MiniSkype

MiniSkype facilitates simple options for quickly getting in touch with your Skype contacts. It lets you make calls, send messages, change your status, and update your mood text.
Although the application's name may suggest otherwise, it still requires Skype installed in order to run.

Simple setup and plain-looking interface

Setting up MiniSkype is a speedy job that requires minimal user intervention. Once it's launched, you are welcomed by a standard windows with a plain and simple structure, which shows all options provided by the app.

Make calls, send messages, change your status, and update your mood

Skype should be running when using MiniSkype. You can type a contact's name to make a call, type or paste a message and send it, change your status to Online, Invisible, Away, Offline, or Do Not Disturb, as well as write new text to update your mood with one click.
Apart from the fact that you can open and exit Skype using two buttons from the window, there are no other notable options available here.

Evaluation and conclusion

There were no stability issues in our tests, thanks to the fact that the utility didn't hang, crash or prompt error messages. Unsurprisingly, it didn't put a strain on the overall performance of the computer, running on low CPU and memory.
On the other hand, MiniSkype is equipped with some pretty basic features and doesn't contain more advanced options that would extend Skype's functionality. Therefore, it feels troublesome to install another app that can perform the same actions as Skype, especially when taking into account the Skype is pretty intuitive on its own.
However, we should also keep in mind that MiniSkype hasn't been updated for a long time, and this is only its first revision, so it might receive improvements in the near future.