this document last updated on:
Date: 2007-05-21 10:49:50
as in depth as i can get in the next 20 something days.. as i already said, i the days since i ordered do count. this document will kinda remain open until the end of my 30 day trial period, and each time it is updated, i will update the date at the top, so if you are considering helio (and you live in the midwest), this might be of interest to you.
after using the blackberry 7250 for two years, i am now evaluating the helio drift. i would have gotten the ocean, but it was not yet released. i might upgrade to it, now that the ocean is shipping.
anyway, here we go:
SHIPPING
okay, i ordered my first helio on may 9, 2007. i have not seen this one yet. it appears that it has not shipped yet.
i called several times this week and last checking on the status of my phone, but have not seen it yet. while i was on the phone the second time, i was upsold to another unit for my wife. that unit came in today (it’s a white one.) when i showed it to my wife, she didn’t want it. she is not a tech person, and her phone is all that she needs. she doesn’t need bells or whistles, so it’s probably going back.
i might keep the white one, since it will match most of my other gadgets, and doesn’t look quite so stuffy. not that the black one does, but the white one is just kinda dope.
one more thing. i was supposed to get a 1 gig chip with my order for free, but it was not included in my box. it might be coming in a separate order, so i will have to wait.
one last thing. make SURE you have it shipped to your office if you are not home all day. you have to be at your house to sign for it, and they will not let you change the address on your order. so make SURE you have it shipped somewhere where people are, otherwise, you will have to go to fedex to get it.. like i did
CONSTRUCTION AND FORM FACTOR
one of the things that i read in alot of the online reviews is that the phone seems kinda cheap.
for $100, i wasn’t expecting a sherman tank with a mouthpiece. what i got seems perfectly fine. i dunno that i would trust keeping it in my pocket rattling around, but that’s the case with most phones in this price range. that was one bonus with the blackberry, it was very rugged. i dropped it more than 10 times, and it’s fine.
i might get a little case for this phone and call it a day. for what you pay, and for this price range, though, this phone is no better or worse than other phones i have used.
i also read alot of complaints about the form factor. it seems alot of people have problems with the keypad. i have big thumbs, and they tend to block my view of all the keys, but that really isn’t a helio (samsumg) problem, but more of a human adaption problem. i am sure after a day or two of pecking out messages, i will get used to it.
SYNCING
i asked about 100 times on the phone if the helio would sync to my mac address book and calendar.. i was toold each of those 100 times that this would not be a problem. i spent a few hours on it tonight, and have found that it’s not really a viable solution.
i attacked it a few different ways including:
1. exporting my address book as vcards and then using various online tools to get the the helio web mail to import everything.
1. i used the howard forum solultion to get my addresses imported. this did not work for me. i spent an hour paring the addresses down to a bare minimum, and all clean entries, but this didn’t work either.
at this point, there are two things i could do:
1. i can really sit down and bang this thing out. this would give me the satisfaction of fixing the problem, but would waste ALOT of time.
1. i can give up. this seems more viable as: i gain nothing by solving the import problem, and i can probably type them in just as fast. i just hope i don’t need some numbers while i am on the road.
this kinda pissed me off, as i was duped by helio into thinking i could do this.
i was also promised that the media management software worked on mac. it doesn’t not even kinda. there are no plans to make it work, even though they said it would.
all this very well could be a deal breaker, but who knows. i am gonna be fair about this. i even forwarded all my calls from my blackberry to this phone for the duration.
SMS
okay, to really test out how well SMS works with this gig, i am going to set it back up on my twttr account. this should shove a bunch of messages through the phone and let me see how easy it is to weed through messages i might not normally care about.
this is the first phone i have had after blackberry that i have used extensively for text messaging, so i am getting used to pecking out T9 messages. alot of the words i used are specialized words (and swear words) that don’t show up in T9. it would be nice if you could add words the the T9 list.
also, i have ZERO plans of text messaging in korean. i really wish this option would disappear. the problem is, it shows up as you scroll through the keying options. this is one more unnecessary click when changing keying options. this just seems kinda crazy to me.
EMAIL
for some reason, i thought that this thing had a regular pop program. it doesn’t. in order to check your email, you have to manually log in to the web site, and tell it to check your mail. you get no notification that you have an email on the hook.
i hear that the ocean has this feature, so i will check it out. unfortunately, the email is useless to me without having a push. this might force me to either ditch this system, or get an ocean. we’ll see.
the other thing to consider is that you cannot set up a random POP address on the phone. you have you use a #####@myhelio.com address. this scares me in that if you start getting spammed at that address, you are kinda hosed. if you ever send an email to anyone who uses outlook express, you can probably look forward to such a hosing.
BLUETOOTH
since i cannot get files to the device any way i try (on mac) i was hoping that i could maybe bluetooth the files over. this didn’t work either. when trying to pair bluetooth to my powerbook, i got a failure. the computer was looking for an 8 digit passkey, but the device only let me type in 6 digits before failing out.
i am guessing that bluetooth of crippled to allow only headseats and the like to connect.
after some monkeying around sessions, i was able to tansfer vcards from my powerbook to my phone.. one at a time.. let me know if anyone wants the gory details.
WEB BROWSER
the helio drift is my first introduction to mobile web. previously, i had the blackberry web browser, but the problem with the blackberry browser is that it tries to be a full size browser. this just doesn’t work on such a tiny connection.
the helio browser revolves around several mobile portals. this seems to work just like i need it. when i am looking up something quickly while mobile, i really have no need to check any kinds of full sized web sites. i just want to get some little piece of information quickly.
this weekend, i used it to get movie tickets, check showtimes, and goof around with google maps. with the blackberry, i would have given up just firing up the web browser. the helio is actually a usable tool.
i have decided to learn mobile web design, just to use this thing for some of my sites.
one addendum… on Date: 2007-05-21 10:50:08
suddenly, my browser conked out on me. i am no longer able to get websites that are outside the realm of the helio browser. when i do this, i get “no response from service provider..” i called helio to get this fixed, but it appears that the only way to do this is to totally reset my device. this means that i have to enter all my contact info, etc. again. forget it. i will wait til my ocean comes in.
BATTERY LIFE
one of the areas i see people complaining about most of all is the battery life. it doesn’t seem to be THAT big of a problem for me. i drained the battery to dead twice, then charged it back up. it seems to be running about three days, which is WAY more than i ever could get out of my blackberry.
my wife’s phone runs about a week on a charge, but then again, it doesn’t do jack. it is pretty much the equivalent of george of the jungle’s phone. i think that most people are basing their expectations on these types of phones. this is not a kid phone, this is a little computer. it’s gonna eat more batteries.
