PolycomCommunicator C100S USB Speakerphone for Skype-Grey

I was tired of using a headset, especially when we wanted to have a webcam session with our parents to show them their grandchildren. Having used Polycom speakerphones at work 6 hours a day I thought I would see if they had a device for the home user. And sure enough they do and it only cost around $100!The Polycom Communicator is packaged in a plastic mould within a box. Thankfully the plastic wasn't heatsealed around the edge like most PC accessories these days, so within seconds it was in my hot little hands. I was surprised how light it felt for a solid built device. Size wise it was just smaller than my hand and about 3/4 of inch thick.Accompanying the device was a nicely made wallet to store it in while traveling, the customary manual and setup CD, and a voucher for 30mins of Skypeout call time (which I thought was cool at the time but later discovered this was 30mins of cheap rates and represented about 54c of Skype credit. Oh well, it was the thought that counted).The Communicator has five buttons: one for starting Skype, two for volume, one for calling/hanging up and one for mute. The buttons are surrounded by a ring that glows when you are making or receiving a call. It has a headset jack on the side for private calls. At the back is a flap which, when opened reveals a USB cable which is neatly stowed. The flap itself serves as a prop-up stand as you can see in the picture. Being USB powered is great because it means no unnecessary power cords and no need for a power socket.Installing the software proved a little more difficult than I anticipated. The setup CD would just not work and kept coming up with a message that it couldn't find a file which as it happened was on the CD, just in a different folder. I copied all the files from all the folders into one folder on my hard drive and ran it from there and it worked no problem. Setup was very painless and quick from thereon.Having got it all setup I plugged it in, fired up Skype (which recognized the device automatically), did a test call with no hassle, and then called my mother. The call was crystal clear with no echo or feedback. My mother said it was very clear and noise free at her end too. As we talked for 20mins it became hard to believe that this little device was even there. It was like talking to her in the same room.All in all I am really happy with this device and think it is great value for money. My only complaints are the setup CD and the fact it is only compatible with Skype (I am a big yahoo messenger user too), but these are small niggles in an otherwise excellent product. Congratulations Polycom!!!

I had been using an MVox MV100 and Skype as my primary work phone. I got it for only $9.99; it did an admirably job the last couple months. But the frequency range of 500-5000 Hz sometimes made it hard to hear everyone well. Even when I could understand them, they would sound unnatural. Since I typically spend hours on conference calls every week, I thought I would invest in a better device. The MV100 already does noise cancellation and full duplex, the main thing I looked for is a large range.Like many, I have had positive experience with Polycom conference phones. So after reading all the positive reviews, I ordered the C100S. Since my primary machine runs Windows XP, support for other platforms is not a factor for me. So far I must say that the 200-22000 Hz range is amazing! It sounds unbelievable if both ends use Skype. Even when the other end uses a regular phone, the improvement is still very noticeable. The microphone also works better than the MVox as long as the Polycom software is running. I also like the buttons on the devices; they are handy but not a big improvement over the Skype hot keys I was already using.I took off one star only because the software did not run on my machine at first; I almost returned the unit. But since I am a techie and since it did work on my wife's machine, I dug deeper into what happened. It turned out that the installer somehow failed where it should register the USB components. After I went through those steps manually, everything worked beautifully.I am using the "latest" software (version 2.1) released on 2007/9/17. This is the first version that is not specified to be for Windows XP only; maybe it does work on Vista now. Perhaps Vista users should give that a try.*** Update on 9/5/2011At long last, Polycom released a new AEC driver to support Vista and Windows 7 in June. I tried it on 64-bit Windows 7. Installation was a breeze and it worked great. It is a shame that Polycom took so long to provide the update. It must have alienated most of the C100S customers. I switched to ClearOne Chat 60 when I moved to Windows 7. But now that I can compare them side-by-side, the C100S sound quality is still unmatched!

We are using Skype more and more at work, and I very happy with the headset that I use. But my boss refuses to use a headset so I purchased the C100S speakerphone for him. It worked well, but I now realize it is not the best solution, and we no longer use it.You can buy a camera (and if necessary an external speaker) for <half> the price of a C100S and it can sit on top of your display freeing up desk space. I was not familiar with how cheap and high quality cameras (and the associated microphone and software) were. And you don't have to use the video, you can make a "sound only" Skype call.But more importantly, all speaker phones (including C100S) have a feature which cuts off soft sounds and amplifies loud ones. This form of intentional distortion was necessary with the poor phone lines that Ma Bell had but is counterproductive and unnecessary today. For example there is sometimes construction going on outside our offices and with the C100S it comes though as if the jackhammers were right in our building; at other times words spoken very softly can be completely cut off. On a long call these problems become quite noticeable and quite annoying. With the logitech video camera all sounds are passed though, softly or loudly as the case may be, a far more desirable situation.So for me the C100S was an interesting experiment, but ultimately unsuccessful. Oh, well, live and learn...

Very satisfies..

Super

Good product...expensive though.

A pity a polycom device does not support Mac!

Foolishly thought it would work on my PC because the one owned by a colleague did. Bad idea.