MagicJack Review: My First Call & Latency Test

With my phone number in hand, I picked up my phone and heard a dial tone. I was ready to make my first call. I decided to call my current land line (now connected to a second phone nearby).

[ - ] One irritating aspect of phone calls: You always have to dial the area code, even for local (same area code) calls.

Once I realized that area code issue, my call went through. My land line phone rang.

Voice quality was OK to very good. No drop outs that I could tell. There was a slight hiss in the background, but it was noticeable only because I was listening for it. Overall, there was a difference in voice quality compared to my original land line -- but you had to listen pretty hard for it, and it wasn't that bad. I'd compare the VOIP voice quality to a very good cell phone connection.

[ + ] I guess my initial impression was that if I didn't know I was plugged into the MagicJack, I probably wouldn't have realized I was using VOIP instead of a conventional land line.

Next was the latency test, in which I got a volunteer to count to 10 with me on the phone. Obviously, with any sound communication you'll get a delay from speaker to listener, and we were definitely not in sync; like a quarter-second to half-second off when couting together. However, we were very close, and it was difficult to tell whether the latency was caused by our inability to count together to begin with.

[ + ] Bottom line was that latency, while present, wouldn't be an issue at all. It really felt and sounded like a regular phone call. It was a good first start.