I’ve always wanted to learn how to surf. You know, feel the ocean breeze in my hair, the sea mist spray on my face, and the exhilarating feeling of riding the blue. Of course, I wouldn’t want a wipe out, and suffer some bruises or a wounded pride. Perhaps I can settle on something a lot less stressful, like web surfing. Helio couldn’t have been any more ingenious by naming their new model, the Ocean. It’s a nifty little gadget I wouldn’t mind surfing on, and critics say the chore is a breeze.

Helio introduced the Ocean when they released it in the United States in May 2007 at a suggested retail price of $295 with subscription. A lot of people have been rather relieved that this baby costs much less than the iPhone, at $499 to $599 a piece with subscription. Since then, many have been putting these two devices head to head.

This pocket-sized Ocean has a lot to be proud of, anyway. It’s the world’s first-ever phone that is a dual-slider, meaning you can slide it vertically or horizontally, to access one of two keypad options. Text and data input is made less of a hassle with a numeric keypad and QWERTY keyboard. Also, typing in memos and text messages can be faster with the built-in T9 dictionary.

The phone has Evolution Data Optimized (EVDO) support that lets it get online and download large files at high speed. Users can even enjoy live streaming video from the Ocean’s 2.4 inch Quarter Video Graphics Array (QVGA) LCD screen at 240 x 320 pixels resolution. You can watch music videos and movie clips on portrait mode or landscape mode. Images are smooth and require a very minimal amount of buffering to load.

The Ocean also has a Click-Free Search feature. Simply tap in the keyword of what you want to search for, and the Ocean lists down links, downloads, photos, even GPS coordinates related to your search item. Plus, checking email from Yahoo! Mail, AOL Mail, Gmail, MSN Hotmail, Earthlink, and Helio Mail is a snap with the Ocean’s quick links and icons. For Instant Messaging (IM) clients like Yahoo! Messenger, AOL AIM, and MSN Live Messenger, the Ocean has quick sign in buttons for you. Also, the Helio Ocean can alert you whenever your buddies are online in any of the three IM clients, simply by inputting their IM ID’s onto the Ocean’s phonebook.

Integrated Messaging is also proudly performed by the Ocean, which means you can send either SMS or MMS without having to select the option. Whenever a message contains text only, the Ocean will immediately flag it for SMS. And when a photo, video, or sound file is included, it will be sent as MMS.

Downloading games and applications is very much possible with the Ocean. It supports Java games, and even allows its users to play in 3D mode or online multiplayer mode. Gamers enjoy these great options, since video and music playback quality over the speakers or headsets is a-one. Who says you can’t do all this in a pocket-sized device?