Somewhat unrelated, but Helio finally introduced a Shared Plan and it doesn't apply to people who want the all-in package, which is mostly what you'd get if you were buying the Ocean. Do you guys have any information on that or if it's likely to change for the better anytime this year?

Why o why do I have to live where we only use GSM? I really want the Ocean. Damn European Union!! *shakes fist*

Its an ok phone, not anything I would recommend to anyone. Sad to say this, but I am happy with Verizon..... :(

Lam, don't worry. We are not weirdo's! we are in the Elite 5% that uses the phone how it should be used.

everyone knows the numb pad slider is only for that initial, and sometimes uncomfortable, transition to the qwerty.

Don't hate, collaborate! it doesnt hurt to try, and i know you will be hooked once you do.

I dont have a Helio Ocean, but I use both the KB and the dialpad when I'm not using it - if that makes sense.

Furtherless, I'd like to conclude that I'm done talking.

Finally.

If I owned one, I would use the dialpad.

Wonder how all the hundreds that returned their Ocean did it?

On the Helio I don't own, I use the telepathic monkey that wasn't provided by the company, so as to not facilitate the dialing of non-existent phone numbers.

ok serious response:
I love using the dial-pad because it reminds me of the episode of Seinfeld where Kramer kept getting calls thinking he was movie-phone. Whenever I dial I just think to myself, "Why don't you just tell me the person you're trying to call!?" lmao
I'd say I actually use the qwerty and the dial-pad about equally. texting/im-ing obviously on the qwerty and dialing/gaming on the dial-pad.
I love my Ocean.

I've been debating getting this thing for ages. The iPhone is ridiculously expensive - even for a fanboy - and an "all-in" plan from ATT would likely top $100. Helio's plans seem too good to be true.

Is this phone worth the money?

When I had my Ocean.. (Before the browser randomly stopped loading about a week after I bought it.. Blank white screen, nothing else..), I used the number pad for dialing numbers, and that's all. Everything else, I used the QWERTY pad. Why bother using the QWERTY pad to dial a number?

Don't call it a phone!

LOL Non-owners vote FTW. Why even include that as a response? It just dilutes the real results of the poll (you know, for people who actually own the phown and actually have a reason to participate).

What I want to know is what do you do with your Helio Oceans once you get your iPhones?

Will you go back to your Ocean if the iPhone isn't all it is cracked up to be?

I don't own one, but I would use the dialpad.

The dial-pad if I owned it but I wont cuz it's a piece of turd compared to the Symbian S60 3rd Edition and the new WinMo6 phones out there.

While I had it, I used the dialpad. It's now on it's way back to Helio. T-Mobile FTW!

@OBM; you're not missing out on anything in the voice arena. Loved the functionality and the speed. Hated the voice quality. Sprint and EVRC can kiss my you-know-what. T-Mobile simply sounds better. Of course if all you do is text, yeah it's a cool phone.

I use the dailpad because you can do it comfortably with one hand. I will use it even if I'm typing the name of someone in my contacts because it doesn't require the double/triple tapping when searching.

@Karma in 4D: Because it also polls how many actually went out and bought the piece of garbage PHONE known as the Helio Ocean.

Back when the phone was released, it had me hooked too. I called up to order it about 2 weeks after it was out and the CSRs were talking about all the returns. I heard one in the background say "That's the 9th one this morning." I can only imagine how many they got to by the end of the day.

Helio Ocean is a good concept rushed to market without testing, testing and re-testing. They will go the way of Amp'd.. Bankrupt.

"I've been debating getting this thing for ages. The iPhone is ridiculously expensive - even for a fanboy - and an "all-in" plan from ATT would likely top $100. Helio's plans seem too good to be true.

Is this phone worth the money?"

So far, I love it. Mine arrived on the 5th and I have yet to experience any of the problems I've seen others report. I used the B2BDGOD code and got it for $213.00 shipped with no activation and $25 off each of the first 3 months.

I've used a Blackberry 7250 for years and more recently a Treo 700p and Blackberry 8703e. Overall, I prefer the Ocean to all of them. I can't type quite as well on the Ocean's pad as the 7250 though.

+Google Maps + GPS works very well and saved me a lot of time and trouble as recently as Friday.

+The speakerphone mic is great and replaced my need to carry a voicerecorder. Also, it's easy to jump to recording with a one-button hold from the closed position.

+I carry a 6MP Nikon point-n-shoot with me everywhere but the Oceans camera has keep me from pulling it out for quick things recently.

+The screenwipe strap is a great idea and inclusion of a converter for 1/4" headphone plugs is nice.

+Sound quality playing back music is much better than I expected. I haven't had issues with any of my music which is mostly maxxed out LAME encoded MP3s.

+I don't know why anyone would want to watch video on a phone, but the Ocean seems to handle it well. I flipped a couple of large Divx files to .3gp and they play fine. You'll want to crank down the framerate to avoid choppiness though.

+The google page rewriter for the browser has handled everything I've thrown at it so far.

+I really like the feel of the device. The soft-touch paint is very nice and the "action" of both slides feels good and solid.

+I like the side-mounted FF, RW, Pl/Pa and volume buttons. Reminds me my old walkman.

+The "ring" menu is nice. It makes for a good one-handed phone.

-I don't like the lack of a basic preloaded ring and lack of a feature to easily use an MP3 or other media for one. All the preloaded rings are and just about all of them would embarrass any grown man.

-For some reason there's no search on the integrated GMail client. Why not? The GMail app on my BB has it.

-I'd like more gradual volume control. I tend to listen to music at very low level with a nice set of phones. The 10 levels of volume for the media player aren't enough.

@O-Z: How to get mp3 ringtones on your PHONE.

[www.heliocity.net]

You guys are Apple fanboys.

i have a sidekick II and i use the qwerty keypad to dial and love every second of it. if i had a regular dialpad on a phone enabled with qwerty i would be saying "they sure couldve reduced the thickness by not having that redundant dialpad..."

Honestly, why bother getting a smart phone if you're just going to use the dialpad? Lam for the win, although I think the poll shows that the smart money is on buying a phone for, you know, the phone features.

ive got the ocean and its a decent phone, but it definitely won't replace a blackberry. It's good for checking/sending email, google maps, making calls...the BASICS with a little kick. It's unreasonably slow at emailing/surfing/IM'ing, you think it has spyware problems or something.

for $65 unlimited data and 500 minutes, I will bite. but once my 50% off for the first 3 months expires, I truly think im going to back down to the $40/month 500 minutes and everything else a-la carte

People who never owned the phone bash it - I hope none of them are Iphone fanboys that complain about the same treatment.

The editors at giz get their hands on enough phones to most likely choose one that they like. Two of them have the Ocean. That says something to me - it must have some compelling features.

I don't have one, but I may get one soon. I'm just waiting to see the Iphone fallout and how it affects prices.

I don't have a Helio Ocean, but wanted to weigh in on this subject in general:

Back when I had a sidekick (1,2,3) I had to use the QWERTY, but was able to flip the screen open, dial somebody's name, hit send call, and close the phone in all of 5 seconds.

Now that I have an 8525 I use the on-screen number pad to find contacts. Not because it's faster, but becase Windows Mobile takes about 3 seconds just to flip the direction of the screen layout, then another 3 seconds before it will register QWERTY keypad presses, 3 more seconds to find the contacts, and then another 3 seconds to begin making the call after you hit the send call button. I basically stopped using it entirely for making calls because of this issue.

No Word and Excel not Ocean sadly.

I own the phone, and love it, but I can definitely say that it's NOT perfect (short battery life, the need to email pics to myself, IM hiccups, etc) and it's NOT for everybody.

I use the alphanumeric pad if I happen to be texting while driving or eating, and I use the qwerty pad most of the rest of the time. It makes Asian smileys so much easier, too. Haha. (^o^)/

And is their customer service THAT bad? The couple times I had to call them to resolve an issue, they were no better or worse than when I had to call Cingular's CS. I did notice that they have pretty good taste in music whenever I was on hold (Peter Bjorn & John, Lyrics Born, etc)...

Alot of these issues have been taken care of with the recent update and add ons to make this device even better. Helio.com