC Machine. The ARM architecture is the most widely used 32-bit ISA in numbers produced...

)
Memory: 50Mb onboard
External memory: Micro SD up to 4Gb
Camera: 3.2Mpx camera
HSDPA support: Up to 2.6Mbit/s
Additional features:
- HSDPA modem dongle
- Facebook application
- Many native Brew
  Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless
  Brew is an application development platform created by Qualcomm, originally for CDMA mobile phones, featuring third party applications such as mobile games. It is offered in some feature phones but not in smart phones...
  
  applications.
- RSS reader
- Stereo handsfree and USB cable included

The battery life is as follows:

Standby 320 hours
Talk Time 270 minutes
Video Talk Time 170

Supported functionality

Bluetooth stack with OBEX
OBEX
OBEX is a communications protocol that facilitates the exchange of binary objects between devices. It is maintained by the Infrared Data Association but has also been adopted by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group and the SyncML wing of the Open Mobile Alliance...

file transfer and A2DP support
Streaming video (can receive TV channels, watch movies or Youtube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....

over the 3G network)
Streaming audio
Free Skype-to-skype calls
E-mail
T9 dictionary
3.2Mpx camera
Video recording
Audio recording
MP3 player (can also play WMA
Windows Media Audio
Windows Media Audio is an audio data compression technology developed by Microsoft. The name can be used to refer to its audio file format or its audio codecs. It is a proprietary technology that forms part of the Windows Media framework. WMA consists of four distinct codecs...

and AAC
Advanced Audio Coding
Advanced Audio Coding is a standardized, lossy compression and encoding scheme for digital audio. Designed to be the successor of the MP3 format, AAC generally achieves better sound quality than MP3 at similar bit rates....

files)
Memory: 50Mb onboard
External memory: Micro SD up to 4Gb
PC Suite synchronization (With Vista support)
HSDPA support: Up to 2.6Mbit/s
HSDPA modem dongle
Podcasting with Mobilcast (unofficially supported)
Supports Java ME
Java Platform, Micro Edition
Java Platform, Micro Edition, or Java ME, is a Java platform designed for embedded systems . Target devices range from industrial controls to mobile phones and set-top boxes...

applications such as Opera Mini
Opera Mini
Opera Mini is a web browser designed primarily for mobile phones, smartphones and personal digital assistants. Until version 4 it used the Java ME platform, requiring the mobile device to run Java ME applications. From version 5 it is also available as a native application for Android, iOS, Symbian...

and many Java ME games.
Facebook always on application, change your status and easily access your profile, friends, inbox, pokes and more.
Charging via standard mini USB cable. (Though its own charging unit (wall plug) and USB to mini USB cable are included, any standard mini USB cable can be used to charge the skypephone in various locations or when traveling.)
Brew
Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless
Brew is an application development platform created by Qualcomm, originally for CDMA mobile phones, featuring third party applications such as mobile games. It is offered in some feature phones but not in smart phones...

games

Not supported functionality

Only Western Eu Latin Alphabets are supported, Cyrillic as used in Russian/Bulgarian and probably many other languages is not supported with all skype, web browser and text messages (SMS).

3 Skypephone S2x