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Friday February 6, 2009
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When you walk into a Verizon Wireless store to plunk down $199.99 (after the $50 rebate) for the new Verizon Hub, some of your hard-earned cash is going to pay for the VoIP phone / media hub's stylish packaging, which is strikingly similar to those sleek and sturdy Apple iPhone boxes.
Removed from its slick housing, though, the Hub's appearance does its box justice. Our Hub arrived in two boxes, with the base, handset and accessories in the larger box.
More unboxing after the jump.
A power cord, stylus, and Ethernet cable ship with the Hub as well.
A smaller box contains a secondary handset and docking station ($79.99, purchased separately) for use elsewhere in the home.
The touchscreen makes setup a breeze: The device prompts you to configure basic settings such as network selection shortly after powering on the device. PCMag.com lead analyst Sascha Segan spent some time with the device last month--see his Hands On with the Verizon Hub for initial impressions, and check back with PCMag.com in the coming weeks for a full review.
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February 6, 2009 4:34 PM
Is Sascha hot? Nice name.
February 6, 2009 4:43 PM
Not my type, but yeah, I guess so.
http://www.pcmag.com/category2/0,2806,2086722,00.asp
March 9, 2009 9:34 AM
I don't think it is really worth it. I guess i am spoiled because i get alot from my VOIP provider (Globallinx)
if you are paying more than 25 to 30 per month, you are paying too much. If you are paying for calling outside of the country, you are probably getting rip off. Please look into your options. Verizon is betting that people are not going to get educated on what options are out there, that are more affordable.
I use Globalinx for 29.99 per month... Not only do i have unlimted local and long distance to the US, Canada, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands... I also get calling to the UK, Italy, France, Spain,China, Australia, Portugal, and Ireland. (we are about to add Sweden, Nigeria, South Korea, Norway, and Finland) ... I can also make a very smooth (non-choppie) video call to my neices and my grandparents from anywhere in the world.
I went out of the country, took my videophone with me. When i got to the hotel, i plug it up to there internet and i had by US number there in the hotel. The VideoPhone will change the way we communicate.
And on top of all that, the video phone is cheaper then Verizon HUB and i don't have to have verizon wireless service to get it. Check it out
http://www.globalinx.com/?bNew=True&strRIN=L356818
Ryan -
www.5linx.net/t3
March 30, 2009 8:47 PM
The hub is long on cost and short on usable features. The company can't help but lard up the bill with fees and taxes (Fed Universal Service Charge for one). So your 34.99 is actually higher...my first bill had a $6.10 Universal charge (the company claims this is for a month and a half). Also, the company snuck in a $4 per month insurance charge for the hub. For what they charge for the thing they should replace it for free forever!
The touch screen is tempermental, and the phone itself occasionally loses its mind and needs to be rebooted. I thought that attaching hardwire would eliminate the need for reboots, but not completely. If you run it wirelessly, you may not be able to go a week or more without reboot.
They can't get the 911 stuff to work right. They keep calling me and sending me text messages assuring me they are working on it. But right now, they can't set up the 911.
Speaking of the text messages, while the phone is supposedly in the wireless family, it isn't a full fledged member. You can't send a text email to the hub (vtext.com) the same way you can to the real wireless #. Apparently they are working on that.
The directories (white and yellow pages) are really worthless. They are hard to use, and they try to force your hub's local context into the search for anything. Real heavy handedness here makes it pretty useless unless you are only looking for things right near where lives the hub. (DUMB).
The navigator integration with the cell phone is interesting and works OK, but I have had the cell phone kind of freak when trying to go to the addresses sent to it from the hub. Also, the Navigator had trouble downloading GPS for those addresses at times.
Call quality is generally ok. The speakerphone doesn't have enough volume to use for any length of time, so I mostly use the cordless handset with a wired headset. This is mostly ok except for occasional echo back. The handset is a bit weird in a tactile sense when dialing, but it isn't unmanageable.
All in all, right now, I'd say the old voicewing was a better value.
April 10, 2009 8:50 AM
I'm not a techie, so perhaps I'm missing something major, but I fully expected this device to be a video phone. I was going to purchase one for the folks and one for me so I could see them 'real time' as we chatted as I don't get the chance to visit very often. All the other features on this device are not important to me. Did I miss something, does it have videophone capabilities?