Helio, a joint venture between Earthlink and Korea's SK Telecom, unveiled Ocean, which is being billed as the first “dual-slider” phone that slides vertically to reveal a numeric keypad and slides horizontally for a full QWERTY keypad.
Ocean merges text and picture messaging, and emailing from all major portals with corporate email synchronization that allows users to get email from Microsoft Exchange server. While the full keyboard makes for easier text input, the Ocean also features an automatic search function triggered whenever you start typing.
Ocean includes 3G (EV-DO), GPS, 200MB internal storage, microSD card slot, MPEG-4 video recording, 2 megapixel camera and stereo Bluetooth capability. It is due later this spring for $295.
It comes with 2.4-inch, 260K colour high-resolution QVGA display, external stereo speakers, over two hours of continuous video recording, Bluetooth for wireless voice and stereo Bluetooth. Ocean supports an array of audio and video formats including MP3, AAC and WMA audio, and MPEG4 and H.264 video.
