3G Skypephone to be sold by 3

The long awaited GSM-enabled Skypephone has just been officially announced by Skype and the "3" mobile operator. The Skypephone is a 3G mobile phone that lets you make free Skype to Skype calls (video calls too) and send free Skype instant messages from your mobile to other Skype users. It also has all the standard functionality of a mobile phone.

3 Skypephone offers more than a free Skype to Skype calls - based on the Qualcomm BREW platform it also sports a bunch of modern features as a 2-megapixel camera, mp3 player, mobile TV and internet, as well as Java 3D games. The Skypephone is colored in shiny white with blue trim. A white-with-red-trim and a black version will also be available to suit different preferences of the consumers.

The 3 Skypephone will be available in either black or white with two different trims

The information is displayed on the 2-inch 262K TFT display with 176 x 220 pixels resolution. You can store images and other files on the main memory, however since it's only 16MB capacity, you would better off throwing in microSD cards (up to 1GB is maximum supported). Receiving files is possible trough Bluetooth, but Wi-Fi is not within the options of the device. The phone is made to be actively used, that is why it draws its power from a large 1150 mAh Li-ion battery.

The lack of Wi-Fi is not the only flaw of the device, the other one is that the Skypephone does not support Skype Out service and hence there is no way to make low-cost long-distance call via your Skype account.

The Skypephone will be sold exclusively by "3" in the UK, Australia, Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong, Italy, Ireland, Macau and Sweden. UK will be first to get the handset as soon as November 2nd.

The Skype to Skype calls will be free as long as the Skypephone is used with contract or on pay-as-you-go which is topped up monthly. In the UK, the 3 Skypephone will be available at the cost of GBP 49.99 on a pay-as-you-go tariff or free on a contract.