Helio Ocean (Originally posted May 24, 2007)

I have been in search of the perfect phone. The phone that makes IMing and Email easy and makes web surfing as easy as surfing on my laptop, whose battery lasts at least an entire day with regular use, has a decent camera and allows me to upload my own personal ringtones, it should have bluetooth and preferably WiFi. And it must have a QWERTY keyboard, preferably one that folds out or slides out because I'm not fond of the permanent kind like you find on a Palm or a Blackberry. All of this has to come in a package that isn't going to cost me an arm and a leg.

So, several months ago I saw a Sierra Wireless Voq on Ebay and thought I'd try it. It has no camera and no bluetooth and is a tad quirky but, in all honesty, for a cheap, early generation PDA, it's mighty impressive. I was able to download the Opera Mini browser to it and put my ringtones on it and download all my email to it and the keyboard flips open on it. All in all, for the money, I was pretty happy with it but I have had my eye out for a better version of it. Plus, Cingular has been killing me with fees for text messaging and web access, which are all separate, as are Multimedia messages.

Along came Helio's Ocean. From all the reviews I read and the pictures and specs I found, it sounded like the answer to all my dreams. Helio's lowest rung service is as follows: For a flat $65/month, I could get 500 anytime minutes and everything else was included and unlimited. Yes, unlimited everything - weekends and evenings, texts, web browsing on a 3G network, multimedia texts, downloads, etc.

So, I ran out and got one. The phone really is a beautiful piece of machinery. It's a little heavy. Some people might call it a brick. But I like a little weight on my phone. I hate feeling like it might break at any moment. The battery life, for the week I had it, was really good. I texted, surfed (or tried to... more on that later), phoned, emailed and the battery seemed to hold up for more than a full day of activity. About a day and a half worth. It plays MP3s via the speaker and headset, and the quality of the sound was pretty good. The camera is really, really nice. I had no idea a small phone could take such good pictures. The flash is strong and it has many options such as greyscale, sepia, a timer, and 4 through 12 continuous pics per click. The keyboard slides out and is pretty easy to use, although my favorite fold out keyboard is still on the Nokia 6800 and N70.

Getting and sending email to any pop account is very easy to set up and it all works quickly. Thanks to the large screen, you can easily see your messages and attachments.

Where it got ugly was when I found out that Helio hasn't yet gotten the software together that is supposed to help you synch your phone to your contacts and calendar from Outlook on your computer. Instead, they recommended that I export my contacts to a .csv file then upload it to AOL or Helio's mail, then download it back to the phone. Very ugly. Then there's no way to save the contacts to the phone's memory from there. You only have access to those contacts so long as you're signed on to Helio Mail or AOL but if you sign off, the contacts are gone. To put your own personal ringtones on the phone, you also need do something totally convoluted. You need to rename an MP3 as an mmf, email it to yourself, download the attachment then save as a ringtone. And then you pat your head and rub your belly while dancing the macarena.

Surfing is also a challenge. Their browser sucks. A lot of sites I went to were either completely destroyed and difficult to see or truncated so you couldn't get to them. So, I tried to download the Opera Mini Browser because I had this same problem with my Voq phone and once I downloaded the Opera browser, all was well. It wouldn't download. It wouldn't download no matter what I did. I figured it was either incompatible or they blocked the site. So, I called Helio.

Customer service admitted they don't have all the software finished yet for the Ocean. They also said that I could possibly install the opera browser from my PC to the phone. I explained that I couldn't possibly make that happen since the sync software doesn't exist. The only thing I can do with the USB cable is see the Music folder and the Video folder. This doesn't help me at all.

So, because Helio apparently shipped out the Ocean before having all the support for it, thereby making it difficult for me to fully enjoy it, I am shipping it back to them this week. First I need to figure out how to take the pictures I took off of it. Since the USB cable won't do it, I am told I should buy a micro SD, copy the photos to that, then to my laptop. So, even in trying to return the thing, they are making me spend time and money to be able to do so. You see my frustration?

In conclusion, if I discover that Helio has the necessary support for this phone and will either pre-install or support the Opera Mini browser, then I would be willing to try this again. Cuz Cingular is nickel and diming me to death and I'd love a good reason to be rid of them.