iPhone Alternative: Helio Ocean

[MacRumors]

While we await "media" coverage for Apple's announcement today, here's a non Apple option to explore...

With all the iPhone hype, there's been some notable criticisms and limitations, and if you are on the fence, there is at least one interesting alternative.





Helio.com offers an interesting phone called Ocean which they describe as "The ultimate mobile machine".

The Ocean offers a dual-slide design, providing both a traditional alphanumeric keypad as well as a full QWERTY keyboard. It also offers 3G network capability, MMS, video recording, built in flash, Google Maps with GPS and Instant Messaging capabilties -- all notably absent on the iPhone. The Helio costs $295.

Helio is clearly positioning the Ocean as an iPhone alternative with their comparison chart detailing the differences between the Ocean and iPhone.

Obviously Mac integration and web browsing can't compare to the iPhone, but if messaging is a high priority for you, the Ocean looks like a viable alternative.

Article Link

[Zwhaler]

I read about this awhile ago on mobiledia.com. I don't really think it is a full blown iPhone alternative, but it is nice.

edit: I didn't know iPhone couldn't take video! That really sucks, I take videos all the time on my phone. It is actually quite a nice phone for the price.

[Royale w/cheese]

Meh. Wow, thats the first time I ever typed that. Not as fulfilling as I thought it would be.

[poppe]

It's a nice phone for sure, but a completely different market to me... The ocean is not sleek and savy. It does suck to see all those awesome features for so cheap though....

[Peace]

That thing is ugly.Period.

[massiv]

Hmmm... someone please tell me that this is not blatant advertising money switching hands here. This is straight from a sell sheet from Helio. What's up with this Arn? Am I not on MacRumors.com?

Not sure about all of you guys but I am kind of shocked at MR. I can keep an open mind while on Endgadget but this is not why I read MR. This kinda sucks.

*/ This is lame */

=)

[zflauaus]

I actually got to play with the Ocean two months or so. It was activated or on, but the slider did look pretty good, was stiff so it would slide around a lot when you use it. I'm 6' 4" and have average size fingers for my height. I don't have "sausage" fingers, but for me the keys were a little small, but it typed real well.

[Erix18]

The company is going downhill its the next ampd

[Smurfed]

For this case:

Function > design.

awesome phone though, i'd get that over the iPhone.

P.s. Ignore all the obvious apple fanboys above this post.

[jsnyd05]

It has nice features but no "wow" factor.

No other phone has the "wow" factor like the iPhone does.

I can't believe how many people have come up to me and have just been in awe of the iPhone, it has great functionality and is the most visually impressive phone ever.

The Ocean will never get that sort of attention.

Nice price tag though for all of those options.

-J Snyd

Sent from my iPhone

[arn]

Originally Posted by massiv

Hmmm... someone please tell me that this is not blatant advertising money switching hands here. This is straight from a sell sheet from Helio. What's up with this Arn? Am I not on MacRumors.com?

No. No advertising money was exchanged.

Hey... if I were on a plane to SF to report on a certain Media event... then I'd be too busy to explore this sort of thing.

(fyi, this is a "real" story. debate the merits of the iphone vs the helio. This site's never been about fan-boy-ism, as much as enthusiasm about apple products. despite what people think, this is not an ad, the timing is not about pettiness, maybe a little bit of humor, and a few other reasons mixed in)

arn

[WorthBak]

an advertisement? for a non-apple product? on macrumors? that's very weird... that was a very fishy story.

[P-Worm]

It doesn't have WiFi, but the comparison chart silently looks past the fact that WiFi provides a significant speed boost to 3G if you are in a WiFi area.

P-Worm

[caliguy]

Hopefully some of these comparisons can be addressed through simple software updates. Of course things such as built-in flash camera and 3G are out of the picture, but I'm still hoping Apple will take these software updates seriously.

[syklee26]

This whole thing reads like an advertisement.

[WorthBak]

haha so arn, basically you're just bitter you didn't get an invite to the media event? understood

[BWhaler]

Seems like a paid ad.

Arn, any comment? I hope for the best, as I would hate to see MacRumors become what happened to MacDailyNews.com (which is disgraceful in their ad placement at this point.)

Either way, I've used the Ocean, and it sucks.

[Peace]

arn's ticked off because he wasn't invited to the Stevenote so he's doing this.

Just an opinion..

[caliguy]

Originally Posted by arn

No. No advertising money was exchanged.

Hey... if I were on a plane to SF to report on a certain Media event... then I'd be too busy to explore this sort of thing.

arn

Ah, it all makes sense now
I'm with you on this story. Apple should've invited MR.

[kungming2]

I don't get it. This has nothing to do with the Mac at all... Or with the iPod, and only a shred of comparison to the iPhone. I'm really confused now...

[chr1s60]

I don't know about Helio. The phone sounds cool, but doesn't have the greatest looks. I have never known anyone with Helio nor have I seen more than one or two people with it in person. I think I would pass on anything with them until they are a bigger company.

[the future]

I agree that this "article" looks completely like an advertisement for Helio. And it doesn't belong here in the first place as it's not Mac/Apple-related at all.

What next? "Articles" about Dell boxes - as "iMac alternatives"??

[Flowbee]

I agree that this post seems a little out of place on the MacRumors front page (or even as an 'official' MacRumors post).

I also agree that Arn should have been invited to the Apple 'special event.'

[Peace]

Originally Posted by the future

I agree that this "article" looks completely like an advertisement for Helio. And it doesn't belong here in the first place as it's not Mac/Apple-related at all.

What next? "Articles" about Dell boxes - as "iMac alternatives"??

If that starts to happen my $25 contribution stops.

[massiv]

Originally Posted by arn

No. No advertising money was exchanged.

Hey... if I were on a plane to SF to report on a certain Media event... then I'd be too busy to explore this sort of thing.

arn

Ahhh... a little bitter are we? I can sympathize with you to a degree but I don't appreciate being used as ammunition against Apple. This is pretty low though. You must be pissed.

Now that I think about it this is pretty tacky and juvenile. MR lost some points in my book tonight. Where did that other site go?