Since the day the original Helio Ocean hit the shelves, rumors were abound that a followup was in the works. 2 years have since passed, countless rumors and leaks have come and gone, and the company that birthed the original has since been acquired – but it’s finally here. Has the wait been worth it?
The Feel:
It’s slightly slimmer and slightly lighter than the original Ocean, but it’s still quite the brick. While that’s outside of the norm when surrounded by phone after phone battling to be the slimmest, it’s definitely not a bad thing. It might not fit well in your pants, but damn does it fit well in your hands.
An odd note, but the keyboard and the numberpad have switched places – the keyboard is now the middle layer, with the numberpad now at the bottom. Why? Weight distribution. If you slide into the keyboard on the original Ocean, the number pad is beneath the slid out screen – this adds weight to upper section, making it quite top-heavy while typing. The keyboard is used far more than the numberpad – so if any of the two must suffer from awkward weight distribution, it should be the latter. With the switch, two thirds of the mass is in your palms while typing, giving it a much more properly weighted feel.
To be honest, we’d rather they’d have ditched the numberpad at this point. The dual-slide design was an awesome selling point for the first one – but after years of using the Ocean and barely making use of the numberpad, we’d have done away with the gimmick for the sake of slimming it down a bit.
The Look:
It goes without saying, but the Helio Ocean 2 is a homage to the original. If one were to take the original Ocean and polish out its visual flaws without intending to change the overall look, the Ocean 2 would be the result. It sports the same pill-shaped, dual sliding design, but the hard, straight lines have morphed into smooth curves, matte has become gloss, and the lifted buttons have been displaced (for better or worse) by flush, uniform keys.
As images of the Ocean 2 leaked out over the past few months, the color scheme on display was a black/silver very much like that of the original. Since then, however, it’s been given the new cherry red paint job you see here. We can’t say we’re fans of it – we’d much rather see it in an all black, or any color that isn’t quite so.. dramatic. Fortunately, Virgin has said that such a color option is on the way – eventually.
Hues aside, the Ocean 2 has taken every visual cue from the original and improved upon them in every way. Looks, unfortunately, can be deceiving.
The Face:
Visual appeal comes at the cost of usability. The flush face buttons, which look quite stunning, are notably more difficult to use than those of the original. A millimeter or so has been shaved off to bring them to the same height as the face, removing much of the palpable “Click” that resonated from a button press. This is especially true on the top two “soft keys”, neither of which truly feel like they’re being pushed. As a result of the new button design, I often found myself pressing two buttons at once – generally the bottom right softkey and the end call key, or the bottom left softkey and the call key.
The Keyboard:
The dual-slide design of the original Ocean is what caught people’s attention; the keyboard is what kept them interested. It wasn’t the best keyboard we’d seen on a mobile – the Sidekick series still holds that title in our books – but coupled with the no-limits texting/data included in all (standard) Helio plans, it was untouchable (or, rather, quite touchable. By us. Constantly.)
The Ocean 2 keyboard moves to improve upon the original, dealing with one of the biggest issues: tiny, thumb-killing buttons. The new buttons are significantly larger, with nearly no space on the board wasted. Unfortunately, the keyboard buttons suffer from the exact same flaw that plagues those found on the face. On the original Ocean, each key stood alone; on this sequel, the entire surface of the keyboard is a single slab (which is what allows the keys to be so much larger), decreasing the overall tactility. If you don’t aim fairly close to the dead center of each key, you’ll inadvertently also press the key beside it.
That said, the new keys are much, MUCH easier on your thumbs.
Optical Sensor:
In a world enthralled with touch, it is no surprise that the Helio Ocean makes a move to integrate functionality beyond the standard button press. The transition to a full touchscreen wasn’t going to happen, however, considering what it would require in terms of UI design, hardware implementation, and testing; Helio just didn’t have the financing or the resources to pull it off. Purposed as a hopeful supplantation of a touchscreen is an optical sensor at the core of the D-Pad. The best way to grasp its functionality would be to imagine that of a laptop’s trackpad – except instead of moving a cursor around the screen, the sensor is mapped to handset’s D-Pad directionals.
In some places, the sensor shines. In the navigation menus, for example, the sensor detects gestures big and small. In others it falls flat – namely, the browser, which is most unfortunate. This was one place where the sensor really could have been put to good use. Perhaps we’ve been spoiled by the battle for perfection occurring in the smartphone browser arena right now, but we’d hoped the sensor would grant us the large, gesture-based swooping motions we’ve come to love in Safari Mobile and the Android browser. It does not. Even the largest thumb swoop will only scroll the page marginally, making it quite tough to justify using the sensor to navigate a page rather than the standard directional pad.
The new UI:
As we saw with the never-released Helio Opus, the Ocean 2 has ditched the vibrantly hued “Circus” theme of the original (though you can set it back if you’d like) main menu, opting instead for a black and blue look they call “Dashboard” – and we love it. It doesn’t fit quite as well with the red bezel found on this edition – but be it that Virgin releases an all black color option as we hope they will, the UI and the device will run hand-in-hand as one gorgeous lump of stealthy beauty.
The main menu isn’t the only thing in the software that got some polish; the menus have all been overhauled with gradients and highlights, giving it a much more modern and finetuned appearance.
The Camera:
In one of the more perplexing design changes, the camera on the Ocean 2 has been moved from the horizontal center of the device to the far end. It seems like a trivial difference at first, until you go to take a shot using two hands for the sake of stability. Your left hand will cover the lens.
They’ve dropped the flash, which is a bit disappointing – not because we ever used it for pictures, but because we loved using it as an impromptu flashlight.
Photo/Video Quality:
By today’s ever increasing standards, the 2 megapixel camera comes in on the low to lower-mid range of things. While the pictures it takes aren’t very high res, their quality is better than we expected to get out of a 2mp cam. The shutter is quick, and the interface is intuitive.
The video quality is a bit disappointing, mostly because of odd noise artifacts we experienced in almost every video we took. See the video below as an example – the shooting environment was silent, though you can hear a constant hiss throughout. Sometimes it was this hiss, other times it was a much more annoying buzzing noise. This may have just been an issue with our unit.
The Browser:
While it may not compare to modern smartphone browsers, the Ocean’s browser is one of the better featurephone browsers we’ve used. It won’t compare to Webkit-based stuff, but it’s better than the trash that comes by default on most flips and sliders. And if you don’t like it, it comes stock with Opera Mini – which oddly enough, I’m partly to thank for. (Long story short: I run Heliocity. We figured out how to hack Opera Mini on to Helio. Upon seeing this and the reception, Helio entered talks with Opera Mini to make it official.)
The most significant changes to the browser are its improved start/shutdown times and the ability to turn off “Mobile Optimized” mode. “Mobile Optimized” mode is a commonly complained about feature found on most prior Helio devices which passed all sites through a Google-powered mobile transcoder with a “View in HTML” button at the bottom. In other words, it meant at least 2 extra clicks before you got to see the content as intended. We were quite excited to see that the browser now claimed to rock tabbed browsing – but it doesn’t, really. It’ll keep track of tabs in a “Tab View” screen, but clicking into a tab requires a full refresh of the page. That, of course, completely defeats the purpose, turning it into a weird temporary visual bookmarking system of sorts.
The Chat:
We’ve always loved the all-in-one Ultimate Inbox found on Helio devices, and it only gets better on the new Ocean. Google Talk support has been added to the likes of SMS/MMS, AIM, Yahoo, and Windows Live on the IM side of things, with Helio Mail, Exchange, Yahoo, Earthlink, POP, and IMAP support on the email front. Switching from conversation to conversation in the IM applications is a bit burdensome.
Biggest improvement overall has to be threaded SMS – it makes texting a whole lot more practical which, with the aforementioned all-you-can-eat text plans, is a much welcome change.
The Speakerphone:
Deafeningly loud at the max settings – exactly as it should be. We were able to hear it over the road noise on the freeway quite easily, and could hear the ringtone blasting from another room.
Wallpapers:
This one’s an odd one, but it’s something long time Ocean users will be glad to see: You can now have separate wallpapers for landscape/portrait mode. On the original Ocean, wallpapers (besides those that came on the device) would fit properly only in either landscape or portrait mode – not both. You now have the option to set separate images for each, or crop the same image for proper fitting. Finally!
General Notes and Miscellanea:
- Silence slider: It’s becoming more and more common to see on/off silence switches, and we love that it made it onto the Ocean 2.
- Connection: The charging/data port has changed, both in shape and location. It’s a trivial matter, but Ocean 1 migrants looking to use their car chargers are out of luck.
- USB Charging/Data cable has a little on/off button. Why? We have no idea.
- The Ocean 2 has Bluetooth file transfering – Ocean 1 didn’t.
- Mail for Exchange is now free.
- 3.5mm jack! No horribly annoying dongle required.
Conclusion:
To sum it all up in a single sentence: the Ocean 2 is a rough take on what the Ocean 1 should have been.
There are improvements across the board, but they’re unfortunately small and not without their flaws. That said, the Ocean 2 isn’t a bad phone – it’s just a bit lost. It wants to be a smartphone, but it’s not. As a featurephone, however, it’s easily one of our favorites. If you’re a fan of the original Ocean, a heavy texter, or just looking for one of the best featurephones ever made, the Ocean 2 will fit the bill. It’s a tough sell in a market quickly becoming dominated by incredibly powerful smartphones, but we’re still glad the Helio Ocean 2 is finally making its way to the shelves. Look for it to hit on February 12th at $149.
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the Ocean 2 is a rough take on what the Ocean 1 should have been. very powerful. very cool. I like it.
1st
You’re not only NOT “1st”, but you’re also a shithead. The only worthwhile thing about your useless comment is that you failed to accomplish the one thing your comment set out to accomplish.
And for that, you provided a hearty laugh.
I currently have a Fin and the thing that annoys me most is the lag time when going through the menus. It just seems to me that it gets bogged down when trying to open up the text messaging menus or get to apps. I’m not sure if this is a problem on the original Ocean, but before I get an Ocean 2 or another phone that is definitely something I’d want to make sure isn’t an issue.
Does it sync with google calendar and contacts? If no then goodbye virgin.
One of my biggest annoyances was that I couldn’t open up links from my email in Opera, only in the default browser. Has that been fixed?
is helio going to start using sim cards??
and do you think they are going to make any more improvements to the ocean 2 ?
I don’t think any CDMA carriers use sim cards (like verizon and sprint)
Does the file viewer allow you to create/edit Microsoft Office documents??
1. can you goto text inbox while on a call?
2. can you access calendar while on a call?
3. can you make conference calls any better than ocean 1s flawed process?
4. can you listen to music while writing text messages?
YES!
i have to say i was really excited for three months almost ended up paying 850 to a guy for his one, he worked 4 helio, anyway i have to say it just didnt live up to expectations, sorry helio maybe the samsung would have worked!
Did Helio fix the freezing problem that the ocean 1 has. The phone freezes way to often. You have to turn the phone off and then back on to get it to unfreeze.
I have had my ocean 1 for over a year now and have never had problem with my phone “freezing”. In fact I would say that My Ocean is one of the best phones I have ever owned (and Ive owned a lot).
I have to agree with the previous replier. My Ocean 1 has worked without any freeze ups. Although anytime I access anything on my 2GB SD card it takes forever to read whats on it (mp3, pics, video). 8 out of 10
lets see no flash ?? is that right so no, flashlight.. which i use all the time… gotta remove the battery to change memory cards. so its better how.. can it use a 4 gig memory card.. wonder whats the max size card it can have. why would i want to upgrade?? sorry im confused..
I for one will be leaving Helio once my contract is up in June. I will probably give away my ocean 1 to anyone who is willing to pay for shipping. It has been frustrating to have a phone that cost as much as a smart phone with out the capability that a smart phone has. There is not a single app on the Ocean that is useful and not a b***h to use.
The only thing good about Helio are their cheap plans.
I switched to Helio from Sprint (which still has the best call quality that I’ve found), after being tired of their nickel-and-dime techniques and needing something in the way of a smartphone without the ridiculous cost associated with such a thing.
At $99 (with instant rebate, at Fry’s), the original Ocean fit the bill perfectly.
But that was 2 years ago. Before the iPhone. And, more importantly, before every cellphone maker decided to up their game to compete with the iPhone.
Later this month, Helio (err… “helio, kinda”) is finally going to release the phone they should’ve released back in 2007?
It’s all too little, too late. A giant brick phone with an “optical sensor” 1/10th the size of the original iPod’s click wheel? To hell with that.
I really wanted to stick with Helio – their prices and customer service were the best I’ve ever experienced. But, once they were bought by Virgin and therefore decided to move their customer service over to people with sub-par English comprehension and a complete disregard for customer care – they just became another company I wanted nothing to do with.
I don’t even know who to blame for the Ocean 2, but it’s a slap in the face. Fuck ‘em. I’m done with Helio.
The worst part is that – while I love Apple’s products and the iPhone in particular – AT&T has terrible 3G service, overpriced phone plans and (from what I’ve heard) customer service shittier than most… I’m stuck choosing the lesser of evil.
I had a terrible time with customer service. Ilove my Ocean but Helio CS is the only one to ever hang up on me.
maybe they hung up on you because you were to stupid for anyone to deal with? i have had no problems with the customer service (back when it was helio). all i know is helio/virgin had better make a smart phone that is actually everything that ocean, or ocean 2 should have been, other wise theyre going to end up going out of buisness.
Why I will stick with Helio and upgrade.$99 a month for unlimited everything. AT&T for a matching services is $140 a month …s o $41 X 12 months = $492.00
I am with Helio becasue of the service contract.
the best way to describe this situation is disappointing. I am fairly new to Helio and have been overly impressed with both their service and features. I never had gotten so many compliments on how “cool” my phone was. But how am i supposed to “wow” anyone anymore when the Ocean 2 is a cheap fix to the Ocean 1. I doubt anyone will even notice my new phone when i get it and now i will not recommend them to Helio after joining with Virgin Mobile. All in all, all i really wanted to say was thank you Helio…for stickin me with another year of Virgin Mobile and no new toys to play with…not a good way to start 2009…not good at all.
left helio($99 unlimted/all in)for sprint($99 simply everything)and it was the best decision i’ve ever made!
the ocean 2 can’t hold a torch to the htc touch pro,TRUST!!!
DIP SHIT HELIO AND SPRINT ARE BASICALLY THE SAME NETWORK. VIRGIN MOBILE IS HOSTED BY SPRINT AND THEY BOUGHT HELIO SO HELIO=VIRGIN MOBILE= SPRINT SO U REALLY DIDNT MAKE A SOUND DECISION U JUST WAISTED MORE MONEY AND PAID FOR ANOTHER PHONE
HAHAHHAHAHAHAHHA!!!
Actually …um helio/virgin mobile pay a fee to use sprints towers…who also use verizons towers when ur roaming. No hosting…and for the wasting money part i dont think so… if go to a good vender they will do everything even give u multiple rebates (which most of the time you cant use at once) and even expired rebates to get your business….Or if you had sprint before and were in good standing and have a relitive that still has sprint and is in good standing you can end up getting a sweet deal…Its happened before to my family.
An besides that Sprint CS has gotten way better they want to please you the customer so they do everything they can if you know how to talk to them nicely and not like a crazy ass screamer.
You’re ridiculous.
He’s saying he got the same price, same service, and a better phone. He didn’t waste money. No need to be a jerk and “yell”.
I have at one time or another been customers of all 4 major carriers, as well as few regional ones (us cellular, cricket, alltel, ect) and I have to say that out of all of them Helio has been the best. I have also used virgin mobile as well an I find them to be a great service. so you combine the two and you have a really great combination. Now Sprint and Helio/virgin do use the same towers, but their customer service/operations are completely different. Sprint has really never pulled its head out of it’s own ass. They have consistently ranked lowest in customer satisfaction thats in it self is reason one why switching from Helio to Sprint was a bad bad decision.
My contract expired back in january and I was waiting for the ocean 2 to come out before i renewed my contract and i can tell you know I am very dissappointed with the ocean 2. only a 2mp camera. and the video quality seems to be horrible. a flat keypad is something i am not looking forward too. I currently have the fin and i am somewhat happy with it. I loved my drift it was the better of the 2 phones i believe.
I will be looking around for a new phone and company. I have never had any problems with the service or CS but the ocean 2 just seems outdated at this time.
I was always the helio fan…I still have my origional Ocean but sadly, despite everything I’m paying a fortune ($75 a month…compared to my family AT&T plan of less than that) As much as I love my onboard internet and all it’s really not worthwhile…I think after the plan ends I’ll return to AT&T and get either the google phone or iphone
It sounds like it should be called RED Ocean v1.1 (-minus flash)
too disappointing. expected more for such a long wait. with the amount of time they had to produce a new Ocean, it should have had all of the new have-to-haves, like touch screen, high mp camera, a text ringer that can be custom, should have kept the flash, louder speakers, faster browser, thinner, etc.
i have to say that i will be giving up with helio. since they have become Virgin, customer service has sucked, service has gotten worse, and now a not-so-much-better phone to upgrade to is horrible.
sucks, but they should have used their 2 years a little more wisely. alot of customers will be lost over this.
When does the Ocean 3 come out? Or should I wait for the Ocean 4? Will the Ocean 5 have a camera better than 2MP? I just want a phone that doesn’t crap out. What a bummer. They need more handset options. The fin is alright, but no keyboard. How can they just regurgitate the Ocean 1 when their competition is crushing them. Ditch crappy Pantech. Do what it takes to get new handsets.
As an owner of a Fin, I’m always looking for the greatest amount of features added to the smallest device possible. In short: the Fin provided many of the Helio features for MUCH less real-estate than the Ocean, so I opted for size over features.
That said, after trying countless iPhones and Blackberry Storms, I completely fell in love with full featured mobile browsers and was willing to make the jump over to a larger device, but the reviewer’s comments about the Ocean 2 are spot-on; it’s still a brick.
PLEASE remove the dial pad and make it thinner, I WANT to purchase one of these things, but I’m afraid I won’t be doing so at its current width. I’m also a bit disappointed to hear about the flat keypad, given that I text so much on my Fin I’ve worn slight cracks in the keypad, and depending on the material and quality of the skin covering the buttons, I may do the same with the O2.
In any case, thank you very much for the review – I still love Helio and there isn’t a day that passes where it doesn’t sell itself to my friends with features and price. Regardless, other services are catching up and with much more versatile devices, so I’m hoping VirginMobile can continue to inject some much-needed innovation and keep Helio ahead of the crowd.
As much as I love Helio’s cheap phone plans, I have grown tired of my Ocean really. Mainly its size. If they would make it thinner, I’d be ever so happy. Like most of us with the Ocean, the num pad is almost prehistoric. I only use the num pad to dail numbers, which is rare since I have everyone on my phone. But even still I can slide the QWERTY keyboard out and dial there too. Like a few of you guys, my Ocean 1 has been freezing up on me a lot too lately. I’ve had the Ocean for almost a year and it gets funky on me every now and again.
I really want to get a thinner phone with a great phone plan as Helio/Virgin Mobile. I love just payin’ the $65 a month (with taxes of course) since I’m a big texter/internet user. But at the same time, I’d want something that wouldn’t look like I have a tumor growing out of my thigh.
So, I might be looking into getting another service soon once I find a decent one without a high ass texting and data plan. Unless Helio/ Virgin Mobile step up their game ASAP. They need to start advertising more so they can get more financing to make better phones. I love when people asking, “Oh what phone is that?” and I go “Helio Ocean.” I get the weird looks with the occasional, “What the hell is that?” Haha.
I used an Ocean for two years and have been using the Ocean 2 for about four weeks. Here are my impressions of the Ocean 2 compared to the original Ocean.
The Ocean 2 seems better in the following respects: the keyboard is improved and one can now read the symbols on the keys under poor lighting conditions; the telephone function seems to work better — I believe I can stay connected in places where I previously could not and the sound of the calls are improved. Google Maps runs marginally better. Texts and emails that are in the process of being drafted are not lost now when a call comes in. I think the organizing of text messages like a chat is an improvement. The Microsoft Exchange connector seems to work more consistently, although Synchs are interrupted more often than with the original Ocean.
The Ocean 2 is not as good in the following respects: The camera is inferior optically and the absence of a flash makes it much less useful. Also, I miss having the flash as an emergency mini flashlight. The touch-sensitive pad in the middle of the rocker is generally more annoying than useful and appears to be more of a gimmick than a useful tool. Hiding the Micro SD card slot under the battery is a bad idea. The new battery design, with a flimsy cover, does not seem as durable as the old design, although the new one is easier to open. I don’t like that one has to go to Contacts every time one sends an email; the old method of keeping your most recent email contacts accessibly by typing the first few letters of their name without going to Contacts was more convenient. Cannot access Ocean 2’s internal memory from PC when connected via USB.
Problem: My Ocean 2 has had one really annoying problem. The phone stops ringing randomly. If the phone stopped ringing, the only way I could restore the ring was by removing the battery. It would then ring for an hour or half a day and then stop ringing again. I’ve called VM twice to work on the situation; they are now sending me a replacement phone since none of the other things we tried have fixed the problem.
BTW: I completely disagree with the article author who would get rid of the number pad. The number pad is very useful, both for dialing phone numbers and for operating Google Maps.
Now that Virgin Mobile acquired Helio i think the future is even more Dull coz Virgin mobile will eventually but slowly phase out Helio, if they haven’t already started. My belated condolence to Helio R.I.P