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HELIO OCEAN - besting the iPHONE 24/7...?

I had no idea Fisher-Price was making such sophisticated phones. The last one I had from them in the '70s had a pop-up clown.
 
plumbingandtech said:
Whoah.

Your post should be req'd reading for possible helio buyers.

There is a Helio store at my local mall. Kinda sad. Empty all the time....

(oh and i was lined up in front of them all day during i-Day. They passed out Jane magazines and free water or some such... they ALL had a look of resignation to them. I bet a few of them already sent their resume to the apple store a few doors down.)

I know that not everyone is happy with ATT (i'm fine) but one thing to keep in mind is that they are not going anywhere. Something else to keep in mind when choosing a provider.
Click to expand...

AT&T wireless has folded once already taken over by cingular. I still have one of their phones running on that old network which I am in the process of replacing . My experience with AT&T has been a sad one indeed.
 
Have you ever used one?

They are cheap pieces of plastic.

Oh, and the ability to seemless tie to your music, videos, etc., is a joke.

And dont even get me started on battery life.
 
ekpil2000 said:
I am.
The deciding factor for me was gps because knowing where I am immediately is that important to me.
I like the slide out keypad more than iphone's virtual keypad.
I like iphone's big beautiful screen and its simple double touch zoom interface.
There is no doubt in my mind that either device would have served me well.
I have had a bad history with at&t and was looking forward to switching to verizon, when fate seemed to conspire. I met some people with helio and was informed coverage was very good, and I had the opportunity to look over helio's phones. I personally find both phones aesthetically pleasing, though I have to give the nod again to the iphone. A replaceable battery is an important feature to me that I felt was worth mentioning again here. Helio is trying to capitalize on the, mostly warranted, hype surrounding the iphone. I don't much care for that kind of tactic but I can hardly blame them.

I think both of these devices challenge the market in their own ways. I like the dual slider and I like the touch screen interface. I hope to one day own a device that posses the best of each. But what we see from both these devices is a glimpse of the future that they are unfolding before us. And I for one and excited to see what further development will follow.
Click to expand...

Good luck to ya! ;)
 
Reviewing Helio's website and looking around the net, we can start
seeing the possibly serious downsides in my book:
  • MVNO if you want out early, you'll need to get another Helio phone that does even less. Uses Sprint for voice and Verizon for data, but can change these things and manage them as business needs see fit (the recent YouTube cur-fuffle was somewhat telling).
  • Battery - With 3G, etc, etc... the talk time is only 5 hours vs iPhone's 8 hours. Start browsing the net, and who knows.
    3G can be switched to 1X to conserve battery life, in fact on my next charge i will turn it off when not needed to see what kind of a difference it does make on the battery. ill be back to report
  • 240x320 screen, much smaller than the iPhone's 480x320
    touche
  • NOT touchscreen, buttons all the way, baby!
    yea! smudges rock!
  • Default 200MB, whoopee! That's like 40 songs or a 10 minute movie... sweet! NOTE: I heard that its supposedly 512MB (though the spec says otherwise), but in any case, I love how its ambiguous with many of these phones.
    this is kinda pointless since its 2gb micro sd card can be changed up
  • Maxes out at 2GB at a time, even though it features removeable memory
    yep, bought my stick for 7.95 :]
  • No WiFi, but unlimited 3G. That counts right? Who needs local networking?
    eh, i got my laptop if i need wifi
  • Nice and thick, like 2 packs of cards glued together and busting the seems in your pants pocket, unless you're slick and dapper, sporting your cargo pants.
    more like a pack and a 1/4
  • Does NOT sync your calendar OR your contact to Outlook.
    it DOES sync with mircosoft exchange now
    Only to Helio's website, which you can upload information to in CSV format. Yikes! NO THANKS!
  • Still no Flash support. Does YouTube through 3GP, and only recently stopped blocking customers from accessing it after paying up.
    i wasnt aware the iphone could play flash? [not being sarcastic]
  • AccuWeather - $3.99/mo. paying FOR THE WEATHER. That's not cool.
    why would i pay 3.99/mo if i can go to weather.com?
  • Personal Organizer, Meh - Gizmodo writes "Nobody wants to maintain two different calendars with their schedules on it. There's also no task list, so if you wanted to use this phone as an organizer, it'd be kind of a stretch."
  • Browser Zoom, nice try, but its NO iPhone
    not going to lie, i like the zoom on the iphone WAY better
  • Buy music tracks over the air at $1.99 a pop. Nice, huh? No? What's wrong?
    buy music? LOL!
  • Coverflow? Where for art thou?
    probably the most useless thing ever, but pretty to look at.
  • Supports Yahoo Music and a couple of other DRM formats. No iTunes though (understandably).
  • Web browser ALWAYS starts in Google "mobilizer" mode, chopping full HTML down to mobile sizes. You can choose "full HTML" but it stays only for the rest of that session. Give that "mobilized" content is the default, it gives you an idea of how inconvenient full-HTML browsing is on the Helio compared to the iPhone. AS shown in this Gizmodo video on YouTube, it looks like Craig's list full-html becomes a nightmare. Imagine telling the browser to jump from control to control, section to section with no screen tapping. Click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click... almost there!
    again, something that should be improved. but the mini-map helps a lot.
  • No specific podcast support.
    useless to me, i have an ipod if thats ever needed
  • Ah, yes... NO MAC Sync SUPPORT. (feel free to Bluetooth though)

i will add, that getting to my contacts is WAY easier on my helio than on the iphone. i jsut have to type the name from the home screen and it will bring them up as i type.

i also have aim and yahoo to play with at work when i get bored.

just a couple things id like to put in. kna mean?

i like the iphone, but for everything BUT the phone lol.
i think ill wait till the new ipod comes rolling around which im predicting will be same touchscreen device w/ wifi for much less than 600 dollars.

speaking of money
no one i know has bought their helio ocean for the 295 list price. in fact most people got it for under $200. in fact i read that on slickdeals.net theyve got it for 147 and 10 bucks off your bill for the first year. chunky!

and you cant beat the plans with the iphone.

i think helio swallows the iphone when it comes to its actual use, and thats A PHONE!

for 65 bucks, you get unlimited data, text, picture, video messaging and 500 mins + free nights and weekends.

believe me im a huge mac fan in a geek closet, but some people put things way too high up on their envy list.
 
Reviewing Helio's website and looking around the net, we can start
seeing the possibly serious downsides in my book:
  • MVNO if you want out early, you'll need to get another Helio phone that does even less. Uses Sprint for voice and Verizon for data, but can change these things and manage them as business needs see fit (the recent YouTube cur-fuffle was somewhat telling).
  • Battery - With 3G, etc, etc... the talk time is only 5 hours vs iPhone's 8 hours. Start browsing the net, and who knows.
    3G can be switched to 1X to conserve battery life, in fact on my next charge i will turn it off when not needed to see what kind of a difference it does make on the battery. ill be back to report
  • 240x320 screen, much smaller than the iPhone's 480x320
    touche
  • NOT touchscreen, buttons all the way, baby!
    yea! smudges rock!
  • Default 200MB, whoopee! That's like 40 songs or a 10 minute movie... sweet! NOTE: I heard that its supposedly 512MB (though the spec says otherwise), but in any case, I love how its ambiguous with many of these phones.
    this is kinda pointless since its 2gb micro sd card can be changed up
  • Maxes out at 2GB at a time, even though it features removeable memory
    yep, bought my stick for 7.95 :]
  • No WiFi, but unlimited 3G. That counts right? Who needs local networking?
    eh, i got my laptop if i need wifi
  • Nice and thick, like 2 packs of cards glued together and busting the seems in your pants pocket, unless you're slick and dapper, sporting your cargo pants.
    more like a pack and a 1/4
  • Does NOT sync your calendar OR your contact to Outlook.
    it DOES sync with mircosoft exchange now
    Only to Helio's website, which you can upload information to in CSV format. Yikes! NO THANKS!
  • Still no Flash support. Does YouTube through 3GP, and only recently stopped blocking customers from accessing it after paying up.
    i wasnt aware the iphone could play flash? [not being sarcastic]
  • AccuWeather - $3.99/mo. paying FOR THE WEATHER. That's not cool.
    why would i pay 3.99/mo if i can go to weather.com?
  • Personal Organizer, Meh - Gizmodo writes "Nobody wants to maintain two different calendars with their schedules on it. There's also no task list, so if you wanted to use this phone as an organizer, it'd be kind of a stretch."
  • Browser Zoom, nice try, but its NO iPhone
    not going to lie, i like the zoom on the iphone WAY better
  • Buy music tracks over the air at $1.99 a pop. Nice, huh? No? What's wrong?
    buy music? LOL!
  • Coverflow? Where for art thou?
    probably the most useless thing ever, but pretty to look at.
  • Supports Yahoo Music and a couple of other DRM formats. No iTunes though (understandably).
  • Web browser ALWAYS starts in Google "mobilizer" mode, chopping full HTML down to mobile sizes. You can choose "full HTML" but it stays only for the rest of that session. Give that "mobilized" content is the default, it gives you an idea of how inconvenient full-HTML browsing is on the Helio compared to the iPhone. AS shown in this Gizmodo video on YouTube, it looks like Craig's list full-html becomes a nightmare. Imagine telling the browser to jump from control to control, section to section with no screen tapping. Click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click... almost there!
    again, something that should be improved. but the mini-map helps a lot.
  • No specific podcast support.
    useless to me, i have an ipod if thats ever needed
  • Ah, yes... NO MAC Sync SUPPORT. (feel free to Bluetooth though)

i will add, that getting to my contacts is WAY easier on my helio than on the iphone. i jsut have to type the name from the home screen and it will bring them up as i type.

i also have aim and yahoo to play with at work when i get bored.

just a couple things id like to put in. kna mean?

i like the iphone, but for everything BUT the phone lol.
i think ill wait till the new ipod comes rolling around which im predicting will be same touchscreen device w/ wifi for much less than 600 dollars.

speaking of money
no one i know has bought their helio ocean for the 295 list price. in fact most people got it for under $200. in fact i read that on slickdeals.net theyve got it for 147 and 10 bucks off your bill for the first year. chunky!

and you cant beat the plans with the iphone.

i think helio swallows the iphone when it comes to its actual use, and thats A PHONE!

for 65 bucks, you get unlimited data, text, picture, video messaging and 500 mins + free nights and weekends.

believe me im a huge mac fan in a geek closet, but some people put things way too high up on their envy list. :apple:

oh and p.s: about the wow factor, i had 2 reps at apple ask to see my phone while compairing.
 
rubeeen said:
i will add, that getting to my contacts is WAY easier on my helio than on the iphone. i jsut have to type the name from the home screen and it will bring them up as i type.
Click to expand...
Hey, I can access any one of my contacts with one, maybe two, taps of my thumb and possibly a quick swipe of my thumb, for at most 3 input actions. I think it's much easier on the iPhone, if not equally easy.

rubeeen said:
i think helio swallows the iphone when it comes to its actual use, and thats A PHONE!
Click to expand...

What a silly comparison. The actual use of the phone function of both phones are EXACTLY the same. You either pick a contact and call, or you punch 10 digits and call. I fail to see how either one could swallow each other in that respect.

rubeeen said:
oh and p.s: about the wow factor, i had 2 reps at apple ask to see my phone while compairing.
Click to expand...

Asking to see another persons phone does not automatically imply they are WOW'd by it. I think you might be a little full of yourself here. If I knew you had an Ocean, I'd ask to see it too, but only to verify the ugliness and clunkiness that I've been seeing in photos on Engadget and here on MR.
 
subl1me said:
Hey, I can access any one of my contacts with one, maybe two, taps of my thumb and possibly a quick swipe of my thumb, for at most 3 input actions. I think it's much easier on the iPhone, if not equally easy.



What a silly comparison. The actual use of the phone function of both phones are EXACTLY the same. You either pick a contact and call, or you punch 10 digits and call. I fail to see how either one could swallow each other in that respect.



Asking to see another persons phone does not automatically imply they are WOW'd by it. I think you might be a little full of yourself here. If I knew you had an Ocean, I'd ask to see it too, but only to verify the ugliness and clunkiness that I've been seeing in photos on Engadget and here on MR.
Click to expand...

i guess thats a preference issue. but adding contacts is way easier on the ocean.

call quality is garbage on the iphone. nothing like gsm buzz to wake you in the mornin.

how am i full of myself? plenty of people ask to see my phone. and being as its the first dual slider EVER, i think you can give it some kind of credit :rolleyes:

ugliness and clunkiness? lol, at least i can drop it without having to worry about how im going to afford another.

another + for the ocean, insurance is avail.

im not here to prove that the ocean is better, im here to state facts about the ocean that people use in comparison. if youre going to compare things, at least get it right. am i wrong?

i think YOU sir, are full of it. but i guess thats expected if you paid 600 bucks for an uber sensitive phone :p
 
I wonder why you would buy either phone.

The iPhone is clearly not finished but if you have to be noticed, I suppose that's a reason. The Ocean looks like an expensive version of the Virgin Switchback (half the price) but does have EV-DO performance and it doesn't take long to see how much faster that is compared to EDGE.

For $299 (or $199, as I saw discounted), I'd rather have a nicer built, nicer looking phone.
 
The thing that sold me the most when I read up and found all of the missing features was this:

Free Software/Firmware Updates

I mean seriously.
 
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