Helio Makes Waves with Ocean Two-Way Slider

Helio's been known for its hip, multimedia-packed handsets, most recently the Samsung-made Heat, but now the virtual carrier is taking on T-Mobile's Sidekick 3 and the LG enV with its latest offering. The Ocean takes its cues from Samsung's recently announced F520 with its two-way slider design: slide one way for the standard numeric keys, slide the other way for a full QWERTY keypad.

Like the Sidekick and the enV, the Ocean gives you plenty of instant-messaging options (you can chat with buddies on AIM, MSN and Yahoo! Messenger), and you can check your e-mail (major services like AOL Mail, Gmail and Yahoo! Mail are included, as well as IMAP/POP3 accounts). But the Ocean goes a step further with its support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, making it one of the first consumer-level phones I've seen that lets you check and sync your corporate e-mail, contacts and events. Pretty impressive.

Like its fellow Helio handsets, the Ocean arrives with plenty of eye and ear candy, including a 2.4-inch QVGA screen, a video and music player, external stereo speakers, and access to Helio's new music store, plus 200MB of internal memory (most phones come with less than 100MB) and a slot for up to 2GB of additional memory. Helio's nifty Buddy Beacon, which lets you track your Helio-toting friends via GPS, is present and accounted for, as well as a 2-megapixel camera, stereo Bluetooth support, and Helio's mobile MySpace app. The Ocean should arrive later this spring for $295.