Helio HERO review by Natshu


Helio is a new company that showed its face in America in May.
To my surprise, Helio sells Korean phones, the leading in cellphone technology. But Helio has made a few mistakes.

HERO from Helio is an amazing model to look at; it's an eye candy. It is a slider model with a 2.2" screen, a 2MP camera (with flash), dual stereo system, incredible LED service lights, and a T-flash expansion. It also supports Korean type (and the fonts are great). Although HERO may sound like a flawless phone, a HERO user may feel differently.


DESIGN
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I had the choice between two Helio phones: HERO and KICKFLIP. I chose the HERO right away because of its sleek look.

HERO is very bulky and heavy. It fits in my pocket easily, but its large form presses against my leg... sometimes uncomfortably. This may vary between sexes, as women generally carry their phones in their purse.

HERO is a slider phone. When closed, there are 11 buttons total exposed (12 including the directional keys). This isn't a problem to people who arent forgetful, but when one of those buttons are pressed, the phone makes a sound (a rather loud sound due to its dual stereo). BEEP.
The exposed buttons can be made to function even when the phone is closed by changing the settings. The button has to be held for 3 seconds for it to function. For example, I could hold the camera button for 3 seconds and it would automatically switch to camera mode. The phone would be held sideways, resembling a digital camera.

When the phone is open, it shows hexagonal keypad system which looks amazing. There is only one problem: one keypad is crammed with 4~5 alphabets (sum of both Korean and English) and they are both printed with similar fonts. It's sometimes hard to identify the letter C because of the Korean letter ㄷ.

The material that forms the plate of the phone seems to be scratch-free. This was an excellent idea. The plastic is durable and smooth.

OVERVIEW on DESIGN: HERO is an eye candy. It satisfies the eyes of phone freaks, but it is very bulky for a normal consumer. The outer keys can be quite annoying during times of silence. The keypads are also very flashy, but it is hard to text without deleting the words once in a while. The plate is made of scratch-free plastic. In one word, this phone is a tank.


FUNCTIONS
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This phone has to be the most amazing media phone yet (at least in America anyway), but it has ridiculously large amounts of bugs due to Helio's hurried opening. All of the bugs are announced to be fixed on 7/15/06 with a firmware update. Helio's default plan is a bit pricy ($85/month) but its features satisfy young consumers.

Let's break it down from the beginning:
The moment you slide up the HERO, the stereo speakers emit a sweeping sound indicating that the phone has opened. This is customizable, but the model only offers 3 sounds as of right now. It may be a subject of change after a firmware update coming in 7/15/06.

Pressing the menu button, a circular menu shows up.



The choice in the middle is the Contacts menu
The choice on the left is texting
The choice on the right is gaming
The choice on the top is internet surfing
The choice on the bottom is Video & Music
The choice on the top left is customization
The choice on the top right is camera
The choice on the bottom left is tools
The choice on the bottom right is setup.

Again, moving with the directional pad emits a sound.

The contacts function on HERO is similar to any other phone of today. Add, Find, Groups, Hotkeys, Call history, Customer service, Sync, and Personal informatoin. Nothing new here.

The texting function is a big thing on Helio phones. For the first time in the Americas, the cellphone industry is introduced to Korean language texting. The only disappointment is that Helio users cannot text to others with Americanized phones in Korean. The texting supports Korean, English T9, English Abc, English ABC, Numbers, and Symbols (and boy are there a ton of symbols like ☆★○●◎). There is also a multimedia messaging program, but on my phone, choosing this option turns my phone off. It works the next time. It seems that multimedia messaging has a seperate module.

The games are AMAZING on this phone. HERO exclusively supports dual coprocessing (summing the phone's main CPU power with the graphic processor), making a leap in mobile gaming. HERO comes with two preloaded games: Lost Sister and Midnight Pool. Both games are 3D. The graphics nearly look like N64 (and the games lag sometimes when there are too many things in the screen). Many more games can be downloaded from the Helio online store.
But besides the types of games, the game control panel also seems to have a seperate module. This makes the phone a bit laggy when entering the panel.

The internet is unlimited with the default Helio plan. The first things you see on the Korean internet are rings, games, music, screens, karaoke (I have no idea because I never dared to spend $1.59 for a song), celebrities, K-Town info, and news.
-Ringtones are about $3.00. There are a ton of Korean songs which were not available before on American phones.
-Games are about $6.00. There are tons of Korean mobile games as well as American mobile games.
-Songs are about $1.50. It's not a good idea to buy songs because you can just get them from your computer.
-Screens are about $2.00. Although this may sound like a bad deal, Helio has put up some hilarious screen savers. Make your friends laugh (mine says 'use your own phone, you hobo').
-Karaoke songs are about $1.50. I'm not sure how it works yet, but the descriptions tell me that the phone works like an actual Karaoke machine... HOW?!
-Celebrity consists of magazine photos and celebrity news. There isn't any money involved.
-K-Town info doesn't have any fee to it. This menu helps you keep updated on Korean news.
-News doesnt need any fee (or explanation :cool. It also features fortune telling of love, money, fame, whatever.

English internet on Helio supports MySpace.


Video & Music is very well made. You can upload your very own mpeg movie files or mp3 songs. When you turn on a song, you can see an equalizer bouncing. Video files play very clearly without lag, but streaming can contain a few stops because of buffering. HERO's dual stereo system creates loud, crisp sounds that can compare to a pair of computer speakers.

Style doesn't need much explanation. It changes ringtones, screens, etc.

Camera function is incredible. It is 2MP which delivers clear photos. It also has many snap options such as sunny, indoors, outdoors, etc. and tons of color options like blue, red, green, hue, etc.
When taking a picture, sound effects can be changed. When the button is pressed, the phone can emit a sound like "Smile~!". This can confuse your friends ^^
But besides the humorous functions, the camera has bugs too. When receiving a text or a phone call during snap mode, the screen becomes distorted and requires you to reset the phone. Quite annoying.

Tools contain a load of useful things. There are calendar, morning call, alarm, planner, world time, Tip calculator (I find this the most useful), calculator, voice recorder, stopwatch, and memo. All of the functions are self explanatory.

Setup is a more in-depth version of Style.


OVERVIEW for FUNCTIONS: Functions definitely satisfy the tech savvy. It takes an average person about 2 days to learn all of the functions of HERO. Bugs can make you a bit irritated though.



OTHER
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The HERO device does not support SIM cards. A bit of disappointment there.

The phone lags a bit if an animated screensaver is used.

The sound quality with the earphone is better than iPod and a little bit less than iRiver.

This phone does not support bluetooth. I wonder why?




PRODUCT OVERVIEW
This phone is definitely the ultimate media phone yet. Although it has some bugs that may irritate some users, they are all subject to be fixed after a major firmware update. It's bulky design can bother some people (and I can see why people go for the Razr) but with all of the features crammed in, it's a wonder how all of those things fit. The camera on HERO is simply amazing with its 2MP quality (it beats my friend's old digital camera). If you're a consumer that desires a super gadget, HERO is your choice. I can't guarantee your satisfaction if you are not one of them, though.

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nice forme but nokia is the best