I had high hopes for this Polycom conference phone as the products that I've used from them in the past have been excellent. The sound quality of the Polycom Trio 8500 was extremely poor (digitised and choppy) using Skype unless the mute was activated. I tried Polycom's support line to troubleshoot the problem but without success and ended up replacing the unit under warranty. Unfortunately, the replacement unit had exactly the same problem so will be returned as well. I'll be going with an alternative solution.