Helio Ocean Reviewer's Comments
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The Helio Ocean is an innovative device that incorporates a large 2.4 screen, full QWERTY keyboard and 0-9 numeric pad. The Ocean will play a variety of audio formats. It includes a messaging hub, instant MySpace access and 200 MB of internal memory. With the Ocean, there is no excuse to be disconnected.
Helio Ocean Screenshots. Click to Enlarge
Music Features:
The Helio Ocean can support multiple audio formats including MP3, WMA, AAC and AAC+. Additional features include playlists, shuffle and repeat, six preset equalizer settings and the ability to stream.
You can download songs through your computer or directly over the Internet on to the phone. One disappointing feature associated with the Ocean’s music features is that you can only download songs from Helio’s music store. We found that although their selection is comprehensive they still don’t have as many titles as some of the larger providers; additionally, tracks cost $1.99, that’s twice the price of iTunes.
Voice/ Text Features:
The Ocean incorporates basic voice features including 3-way calling, voice dialing and speakerphone. Although it supports 3G, it was disappointing to see the Heilo operates on a CDMA network and is not quad-band. Therefore, this phone cannot be used outside the U.S.
Many of Helio’s plans come with unlimited text, pics, Internet and more. Plans start at $65 a month for only 500 minutes.
Our largest concern with this phone lies in its network. Helio is still a starter company and while they may receive great reception and have few call problems in larger cities, we are afraid that they may not be great for customers in rural areas.
Internet Features:
The Helio Ocean has a full Internet browser that allows you to surf the web and view full HTML pages and emails. Out of the box the phone is preloaded with instant messaging access through Yahoo! Messenger, AIM and Windows Live. You can also download your preferred IM application if you like. Additionally, your contacts are synced with your messenger and you can see who in your contacts list is signed on and which messenger they are using.
The Ocean is one of the few music phones we reviewed that also included productivity tools. They include the Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync software that allows you to sync your phone to MS Office Outlook, calendar and contacts from a corporate exchange server; which allows this phone to double as a fun phone and a business phone.
Lifestyle Tools:
This is where Helio shines. Built into the user interface is a direct link to MySpace, you can use the Buddy Beacon GPS program to locate all of your friends and with the 2.0 mega pixel camera, you can take pictures and directly load them on to the Helio Album—Helio’s photo service. The camera also works as a video recorder and the flash doubles as a flashlight.
The Ocean also includes a built-in video player that supports MPEG4 and H.264 files. Additionally it has a voice memo recorder.
Technical Specifications:
This is the first phone to include both a QWERTY and numeric key pad. Its special three-tiered design allows you to use this phone in just about anyway you choose. It also includes 200MB of internal memory for music and video storage, and is equipped with a memory expansion slot.
Ocean’s large 2.4-inch color display includes 260K color and 240 x 320 resolution, and easily switches between landscape and portrait view. However, due to its unique design, the Helio Ocean is one of the largest and bulkiest music phones we reviewed at .86 inches thick and 5.6 ounces.
Wow Score:
The Helio Ocean has one of the most unique designs in the cellular phone industry, taking the need for numbers and letters and placing them separately in the phone. If you slide the display up, the numeric pad is reveled, slide it sideways, and there is a full keyboard.
Incorporating a full web browser and access to all Internet pages, as well as social network functions, make this phone perfect to those trying to balance business and fun.
Summary:
The Ocean’s unique and intriguing design, as well as its ability to market to teens and young adults, make it a stiff competitor among the phones from larger, better known companies.
©2008 TopTenREVIEWS, Inc.
