More than a messaging phone, this dual-slider from Helio packs multimedia galore and even some smartphone capabilities. Should you slide one into your pocket?
Review summary of the Helio Ocean:
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 The updates to the Helio Ocean don't address most of our concerns, but we didn't have many to begin with. The video performance is still lagging, evident in the new, impressive YouTube app. The camera is still sub-par. But the Garmin Mobile app for navigation is a real mapping tool, better than Google Maps. And, we liked the improved Buddy Beacon, even though we wish for Facebook integration through the rest of the phone. All in all, the Ocean might be a little large for phones these days, but it gets even more impressive as Helio continues to improve it. Release: May 2007. Price: $200.
Pros: Upload YouTube videos taken with the phone. Excellent address book. Great messaging section. Able Web browsing. Strong GPS sensor.
Cons: Disappointing video performance. Some reception issues. Keyboard a bit cramped. Lousy camera. Google maps can't navigate for drivers.
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Full Helio Ocean Review:
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Design – Very Good
Sliders are catching on, and we've even seen the dual-slider before, but nothing quite like the Ocean. The mechanism is very smooth and the slide clicks into place with a satisfying snap. Opened vertically as a phone, the device seems bigger than it is, probably thanks to its thick waistline. But as a QWERTY slider, the phone seems thinner, and in fact the Ocean is smaller in every dimension than our Palm Treo 700p. Instead of going for shiny surfaces and touch sensitive buttons that appear from nowhere, Helio and Pantech have gone for a simpler design that exudes a well-built feeling.
The keys could use some rethinking. The numeric keypad is heavily curved to follow the pill-shaped lines of the device. They weren't bad, but we never got used to the weird angle of the "7-8-9" row. For the QWERTY keyboard, it was the top row of keys, which jammed up against the shelf of the slide, that gave us trouble. The bottom rows were very comfortable, however, and Helio has made some smart design choices with the keyboard. The @ symbol gets its own key, and alt-@ gives you a "/," which kind of makes sense. Everything seems very well placed, and we never found ourselves digging into the symbol menu.
The screen on the Ocean is clear and bright, a large 2.4-inch QVGA display. Menus are classic Helio, so expect some polished icons and a snappy color scheme. We think Helio's menus are a bit too democratic, we would like to see some functions get bumped to the top, but navigating the luscious interface is a pleasure.
Calling – Very good
Calls from the Ocean sound very good, and it packs most of the features we like to see. Reception on Helio's MVNO in lower Manhattan often dwindled to two bars, and in the Maryland suburbs we occasionally dipped out completely. Still, when reception was good, calls sounded clean. The phone features a loud speakerphone, Bluetooth for hands free calls, and conference calling that wasn't too difficult to set up. The lack of voice dialing is disappointing. However, the address book handling on the Ocean is of the same quality as a Windows Mobile smartphone. From the standby screen, you can begin typing a contact name, and the Ocean will search live, while you type. From the numeric pad, the Ocean will search for all the number and letter combinations it can find in you address book, which we found very intelligent. In fact, if you type a word not in your address book, the Ocean begins a widespread search for your term on the Web, checking Google, Yahoo and Wikipedia.
Though Helio doesn't include any transfer software, it is possible to synchronize your address book with your Ocean. Helio has a special Web site that gives you access to your Helio e-mail and address book, and this site synchronizes with your Ocean periodically. In theory, you can convert your address book to a comma separated values (.csv) file, a common format that Outlook should have been able to handle. Unfortunately, Helio's site choked on our file, and claimed it was corrupted. Company reps suspect the culprit is an errant characters in our contact list. We managed to upload a small selection of contacts, but Helio technicians are still poring over our larger list. In any case, we still appreciate the online backup for an address book, and this option, combined with the promised ActiveSync Exchange synchronization that Helio claims is forthcoming, means that the Ocean is a messaging phone that is clearly trying to stick its foot into the door of the smartphone mansion. In our battery tests, we managed a 5.5 hour phone call, which is better than promised, but we'd like a few more hours, please.
Messaging – Very good
It is not just the Helio's range of messaging options that make it an able messaging device, it is the organization of all of the messaging platforms on the Ocean onto one clear, easy to read and colorful page that makes it a pleasure to use. A wealth of pre-loaded e-mail protocols for popular services like Yahoo, AOL and Windows Live come packaged with their respective IM clients. GMAIL is available for e-mail, but not chat, or you can row your own boat and enter any IMAP4 or POP3 server.
We would have liked some threaded conversation options for e-mail and SMS, and of course we're longing for HTML-based e-mail on mobile devices, but these features would be extraordinary at this point. At the least, we are disappointed that the fantastic address book integration we saw from the standby screen doesn't reach the messaging apps, as it does with Palm OS and Windows Mobile e-mail and messaging programs. We also miss folders on the SMS client, especially the sent folder for message copies.
The keypad on the Ocean is very comfortable, and even with the cramped top row, typing was very easy. We would have liked a larger space bar, but the keyboard as a whole was spread nice and wide and the gentle curve gave our hands more comfortable placement.
Camera – Mediocre
Oh, Helio, not you, too?! We're pretty tired of cameras on phones that don't measure up. The Ocean's lens is slightly more pleasant than many other phones we've seen, but the scale starts pretty low these days. Helio UP is a cool service that allows you to upload your photos to an online server, accessible from Helio's own MySpace client. Still, with photos that look like these, we'd only see ourselves using the camera for celebrity sightings and the like.
Video – Good
Helio's video service won't be as appealing once mobile TV options become more ubiquitous, but for now it offers more entertainment than you'll find on one of the four major carriers. With clips from sites like iFilm, Helio offers plenty of under-five-minute fare, though the phone has some problems with streaming. Vidoes were blocky in our tests, though audio was clean, and seemed to be in sync with the video. Even music videos stored on the phone's memory were blocky and disappointing, whether we were watching on the phone's portrait or full-screen landscape mode. Still, the quality wasn't bad enough to ruin the genuinely entertaining videos, which are clearly aimed at the technorati set.
Audio – Good
The audio experience on the Ocean is generally good. We appreciate the included 3.5mm adapter that let us use our own headphones. We definitely prefer the hardware headphone buttons on the side of the device to touch sensitive buttons, though it took us time to figure out that a very long depression activates the music player without having to menu dig. The Ocean can handle WMA, MP3 and AAC formats, so Mac and PC users are safe, but Napster and iTunes fans are out of luck. In fact, Helio hasn't made the Ocean compatible with its popular Media Mover application, so you'll be picking through folder hierarchies to fill your music library. Once full, though, the Ocean offers easy playlist creation on the phone, an equalizer with presets, and some shuffling and repeat options. The interface isn't pretty or as fancy as Sony Ericsson's Walkman phone interface, but it is much better than similar efforts from the major carriers.
Web browsing, GPS, etc. – Very good
Though complicated Web pages are truncated by Google's Web tools by default, don't think that the Ocean isn't a powerful browsing tool. It spit out a New York Times homepage that was as close to the original as we've ever seen on a mobile. Though we were excited to find a mini map, a feature we adore on Nokia's N-series phones, the Helio version is more of a wire frame, which is helpful, but not as impressive as the miniaturized Web page that pops up on the Nokia screen. Upper soft keys convert to dedicated zooming keys, allowing you to pull out to a 50% view, or in to 3X zoom. We liked this innovative feature; its one of the little touches that makes us appreciate Helio's interface.
The GPS sensor on the phone was very strong, often able to find us indoors. We're waiting for a second device to really give the Buddy Beacon app a run for its money, but until then, we're still intrigued by the possibilities. Google Maps is still the wrong application for driving directions, as it doesn't handle live turn-by-turn navigation and it won't speak your directions to you, both necessities while driving.
Price and availability
The Helio Ocean is available from Helio for $200 with a contract agreement. A mail-in rebate of $100 is available.
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