Recently, the online marketing lead of Vopium contacted me, apparently from my many Skype / VOIP posts. Since Vopium is a Copenhagen based company and I like reviewing tech startups from Europe I decided to give it a shot even though a few reviews ago I stated that I would use Fring (with an SIP) and Skype to call aboard. I tested this on an iPhone.
I think the name rocks btw.
Vopium.
All signups get the first thirty minutes of calls free (more on this later) as well as 100 free sms (this one is very nice). So I signed up on the website and as promised they gave me two smses, one to click a link to bring me to the login page, and another with the username (which is your number) and your password. I didn’t like the password because I didn’t set it, and I had to remember a few letters, and for some reason it did not work on the website when I tried to log in? But whatever, the link brought me to a webpage with all the numbers on it, it looked alot like Fring, Skype, Truphone etc in terms of Interface, but it was not as the website said, a link to the App Store, which would be much nicer actually. But we’ll give Vopium the benefit of teh doubt as it just went on beta on February 2009.
So this review is based solely on a Web Interface. I tried searching for Vopium on the App Store but it was not there, and on the website it states that it was ready for the Netherlands, but apparently not in the Dutch App Store. Nonetheless, here’s what I think, totally unbias…
Sms: Despite the Web Interface, which I did not exactly like, I thought that the sms was decent, although I was not sure why the tiny words Austria was on the top left of the dial screen even though I was sending an sms to the Netherlands. I learnt that you could change the settings in the setting zone although I’m not sure why it was set that way because when I registered I registered it as the Netherlands as my default country. However, sending an sms worked great because I received the sms and it was sent “from the Netherlands and from my cell phone”, even though it was via the web, the UI was clean and fast and I received the sms fast as well. A slight integration to actually look into the contacts of the phone would be great, but maybe that was available as an actual app on the iPhone. So thumbs-up for it!
Calls: Well, I had some weird difficulty with this at first, because I’m not familiar with this as opposed to Skype. Alot of instructions on the screen for some reason, and I’m a software person so I’m used to it but I can’t imagine my mom even bothering to read the instructions. Vopium actually You pay your mobile provider for a local call and Vopium for the international add-on, its the same kind of structure many SIPs work on, like VoipStunt where you are able to call a local landline and then your call gets rerouted to a global traffic carrier. However, the bad thing is, my default country was set as Austria, and what my phone did was call a +43 number which definitely is not a dutch number! Super bad! It made me uneasy so I didn’t bother trying to make the call to test the call quality.
So what do I think. I think Vopium is an okay piece of software which requires a little bit more polish. However, they are offering a nice interface (web at least) which many SIPs like VoipBlaster are not offering thus far. The set-up required more work (passwords which didn’t work) and the defaults for the users need to be set right as well.
Otherwise, the sms works very nice and I liked it alot. The call quality I cannot determine (as yet) because I prefer to make my calls over WiFi and not via my carrier T-Mobile because I think T-Mobile offers too little minutes for my plan, and the default settings of Austria is kind of creepy because I think I just made an International call, as a user you don’t want to feel that way.
Would I use this product again? Well, ye, but only for SMS. Maybe once the real app is out and the link I press does not lead me only to the Web Interface would I give this another shot.
Check it out: here for the trial.
