Helio Ocean

Helio Ocean
Originally uploaded by dcdan.

So my Helio Ocean arrived yesterday and I've put it through the paces and so far so good. There are plenty of pre-release reviews out there about the Ocean but I've noticed that some of them have some inaccuracies.

Physical and Keyboards

The phone has a nice solid feel and it doesn't seem like it will slide open accidentally. The QWERTY keyboard reminds me of typing on a first generation Blackberry and has been laid out so that @ for email and / for URLs aren't a pain in the ass to use. It is slightly bulkier than the k790i, but is still small enough that it doesn't look like you are carrying a big ass PDA in your pocket. The interface is pretty intuitive (hear that motorola!) and the screen is crisp and clear. The speakers are decent and they include a cord that converts the 2.5mm jack to a 3.5mm jack which means you can hook it to standard speakers. It tried it and it sounds as good as an iPod if not better.

The Mail/Messaging Interface
The gmail (and the mail interface in general) interface is pretty nice setup was as basic as entering my password. My only real beef is that there isn't a sync between checked mail on the site and checked mail on the device, meaning if I read it on the Ocean, I have to mark it read on the web side. The reverse is also true, I'm not sure if it is Google problem or a Helio problem, but my guess is that the interface simply does POP and grabs the messages from Google. This is backed up by the fact that it doesn't have the threaded interface either that ties all of your messages in a thread. Additionally using the gmail app on my k790i can do a lot of this so hopefully this app will get ported over and based on the fact that the Ocean can run Java apps and the Google mobile apps are written in Java and they've already done some work as Google Maps (more on this later) works. Creating and sending message is a simple and easy process and you can send attachments though I believe on the site they mention a smallish size limit. This mail interface is the same interface that is used for IMAP/POP, which also leads to my conjecture about it just being POP access.

The messaging interface for IM is nice it has the same feel as it does with a native IM client. I have trouble getting it to receive images as it says the file is too big, but I can send images from it without issue.

The Yahoo! Interface is tied together a little bit better as it knows what you've read on the server, but if you read a message on the Ocean it doesn't seem to send that info back to Yahoo! Mail. The Yahoo! mail interface though is the only _mail_ interface (IM alerts come in instantly) that allows for pull message checking.

Not that it matters to me but there isn't Microsoft Exchange support.

Google Maps, GPS Baby
This is one the apps I was most excited about and it hasn't disappointed yet. I first tried it while in my house and seeing as I live on the first floor of three story brick building I wasn't expecting it to work too well and it guessed me to be about two buildings over, but once I was outside it worked great. If you've used the Google Maps app before on other non-GPS phones you'll feel right at home. The additions are that 0 shows where you are on the map and you can use the 1 and 3 keys to step between way points if you've put in directions. This I feel will be something I use a lot, as I get lost whenever I leave the Hill. The email and the like are great but this is the killer app for me. The only addition I would like to see is the ability to remap based on a wrong turn. There is a buddy finder app that seems pretty cool, but it only works with other Helio GPS phones and could be stalkerish, that being said if anyone near by Washington DC want to play with it with me send me an email

Additionally it has the ability to geotag the photos but they seem to only go to a site that I can get to via my phone, I'll have to dig deeper to figure some of this stuff out.

Web Browser
The web browser is decent the only beefs is no Flash support and sometimes it renders for "mobile mode" which usually looks crappier to me than the regular HTML translated but what do I know.

Games
I read on one of the prerelease reviews that games only worked in portrait view and not in landscape mode but I haven't found this to be the case, plus there is Lumines which is one of my favorite games, but I have no idea what this will do to battery life.

Coverage
I haven't had any trouble with coverage, though I do live in the capitol of the world's richest and most powerful nation so your milage may vary. I haven't yet checked to see if it will roam on Verizon on the Metro.

Syncing
This is weakest part, there is no iSync support and while the site does have cool feature wherein you upload a CSV file and it will push the address to the phone. The down side is that I can't figure out how it wants the file and so it gets rejected.

Camera
I was spoiled by the relative clarity of the photos from the k790i so I didn't expect much from this and it hits for par in the 2MP camera phones, not so great but passable enough to take embarrassing photos of friends


I now open the floor to questions.