Helio phone plus#

We were able to thumb-type text messages quickly without a lot of mistakes.

Similarly, the QWERTY keyboard is improved as well, with a more spacious layout and bigger keys. There's also a lot more room between the bottom row of the keypad and the lip of the phone. No longer flat, the Ocean 2's keypad has nice defined ridges and all the keys are raised above the surface.

The number keypad is definitely improved over the original. The Helio Ocean 2 has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard in addition to a slide-out number keypad. Because of its heft, this is certainly not a phone to put in your pocket, but its oval shape and rubber trim gives it a good feel in the hand. The slider mechanism on the Ocean 2 feels nice and solid each layer slides into place with just the right amount of give. You slide the phone vertically to reveal the number keypad and horizontally to reveal the QWERTY keyboard-you can't slide both out at the same time. Following the design sensibility of the original Ocean, the Ocean 2 has a dual-slider design with three layers: the display layer, the number keypad layer, and the keyboard layer. Two years ago, that might've been OK, but in today's market of skinny handsets, the Ocean 2's girth is a novelty. The Ocean 2 measures 4.65 inches long by 2.28 inches wide by 0.81 inch thick and weighs a whopping 5.89 ounces. There's no two ways about it the Helio Ocean 2 is one very thick phone. You can get the Helio Ocean 2 now from Virgin Mobile for a pretty nice price of $149. We definitely think it's a step up from the original Ocean, but you'll still have to get over its hefty size.

Helio phone plus#

You also get all the high-end features the original Ocean was known for, plus a few extra goodies like 2GB of internal storage, a tabbed browser, and more.

Pantech's still the manufacturer and it still has that dual-slider design, but now it comes with a much-improved keyboard, an innovative touch pad sensor, and a wider display. Released two years after the original, the Ocean 2 has everything the Ocean had and more. It was a decent phone, but it was nowhere near the sleek and feature-rich device that was the Ocean.Įnter the Ocean 2. The first sign of this new marriage was the Virgin Mobile Shuttle, which was Virgin's first ever 3G handheld. It also branched out its payment models to include monthly voice and data plans that better suit Helio's legacy. In late 2008, Virgin Mobile USA bought the troubled network operator (The intent to purchase was announced in June and the acquisition was closed in August), which allowed the prepaid giant to introduce a whole new set of devices to its customers. With great messaging capabilities, a HTML browser, EV-DO, GPS, smart integration with popular social networks like Facebook and MySpace, and support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, the Helio Ocean promised to be a great phone for tech-savvy hipsters.īut Helio didn't last too long in the MVNO space. Indeed, it was one of 2007's most talked about phones, aside from the iPhone, of course. It was the carrier's first smartphone-like device, and it was also Pantech's first attempt at a dual-slider handset (Pantech would go on to create other dual-slider phones such as the Pantech Duo). When the Helio Ocean was released two years ago, it marked the coming-of-age of the young MVNO upstart that was Helio.