Dual-Sliding Helio Ocean From CTIA

Helio Ocean

Helio Ocean

From CTIA Wireless in Orlando, Helio has announced its new flagship device, the Ocean. The Helio Ocean is a feature-packed handset with an innovative dual-slide design, providing the advantages of both a regular handset keypad and a full QWERTY keyboard in one handy device.

Technical specifications of the 159g (5.61oz) device are quite impressive, with a 2.0 megapixel camera, 2.4" 262k color QVGA display, and EV-DO high-speed data. Support for MP3, AAC, and WMA DRM audio files and MPEG-4, H.264, and VOD video help fill the 200MB internal memory and microSD memory expansion slot, and USB Mass Storage support helps you get your files to the handset. Bluetooth with the A2DP stereo headset profile lets you listen to music without wires, and a battery good for 5.1 hours of talk time is bundled.

The Helio Ocean's real draw cards are the services that Helio has included. Messaging is fully taken care of with support for Yahoo!, AOL, Windows Live, Gmail, Exchange ActiveSync, and POP/IMAP email, shown in a unified text/picture message, email, and IM inbox. The Ocean's contacts list integrates with IM services, showing buddy statuses as well as phone numbers.

Taking a page out of Nokia's book, the Helio Ocean comes with a full HTML browser with a Mini Map feature, showing a zoomed out view of the current web page on screen to ease navigation. Online search is made easy with Helio's Idle Mode Search – a user merely needs to slide open the QWERTY keypad and start typing to receive results from Yahoo!, Google, Wikipedia, and more in a tabbed interface.

Two great services are included to make use of the built in GPS functionality. Google Maps lets you easily pinpoint locations and directions, while Helio UP lets you upload your photos to Helio's photo hosting service, tagging them with your location plus data like a name, album, and keywords. As with most Helio devices, MySpace on Helio is also included.

The Helio Ocean is planned for launch in Spring of 2007 for a suggested retail price of US$295.

Specifications for the Helio Ocean
Band	CDMA 850/1900MHz
Data	EV-DO
Size	109mm x 55.8mm x 21.8mm (4.33" x 2.20" x 0.86")
Weight	159g (5.61oz)
Battery Life	Unknown standby time
	5.1 hours talk time
Main Display	262k color TFT LCD, QVGA (240x320 pixel) resolution
Sub-Display	N/A
Camera	Yes, 2.0 megapixel resolution
Video	Video capture/playback
Messaging	MMS/SMS
Email	Yes (Yahoo!, Windows Live, Gmail, Exchange, POP/IMAP)
Bluetooth	Yes, v2.0 with A2DP
Infrared	Unknown
Java	Yes
Polyphonics	Yes
Memory	200MB on board memory, microSD memory expansion
Availability	Spring 2007
Other	QWERTY keyboard

 

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