Helio began as a telecommunications company founded January 2005 in Los Angeles, California. In spring 2007, Helio introduced their newest mobile phone, the first of its kind that is a dual-slider: the Helio Ocean. This new model came as a pleasant surprise for mobile fanatics, and it slowly became a popular alternative to other famous but more expensive brands. This PDA phone packs in an ocean of possibilities for the busybody or the fun lover.

The Ocean measures 4.3 in x 2.2 in x 0.9 in and weighs 5.6 ounces. It has an appropriately large 2.4 in LCD screen at 262,000 colors and 320 x 240 pixels resolution. The oval-shaped body of the Ocean has an integrated antenna and comes in black finish. When held vertically, the Ocean slides up to access the number keypad. When slid horizontally to the right, the Ocean reveals a QWERTY keypad and operates in widescreen mode.

Helio boasts of the Ocean’s seemingly unlimited phonebook capacity. It can carry up to 4,500 entries, each entry can contain six phone numbers, four email addresses, three street addresses, three instant messenger ID’s, company and department name, and even URL’s for homepages. Each entry can be put into a caller group, tagged with a photo ID or with a polyphonic ring tone ID.

The Ocean is an excellent tool for messaging. It supports Short Message Service (SMS), Multimedia Message Service (MMS), email, and Instant Messaging (IM). Helio was smart enough to integrate several email services onto the Ocean: from Yahoo! Mail, AOL Mail, Gmail, MSN Hotmail, Helio Mail, and Earthlink Mail. With just a click on a tab or icon, users can immediately be directed to their desired mail client. For those who are hot on IM, the Ocean also carries functions for Yahoo! Messenger, AOL AIM, and MSN Live Messenger. As messengers are able to synchronize their Ocean’s contact lists with the IM services, they can easily be alerted when a friend is online in any of the IM programs.

For the multimedia lovers out there, the Helio Ocean has good stuff up its sleeve. You can download over the air song files in mp3, WMA, and AAC format in less than one minute. Each song costs $1.99. Playback quality is well-appreciated, both on the loudspeakers and headsets. The Ocean can also play live TV feeds, in clear and smooth quality. TV show clips from MTV, Comedy Central, and Fox Sports can be accessed at an additional fee per month. Photos and video files can be transferred from a laptop or desktop PC using the USB or the SD card.

There is a lot that remains to be said about the cool and ultra useful features of the Helio Ocean. One can only begin to describe the many wonders it can do to improve work and play. The dual-slider technology innovated by Helio really did double the Ocean’s capability, compared to other mobile phones. As it has been said, the Helio Ocean does offer an ocean of possibilities.