Helio making waves with the Ocean

Helio Ocean

(Credit: Helio)

Yours truly is currently stuck in SFO for a mind-boggling eight hours, but that won't stop me from telling you about the latest in cell phone news. One of the hottest news items this morning is the release of the uber-sexy Helio Ocean, which is that Helio-branded QWERTY phone we mentioned in late February. This triple-decker wonder slides up to reveal a number keypad, and a separate layer slides sideways to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard. At 0.86-inch thick, it certainly isn't the thinnest phone in the world, but we're willing to forgive its bulk for all that added functionality. The screen looks to be a winner--it's a 2.4-inch QVGA display with 262,000-colors--and its features look mighty impressive too. They include EV-DO support, a full HTML browser, 200MB of internal memory, a microSD card slot, a 2.0-megapixel camera with digital zoom and built-in flash, an MPEG-4 video recorder, stereo Bluetooth, a music player that supports MP3, AAC, and WMA, built-in GPS, access to Helio's full stable of broadband services like MySpace Mobile, Helio Music, and Buddy Beacon, and POP/IMAP email support that can be integrated with Exchange and ActiveSync servers. Sure to be one of the big ticket offerings from Helio, the Helio Ocean will be available later this year for around $295.

[Mike_Stark]

My first impression

The new Ocean launched Friday, and I came across a promotional code to save some serious green when you go to buy it. <br /><br />==&gt; $75 off the $295 pricetag <br />==&gt; $30 Activation Fee waived <br />==&gt; $25 off first four months of service ($100 total) <br /><br />Go to the Helio website and use the promo code B2BDGOD <br /><br />I ordered mine Friday and got it yesterday... and it's freaking awesome!