We haven't seen the Helio Ocean in person yet, but already we're curious about it's unique, sliding design. It has two discreet slides, one with a numeric keypad and one with a QWERTY keyboard, each sliding veritically and horizontally, respectively. Like the Sidekick 3 on T-Mobile, or the LG enV on Verizon Wireless, the Ocean is a QWERTY messaging phone without Windows Mobile, but the Ocean does pack some interesting e-email options, including ActiveSync support for Exchange servers, as well as a range of pre-sets for popular e-mail services, such as Gmail, Hotmail, AOL and Helio's own service, of course.
Helio is claiming a full HTML browser, and we're curious just how full they're talking, but we'll have to wait to get our hands on one before we know for sure. We expect full-page rendering, and Helio's Mini Map sounds like the tiny navigation window on the Nokia E-series Web browser, a mini version of the Web page that helps you scroll around large pages on the small screen.
The Ocean will also sport more music than we're used to from Helio, including support for Napster and Yahoo PlaysForSure subscription services. This, along with the Helio music store, gives Helio a double whammy for music, as subscription support and OTA downloads are rarely seen on a single phone. The phone includes 200MB of internal memory, which is admirable, and takes microSD cards, which may or may not include microSDHC cards up to 4GB and more. Helio seems to want to reserve judgment on the high-capacity cards until more have hit the market.
Other features include a 2.4-inch, 262,000 color QVGA display, an updated Helio OS to fit the new landscape modes, stereo speakers, a 2-megapixel camera, A2DP and a kitchen sink, for dishes and pans. The phone will appear in Helio stores within the next couple of months, and should retail for $295.
We'll have more about the Helio Ocean soon, including hands-on impressions and a full review.
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