The slim new Helio Heat by Samsung features GPS and touch-sensitive controls in a tiny, sliding package. Does it measure up to its older sibling, the Drift?
Review summary of the Helio Heat:
 |
| Watch » Scoreboard » Features » Side-by-side » Gallery » |
 Compared to the Helio Drift, the Helio Heat is better in some areas, and in other ways cannot measure up. Video performance, with full screen landscape mode, is a bit better, though we miss stereo Bluetooth support on videos. We also liked the music store as well, which is new since our review of the Drift, though is also available now on that phone. The Heat is also smaller than the Drift, though the latter phone was not large by any stretch. Unfortunately, the touch-sensitive buttons on the Heat are truly a failure of design. In the few days we've had the phone, we've rarely had success using the buttons. They almost never registered our taps the first time, though they often activated when we brushed them accidentally. They locked too quickly when we needed them, to make 3-way calls, for instance, or using them as music keys. If the Heat had the normal buttons found on the Drift, it would be the better phone, but we can't recommend it considering the problems we had with the buttons. Release: March 2007. Price: $150.
Pros: Small, sleek design. Good music store. Full screen, landscape mode for videos. Camera is better than on most phones.
Cons: Lousy touch-sensitive buttons. No stereo Bluetooth on videos. Proprietary e-mail instead of popular services.
| Poor |
Mediocre |
58%
GOOD |
Very good |
Excellent |
|
|
|
Full review of the Helio Heat:
|
Design
The Helio Heat is physically almost identical to the Samsung SGH-E900, released last year in Europe. Compared to the Helio Drift, the Heat is smaller, and has touch-sensitive buttons on the upper slide. We had serious problems with these buttons. Even with the sensitivity cranked way up, the buttons often would not register our taps, and other times the buttons would act when we had only brushed them. This was especially a problem when we meant to press right on the five-way button, but instead tapped the "back" button nearby. We think touch-sensitive buttons are still a gimmick; though they produce a clean look when inactive, they don't work well enough to be useful. Otherwise, the phone is slim and clean, though not as rounded as the Drift, and we definitely miss the cool white of the Drift we reviewed (a color choice certain spouses became enamored with).
Calling - Very good
Calls on the Heat sounded good, though not as clean as calls on the Drift. Callers reported a background hiss, though it wasn't bad enough to disrupt our conversations. Reception was excellent, usually four or five bars, and we never lost the EV-DO network. Battery life was a bit short for our taste, with less than three and a half hours of talk time, but perhaps this is understandable on such a small phone. The Heat has plenty of calling features, including Bluetooth, a good speakerphone and three-way calling. Unfortunately, the touch-sensitive buttons stymied our conference calling efforts. They locked very quickly after a call was placed, and needed to be unlocked again and again to initiate all the steps to make and then join a third party call. The process should have been as easy and intuitive as on the Drift, but the touch-sensitive buttons got in the way. The contact list was better than average on a non-smartphone, and we appreciated Helio's PCLink Pro software, and its ability to synchronize our Outlook contact list.
Our favorite: Good contact list management on the phone and on the PC
Our request: Lose the touch-sensitive buttons
Messaging - Good
The Heat has some nice messaging options that seem to stop short of their full potential. For instance, instant messaging is available in a Java application that should have come preloaded on the phone. Though IM support is available for MSN, Yahoo and AIM, we would have liked to see the same for e-mail, but instead all we got was access to Helio's Web mail. Messages looked very clean on the screen, with a clear, easy-to-read font, but only about half of an SMS message fit on the display at once. It was easy to add contacts to a text message by searching the contact list, but we always like this live, while-you-type searching to be integrated directly into the "To:" field in messages, though admittedly we rarely see this feature on non-smartphones. The keypad was fine for typing messages, though T9 input wasn't quite as intelligent on the Heat as we've seen on other phones; it lacked the drop down menu for alternate choices that we've seen on the best implementations of the option.
Our favorite: Clean font made reading messages easy
Our request: More pre-loaded options for popular e-mail services
Camera - Very good
After criticizing an endless stream of lousy camera lenses on phones, we're happy to report that the Heat has an adequate lens on its 1.3-megapixel camera. Pictures still came out a bit oversaturated, causing some blurriness and overexposure at the edges of details, but overall the pictures were much better on this phone than we've seen on recent cameraphones, even those with higher-resolution sensors. Helio's camera interface is very easy to use, with numbers next to icons indicating which keys map to which features. Also, editing and special effects capabilities on the Heat are robust, with frames, clip-art stickers, frame grabs for videos and plenty of fun options. The phone can also upload pictures to MySpace, indirectly via a special Helio server, which is a feature unique to Helio's network. Unfortunately, the 136MB of internal memory is all the space you have to work with, divided between pictures and camcorder videos, as well as downloaded content like music and music videos. Since the Samsung SGH-E900 had a microSD slot, we're surprised this was omitted on the Heat in favor of more internal storage.
Our favorite: Finally, an adequate lens on a small cameraphone
Our request: External memory slot
Videos - Good
Helio has some of the more unique streaming video offerings, but we were disappointed to find that not all of the streaming content is free. A new "TV Set" premium section has been added to the video download page, and much of the network content from Comedy Central and MTV has been moved under this extra-subscription umbrella. This might annoy Helio devotees, as the MVNO has always been known for reasonably-priced unlimited plans that don't nickel-and-dime you for extra content, unlike many of the larger carriers. Music videos have always been extra, and play very smoothly on the Heat. In fact, the Heat can display videos, downloaded and streaming, in a full-screen landscape mode, an improvement over the Drift. Also, we found video streaming and buffering speeds to be generally better with the Heat than we had seen on the Drift, without the hiccups and pauses we encountered with the latter phone. Unfortunately, while the Drift was able to stream the audio from videos to stereo Bluetooth headphones, the Heat is incapable of pairing with stereo Bluetooth while videos are playing.
Our favorite: Full screen viewing in landscape mode
Our request: Stereo Bluetooth support for videos
Music - Good
The Heat is the first Helio phone we've tested with the new Helio music store. The store offers a great range of content, and looks better than similar stores on Verizon Wireless and Sprint. Though we think the store improves the overall music experience since our review of the Drift, with only 136MB of internal storage, and no external slot, we think the phone is limited as a music download device. As a music player, the Heat is hurt by the poor touch-sensitive buttons, which act as dedicated music controls. The buttons disappear when they are needed during playback, and cannot be used to launch the media player, a feature we've grown to like after seeing it on the Nokia 5300. Once again, we couldn't get the Helio Media Mover working on our Dell Latitude D420 laptops, a problem we also had while testing the Helio Drift, and though we can't assume that our laptops aren't at fault, the fact that this issue hasn't been fixed since we reviewed that phone last December is troubling. The music player supports stereo Bluetooth headphones, and pairing with our Motorola stereo set was easy and reliable. The media player lacks equalizer options, but has plenty of shuffle and repeat options, including A-B repeat, and lots of visualizers to play with.
Our favorite: A music store with a great selection that looks better than others we've tried
Our request: Lose the touch-sensitive buttons
Web browsing and GPS - Very good
Perhaps we simply didn't notice the warning when we reviewed the Drift, but when we started Google Maps on the Heat, it explicitly states that the program is not to be used while driving. Perhaps the caveat is more about keeping your hands on the wheel and your eyes on the road, but in any case, once we accepted that Google Maps is a horrible navigation tool for drivers, we were able to enjoy it much more as pedestrians. The maps are top-notch, with satellite views, just as you'd expect from Google. And the Buddy Beacon service, which actually runs off of Mapquest's maps, is an idea that will certainly develop over time. For now, it made us wish that we had more friends with Helio phones to really make the service useful. In the future, we'd like to see Buddy Beacon integrated into other aspects of the phone, perhaps even combined with a Zune-like sharing feature to find Helio users nearby and share music and videos with them.
The Helio Web browser is fine for its pre-loaded pages, which include an impressive list of sites, such as MySpace and Craigslist. The Helio version of MySpace mobile is the best you'll find on a mobile phone, more graphically rich and easier to navigate than AT&T's version. Craigslist is a neat tool, as bare as the web version, and with all the same listings. Helio's Craigslist page has a full-featured search engine, and the "Best of Craigslist" is bumped up to the top-level, making for a fun read on the go. We appreciate that Helio bundles stereo headphones and a USB cable with the Heat, though we're annoyed that Samsung's proprietary connector keeps us from using our own headphones and standard mini USB cables with the device.
Our favorite: Craigslist on a mobile phone is a useful addition
Our request: Navigation that we can use while driving
Related phones: Similar Samsung sliders
|
Helio Drift
| Similar models » |
|
|
Score: 60% When: November 2006 Worth: $225 Carrier: Helio
|
|
|
With its icy cool design and unique interface, Samsung's new Drift for Helio finds your friends with Buddy Beacon and MySpace Mobile. Will it help you find the party, or leave you all alone?
|
|
|
Read »
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Samsung SGH-E900
| Similar models » |
|
|
Score: 67% When: June 2006 Worth: $400
|
|
|
With its slick look and touch-sensitive buttons, the import Samsung SGH-E900 slider lives on the cutting edge of style. Will its stereo Bluetooth support help it tackle the music phone behemoths?
|
|
|
Read »
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Price and availability
The Helio Heat is available immediately from Helio for $150 with a two-year service contract.
|
|
| |
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
» Top 15
|
|
|
» Search (New!)
Search by cell phone features
|
|
|
» Manual comparison (New!)
Select up to 4 cell phones side-by-side
|
|
|
» By release
May 2008, June 2008, Q3 2008
|
|
|
» Top 15 by carrier
Unlocked, AT&T, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, Helio, Alltel
|
|
|
|
» Top 15 by user type
Average Joe, Business users, Calling addicts, Fashion conscious users, Globetrotters, High-res addicts, Internet addicts, Multimedia enthusiasts, Music aficionados, Outdoor enthusiasts, TV addicts, Video lovers, More...
|
|
|
» Top 15 by brand
Apple, HTC, LG, Motorola, Nokia,
BlackBerry, Samsung, Sony Ericsson Other
|
|
|
» Top 15 by platform
Palm OS, Symbian S60, Symbian UIQ, Windows Mobile
|
|
|
|
» Top 15 by cell phone type
Business smartphones, Multimedia smartphones
Consumer QWERTY phones, Multimedia phones
Concept phones
|
|
|
|
|
_it00.jpg)
|
Archive