Helio Heat Video
Helio Heat Video Transcript
[ Music ] ^M00:00:01
>> I'm Nicole Lee, assistant editor of CNET.com and this is the Helio Heat. It is the latest handset from the Helio cartages [assumed spelling] a MVNO which is a mobile virtual network operator. And as you can see it's very small and compact, very minimalist designed phone right here. It's very sexy in design. It is a slide-a-phone, it's manufactured by Samsung. On the front you can see a very nice, very bright display, on the side here we see a on off switch, the power button. And we see a dedicated camera button. On the other side there's a volume rocker and the media play button. On the front here the soft keys and navigation keys here are actually electrostatic which means they're touch sensitive. And it's very similar to the ones on the LG Chocolate, you know with the little media player controls on the Chocolate. On the bottom here are pretty flat keys. As far as features go, there's access to Helio staple of multimedia offerings, it has MySpace mobile, there's Google maps because this is a GPS enabled device, there's also Buddy Beacon which is Helio's friend locator service. So in the text messaging, email, video recording, voice recording, speaker phone. So a lot of features in a very small and compact phone. We just can't get over the touch sensitive buttons, they're really a pain to maneuver and press. We just wish the buttons were easier to use. My name is Nicole Lee and this has been the Helio Heat. ^M00:01:26 [ Music ]
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Helio Heat (Onyx Black) Review
The good: The Helio Heat is a sleek and compact slider handset that comes packed with features such as a megapixel camera, a music player, EV-DO access, and built-in GPS. It also comes with support for Helio Music.
The bad: The Helio Heat has unintuitive electrostatic touch-sensitive buttons that took a bit of training to use. It doesn't have a microSD card slot, and the speakerphone sound was mediocre.
The bottom line: The Helio Heat is a decent affordable alternative to the Drift, but the trade-offs are high. Even though we were willing to forgive its low-grade speakerphone and lack of microSD card slot due to its lower price tag, the mediocre sound quality and unintuitive touch-pad buttons might be enough to make you plunk down the extra cash for the Drift instead.
Helio Heat (Onyx Black) Specs
Manufacturer: Pantech & Curitel
Part number: CNETHELIOHEATONYX
