Nextadvisor's magicJack review: VoIP on the cheap

Posted by kent on January 21st, 2010

MagicJack has generated a number of questions from NextAdvisor visitors and it's piqued our interest as well. We've seen the little money-saving device on infomercials, and even while in line at the drugstore, leading us to wonder if it's the Snuggie of the VoIP world. It's not exactly a VoIP substitute. The magicJack is like Vonage as much as a hang glider is like an airplane: they do basically the same thing, but you'd never use them for the same purpose. If Vonage and its ilk are land line replacements, magicJack is more of a landline or cell phone supplement.

It's a tiny device that plugs into your computer's USB port, something that's technically called a "dongle." It's about the size of a Zippo lighter, but nowhere near as sturdy. It has a plastic chrome body with a clear plastic top that let's you see the magic inside. One end plugs into your USB port on an Internet-connected computer. The other has a standard telephone jack for the phone of your choice. It's highly portable, and it has the magicJack software built in so it can be plugged into almost any computer (Intel-based Macs or PCs running XP, Vista, or Windows 7). MagicJack stores your account information with the device, so you can use the service on multiple computers.

Once connected, the software loads and you begin the setup process. If you ordered your magicJack through the magicJack website then you've already entered your credit card info and you'll be starting your 30-day free trial. You cannot port a pre-existing number over to magicJack; you'll have to use the one they give you.

You dial numbers using either your handset or the magicJack application, a small window that contains a dial pad, call log, and, rather unfortunately,  an ever-changing slew of ads for other magicJack products. According to magicJack's terms of service, phone numbers that you call may be analyzed by magicJack's ad software to deliver more relevant ads to you. You cannot close this program and still receive calls, though you can hide the window. It will reappear when you receive a call or dial on your handset.

This is ultimately magicJack's biggest limitation and why it's no substitute for traditional phone or VoIP service. You must have the program open and your computer must be running and Internet connected. MagicJack "solves" this problem by preventing your computer from going to sleep, something you may or may not want. However, if your magicJack is not connected, calls are routed to your magicJack voicemail so you won't lose any calls. Those voicemails are sent right to your email, so you can listen to messages from your mail reader.

The call quality seems to vary. We used a cordless phone to connect to magicJack. Though our call was only across town, our recipient (who was on a landline) said we sounded like we were in another country. It wasn't interference so much as a deadened, far-away sound. A call to a city further away had better performance. When we used a cel phone to call our magicJack phone, we noticed a lot of compression—-a problem with using two pieces of voice compression technology. It seems to be like that for magicJack: quality is highly dependent on many conditions.

Your call quality will be affected by the speed of both your network and your machine. We had less problem with call quality on our dual-processor MacBook Pro, even while simultaneously downloading an MP3 album from eMusic, watching two shows on Hulu, and downloading an HD trailer from Apple (though the latter took a bit of a hit). On our single-processor 2.2GHZ Toshiba PC with 2GB of RAM, we had more trouble with audio, including crashes and interruptions when we tried multi-tasking.

magicJack is one of those products that's not designed to improve on the quality of an existing technology, but to make that technology cheaper. Next to just about every other VoIP technology, it's the cheapest way to make unlimited phone calls in the US and Canada. magicJack doesn't have to be great, because it's so cheap:

After the 30-day trial you'll be charged $39.95 for the first year (plus $6.95 for shipping). And that's all you'll pay for unlimited calls inside the United States or Canada. You can renew a single year for $19.95, or five years for $69.95 (meaning you pay about $13 a year). International calls are billed at a discounted rate (their rate-chart is incredibly cryptic, with some countries having 10 or more alternate rates), but you must pre-purchase credits from magicJack.

Should you purchase magicJack? It depends on what your calling habits are and whether or not you can deal with the advertising. We don't think that it will ever be a phone replacement for most people, and your mileage will vary based on your home computer setup. The good thing is that it's pretty risk free to find out. If you don't like magicJack you can return it for a full refund within 30 days. You'll have to pay return shipping charges, of course.