This is one of the most quirky gadgets I've seen in a long time. The Pop Phone designed by Native Union looks incredibly modern but with a retro 50's spin. I am nowhere near old enough to have ever of used one of these styled telephones so it was nice to sort of use one now.
It comes in fourteen vibrant colours and each is built superbly well. The overall construction is brilliant and not one screw is in sight, the attention to detail Native Union puts into it's products is very Apple like. The whole phone is coated in a soft touch rubbery material which feels very pleasant against the face and makes it easy to hold.
The Pop Phone is compatible with the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, Computers and many other mobile phones. It uses the 3.5mm jack for input, I'd have preferred it to be wireless but that would mean no 50's telephone chord which is ridiculously fun to play with in and out of calls.
I've used it with the iPhone and it works tremendously well. You can function the device this is plugged into via a button that is located within the handset which accepts calls. I also gave this a go on my Mac to use in conjucntion with Skype, it worked well and elemited any echo as the audio wasn't being played through the speaker on the Mac.
Call quality is very good, it gives clear audio and is nice and loud too. Of course you wouldn't want to listen to music via this but we did go ahead and test this out and it performed like any other phone waiting at a call centre. The microphone is brilliant, it delivers deep, big audio and also has noise reduction built in which does a good job. I can't quite put my finger on it but something about taking a phone call using Pop Phone is boldly satisfying, I'm nowhere near brave enough to use this out and about but within the house I am finding myself taking calls with it regularly.
The Native Union Pop Phone isn't going to be for everyone but it's hard not to fall for its fun charm.