Helio is a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) founded by Dr. Wonhee Sull and Todd Tappin in 2005. The company was born from a joint venture between South Korea Telecom and Earthlink. Helio officially launched as a wireless carrier in the United States in May 2006. Since then, the company has had several innovative phone models under their belt, from their very first Helio KickFlip (July 2006) to one of the latest, the Helio Ocean (May 2007). With their latest contenders currently out in the market, Helio has shown its potential to gain ground in the telecoms race, versus other mobile giants.

The Helio Ocean is considered by critics to be one of Helio’s smartest moves yet. Bravely enough, Helio thought up their first-ever dual-slider and made it into a reality. Packaged in a 4.3 x 2.4 x 0.8 inch unit, the Ocean weighs 5.6 ounces. The phone comes in black finish with rubberized edges on the casing. Its three-tiered body is attributed to the unique sliding feature of the phone.

The top tier of the Ocean contains the navigational soft keys which flank the 2.4 inch QVGA screen that has a display capability of 262,000 colors. When the top tier is slid vertically, the second tier is revealed, containing a numeric keypad with silver buttons. The fun part comes when the third tier is revealed, but to do that, one must lock in the first two tiers and slide them horizontally. An amply-spaced QWERTY keypad with bubble buttons is accessible, and the LCD screen appears in widescreen view.

When the Helio Ocean was released in May 2007, it has already been rumored to compete with T-Mobile’s Sidekick 3 and Apple’s iPhone, both of which came out in the market in June 2007. Critics have reviewed the Helio Ocean and found it to win against the Sidekick 3 hands down, but the dispute remains when the iPhone steps into view.

For one thing, the Helio Ocean is a fraction of the cost of the famous iPhone, at $295 suggested retail price as opposed to $499 to $599 for the latter. The iPhone is initially a challenge to navigate with, since every task is controlled by touch screen. With the Ocean, users loved the dual-slider feature, which means double to ease for text input and navigation.

The Ocean does a lot more in other departments. Both phones have a 2.0 mega pixel camera, but the iPhone has no digital zoom and no LED flash, unlike the Ocean. Furthermore, video capture option is a big no-no on the iPhone. Apple has yet to work on the over-the-air download capability of the iPhone, while the Ocean’s already got that covered. Only the Ocean can support GPS and has the Buddy Beacon service for locating friends within the same network and viewing them on a map. Plus, the iPhone doesn’t have 3D gaming and multiplayer modes, while the Ocean has those and more gaming options via Java.

Who says Helio can’t catch up with the big guys? The Ocean has already shown to be a strong contender. There’s more in store from Helio. In the meantime, let’s revel in the Ocean’s glory over the iPhone. I wonder what’s next?