New version of Skype for Windows Mobile at long last
We love us some Skype on jkOnTheRun, Kevin and I were in a Skype chat when word of a new beta version of the VoIP software for Windows Mobile came over the wire. Skype for Windows Mobile has been a long time sitting at the same version so this new beta version 2.5 is welcome news. Skype claims the usual improvements with this new version:
- Improved sound quality
- Better stability
- Familiar Skype interface
There are versions for both Windows Mobile Standard and Pro and according to Skype calls can be made using either WiFi or 3G connections. I wonder if this new version is gentler on battery life than the older one? If anyone has tried it and can let us know please do.
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It’ll be interesting to see how well this version works.
One of my long term complaints about Skype on WM has been how resource hungry it is. Now, with the 400Mhz and 530Mhz processor phones its not that much of a problem, but on the older ones with 200mhz chips, it was pretty unusable, unless you overclocked it.
Another was as you mentioned, a heavier drain on battery life which can be bad enough with wifi / 3g running.
I’ve used it on my Treo Pro a bit. The voice quality is greatly improved when compared with the previous version, but is still very poor over 3G. There is a lot of dropped data which leads to very choppy audio for both parties. For text chat, however, Skype has one of the best Windows Mobile interfaces out there. Even group chat is handled very well, and the interface works great with D-pad navigation. Some of the UI elements are so small that they’re not very finger-friendly. Audio is still output via the speaker rather than the earpiece, so a headset is probably a requirement.
I have not had a chance to try it on WiFi, but to be honest, anywhere I’m close to WiFi, I usually have my 2710p, and would much rather use Skype on it. For voice calls on my phone, I’ll just use the phone since I don’t make international calls and have plenty of minutes available.