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Helio Ocean: the good, the bad, the ugly

So I bit the bullet a couple days ago and ordered a Helio Ocean online. I got tired of waiting for the iPhone and frankly two things did not sit well with me: the lack of keyboard (though the magic touchscreen may prove me wrong, I have a feeling there may be a problem with typing), and the fact that iPhone doesn’t have fast (3G) internet. So…there are plenty of reviews out there on the ocean so I won’t bother with screenshots or videos. Nor am I going to talk about physical specs of the device. I’m going to make some comparisons to the iPhone because I think that will be it’s biggest competitor.

The Good:

The sliding keyboard on the ocean is very well designed (slides well, not like the Nokia 6820, my previous phone which felt very mechanical and plasticky). The upper row is a bit hard to type on but overall it’s nice. Having two different slide modes is useful because it lets you transition naturally from vertical to horizontal viewing without clicking through menus.

The idle screen search is a key feature. I can just start typing and it’ll find either the contact (and give me options to call, text, or instant message depending on what info I have for him), or if there is no contact it can go straight to a web search. This is very cool and probably the #1 feature that sets this phone apart. The iPhone won’t really be able to pull this off because they don’t have a keyboard…but we’ll see what tricks they have up their sleeve.

The Bad:

Nothing is truly ‘bad’ about this phone. Even the things that are mildly annoying (like having to open it to work the menu buttons) aren’t terrible.

The Ugly:

The web browser is ugly ugly ugly. UGLY! I mean it works…but it’s just not Safari. This is where iPhone is going to completely dominate Helio unless they truly start thinking about browsing experience. Sure, I can read a webpage, but I am not getting the real web experience show in the iPhone demos. Why isn’t the Ocean giving me a proper page formatted beautifuly with css and proper zooming. It’s zooming feature works by clicks of 10% which shows a UI designed from an engineer’s standpoint instead of Apple’s UI which is designed frome a user’s perspective (I don’t care about percentages as a user, I care about being able to see my content so let me hold a button to zoom in or out smoothly, as necessary).

Some things on the Helio just don’t seem well integrated. For example on iPhone if I want weather I have the weather widget. If I want maps I have the maps widget. These things are well integrated into Apple’s interface. On helio, weather is taken from some website which due to their ugly web browser makes it ugly (though I still get the info, it’s not at my fingertips and cannot be processed with one glance). It’s almost like the windows approach where every app is sort of separate rather than Apple’s unified UI, everything looks and feels the same. This is an area where Helio could use the most improvements, but I don’t know if they’ll pull it off without stealing someone from the Apple team. The menus are well designed, but it’s just that every app functions differently. I mean clearly Gmaps is running on Java, while some other things are native..that is already a bad thing.

Overall I like the phone even though it’s a bit bulkier than I thought it would be. I will probably keep it until the iPhone is mature and past its original bumps (which I am sure it will have). For now I like the fast 3G internet, and hopefully when Apple/Cingular catch up I’ll be switching over to get the full browsing experience. Or maybe Helio will step up to the plate and work a normal webbrowser experience into the Ocean. It remains to be seen :-)

[Update:] It sounds like iPhone is coming out June 11. Technically if I time this correctly I may be able to get my hands on one and play with it in a store. If the typing capabilities are satisfactory I will be returning the Helio (they have a 30 day happiness policy — good), and switching to iPhone. I think the Helio guys have done a tremendous job but until they get the design sensibilities of Apple (everything must function the same), they’ll have an uphill battle on their hands.

[Update 2:] I’ve browsed a couple sites in full HTML mode and let me tell you, if this is how slow 3G is, I think the iPhone browser will be damn near unusable, given that it’s running on the slower EDGE technology. I mean seriously, it took forever and a half to load any normal blog or webpage with some graphics out there. The stripped down webpages Ocean loads by default load quickly, but full html – mad slow. The iPhone video demos make everything look uber quick, but they probably aren’t showing true load times. Can someone try loading nytimes.com in full html on EDGE and tell me if it doesn’t make you want to cry?

[...] For those that missed my previous posts on the Helio Ocean please see the posts on the good, the bad, and the ugly, and missing features. [...]

I’ll have to agree about the browser. I went from a Sidekick user of two years, most recently the SK3 to now having an Ocean. Honestly, it was because of the the carrier that I switched. But the browser on the Sidekick is far more of browser than what the Helio offers. Such examples are: no cut and paste feature, links to email addresses do not prompt your default email program to initiate a new message and because of no cut and paste feature, you can’t copy the email to a new message (one of the worst mistakes). So there you have it.

Yes the more I use it the more I realize that they totally didn’t spend enough time designing the browser. Bad scrolling design means that many webpages become completely unreadable in this browser as you end up having to scroll sideways to read a paragraph or have to zoom out so much that it’s unreadable. Helio: your web browser is not acceptable, please firmware update :-)

Hey, I see you’ve raved a little bit about the iPhone browser. I’m not sure if you’ve found this out or not (you do seem to be in the know about this type of stuff) but the iPhone “full” browser doesn’t support flash or, I believe, Java. In my opinion, at least, that severely limits the “real” internet.

Heather, if you want to see severe limits look at the ocean’s browser. It just kind of falls on its face compared to the iphone.

Here is more on the Helio Ocean and its customer service before you decide to buy one.

Helio Customer service is pretty inexperienced (they are nice to you though). I tried to change my name to my Company name because that is what they told me to do when I ordered, and the online ordering form does not have a Company name /EIN but only a First and Last Name and SSN. I was told that it was not possible to do this (ha), and it took about 7 calls, numerous transfer, false positives and a threat to cancel to finally have it done. The problem: They changed also my phone number without my authorization, and when I complained after being without service for few hours, they finally told me after many calls and 7 days that my old number that I had for 3+ years is gone and they cannot get it back… They gave me a $75 discount because of this, but I am still trying to decide if I return it or not. Have 3 more days to decide.

About the phone itself, it has good and bad things. The good were discussed above pretty much all, but there are several very bad things that need to be added. The phone will freeze when browsing some particular pages, and you must remove the battery to make it work again. Te battery is difficult to remove, you need a flat tool to do it. Fingers and nails will not do. The screen goes crazy once in while and shows like a TV without antena to go back to normal after a few seconds. I have seen this happen about 4 times in about 20 days. You cannot move an email message from one folder to another, for example you cannot rescue a message from the trash can to the inbox. The SMT configuration supports only secure SMTP SSL and not SMTP TLS. Web pages with heavy Javascript will not work in the browser. Internet connectivity is very poor, it will have little or no connectovity inside a building when you are far from windows. The battery goes really fast when using the browser or email and the phone gets hot. Software to synch your contacts, tasks, etc with Outlook does not exist. There is a USB cable included but it will only let you load music or video in your phone (no pictures). The only way to get the pictures you take with the camera out of the phone if you don’t have an external memory card is to email you the pictures… seriously… This last one is bad. Finally, the browser cannot access helio’s web site, so no checking your account usage from your own phone.

On the positive, price for the service is very competitive, the price of the phone is fear and there are many discount coupons available, great 2.0 Megapixels camera, speed of the internet and email is acceptable, Good quality on the pictures. The chat and email for Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo are a great tool. It is very compact and light compared to other phones, it has a nice desing and and the screen size is OK in my opinion.

Oh, I don’t doubt you there. I just think that the iPhone lies about having a full browser when it doesn’t support java or flash.

For those that hate the Ocean’s browser and aren’t aware, the team over at heliocity.net has recently adapted Opera Mini (a browser on the same level or superior to iPhone’s Safari) for the ocean although it is not currently compatible with QWERTY keyboard, but they’re working on it. It views actual web pages just like safari does without using google proxys. I really recommend downloading it if you’re not satisfied with the Ocean’s. Also, Opera has released information that they are working on a replacement for the flash plug-in for the software that will allow users to view flash animations/interactive media right on their phones, pretty cool stuff. The only downside I saw to the ocean was lack of a flash player as I’m a newgrounds.com maniac, but with ocean overcoming that I’ve got 0 negative things to say about the Ocean.

I have bought the ocean from helio 3 days ago and let me tell you, this phone is the biggest promise with no back up. the reason I switched ( almost switched ) is because the sales rep told me about all the good stuff ( it suppose to do )like the internet and email and sync my schedule, which was a huge step from a simple razor. so the first thing I have tried is to log on to my own web page which the helio browser can not read. ( nothing but colors ) email does not come the way it should, my wife phone offers features that you select and it still does not do it. and most of all you can only synch music and photos, I have called the dales rep and asked how come it does not synch my schedules? his answer was oh I have made a mistake you can not do your schedule. big joke to new I am taking all my phones back. I can not wait to find out how good is helio return policy.

Yes, the Helio browser is such a joke it’s almost to the point of false advertising. After owning the phone for almost a year the only thing it does right is chat. The nice thing is though you can get Opera 4 mini on it (go to heliocity.net) which at least somewhat fixes the browsing problem. I don’t know what kind of CPU they have in there but everything seems slow as hell and the UI is unresponsive. Don’t know if it’s slow to the point of being unable to run standard browsers like webkit….but Helio needs to step up big time in the browser and UI responsiveness department.

I’ve been thoroughly happy with my Helio Ocean and Helio Customer Service over the last several months. It’s definitely not backward, and it’s affordable for all that you can do (or need to do). The browser leaves much to be desired but all that takes is a firmware update down the line, and I’m willing to wait…because this was a new generation device and those will always have glitches or limitations at first. I think there are TOO many things that can go wrong with the iPhone. Let’s hope that mini Opera OS will launch for Helio soon :)

I just the Ocean and at first I was really happy about it. he sales guy said that I could go to the internet with fast conection. Well I tried to get into myspace and I can’t. I thought that may be my password was wrong. I got onto the internet and loged in just fine. I don’t get it.

Other thing is I am going to Japan for about a month. The sales guy said that it would work over there. In the TOS it says that I can be charged for roming. It also says that they can change anything in the contract and we have to be okay with it.

I am starting to really want my old phone back. Anyone want to talk more about this plz e-mail me shallon_monk@hotmail.com

i dont know what people are complaining about..the iPhone is an amazing machine. as for Ocean, that has TOO many problems with it. The iPhone’s safari works as well as the mac’s safari, which is amazing and very fast. And it does have Java. Plus, instead of waiting for years for another update or “fix” from Helio, Apple puts up updates for the iPhone constantly.
As for Helio’s policies, such as changing the contract and/or the number without the customer’s permission or awareness is ridiculous.

[...] other parts are, well… lacking. Until I have more to say, good reviews can be found here and here. I will say this though: the battery life seems to be *really* bad. I will have to look into that. [...]

I recently found out about helio and their ocean. I am waiting for my contract with my current provider to end before jumping into a new one. I noticed that no one has commented one way or the other since March and was wondering if it’s because no one is reading this page anymore, or if the problems have since been fixed. Anyone with RECENT info either way about the ocean let me know. My sister has the iPhone and said there’s a monthly fee for having it, which I don’t want to deal with. Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

I don’t know if they’ve fixed the new ones they’re shipping but they never came out with a firmware update (although wikipedia mentions one, they never announced it to their customers, nor do customer service reps in my area know about it or how to get it). Now that Virgin has acquired Helio either their customer service will improve or get even worse. You’re taking a big chance. I’d go with an iPhone :-). I did, and it’s basically a world beyond Helio. Not to say there aren’t bugs, but apple already released two point releases to their software, well announced, and easy to apply without visiting an official store (which is the _only_ way you can get your firmware update for Helio – which is basically useless to most people since Helio stores are practically nowhere).

I know I’m late
But ao AIM with the ocean can you set custom away/available messages?

I’ve had my Helio Ocean for about a year and a half now. I must say that it’s HORRIBLE. I lose signal while im outside, and it’s not even raining perfect weather, Even when I have “3G” i get dropped calls all the time, I cannot wait until my contract is up.

I currently have the virgin mobile wildcard, but im getting kind of bored with it. i was thinking of getting the ocean for christmas (just a thought) after reading all of this there seems to be a lot of mixed thoughts on this phone. Is it honestly worth buying? I really dont want something expensive, but this phone looks like a step up from what i have. i’m afraid that if i get it, i’ll end up being disappointed and stuck with the phone. should i get the ocean? or does the ocean 2 look more promising (i heard its not much of an improvement)?

please give me your thoughts on this! should i buy it or not?