Compare Apple iPhone to the Helio Ocean
The following is a chart to help you compare the Apple iPhone to the Helio Ocean. It is taken from Helio’s website.
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| Apple iPhone | Helio Ocean | |
| Retail Price | $499, $599 | $295 |
| Network & Speeds | Operates on Edge; data speeds of 70-135kbps with bursts up to 200kbps; Wi-Fi | Operates on a high-speed nationwide 3G network; data speeds up to 2.4Mbps |
| Hardware Keyboard | 0 Keyboards; touch-screen | 2 Keyboards; qwerty & numeric |
| Yes; .Mac, Yahoo Mail, Gmail, AOL email, add POP/IMAP accounts | Yes; AOL Email, Yahoo, Windows Live Mail, Hotmail, Gmail, Earthlink, Helio Mail, add 2 POP/IMAP accounts; Mail for Microsoft Exchange coming soon | |
| IM | No | Yes; AIM, Yahoo Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, presence detection integrated into address book |
| MMS (picture messaging) | No | Yes |
| GPS | No | Yes; GPS-enabled Google Maps, Buddy Beacon, GPS tagging of photos |
| Web Browsing | Yes, HTML browser over 2.5G network | Yes, full HTML browser over fast 3G network |
| Web Search | Yes; HTML browser search; default results from Google | Yes, click-free search from idle screen; default search results from Google, Yahoo, Wikipedia, Amazon, and Yelp |
| Over the Air Music Downloads | No | Yes |
| Content Sharing | No | Yes; gift content to a friend or "beg" them to buy something for you - over the air |
| Mobile Gaming | No | Yes; 3D and muliplayer |
| Bluetooth | Yes | Yes |
| Stereo Bluetooth | No | Yes |
| MySpace Integration | No | Yes |
| YouTube | Yes | Yes |
| Camera | 2MP; no flash, no zoom | 2MP with zoom and flash |
| Video Camera | No | Yes |
| Removable Battery | No | Yes |
ef said,
I switched from HTC Wizard to the iPhone and it is far more superior. The touch screen on the iphone is unlike i have ever experienced with previous pocket pc’s. The screen is just fantastic. The phone is very responsive and very user friendly! The keyboard is easier to get used to than I expected! Plenty of free applications on the net. All in all it is worth every penny! This comment was typed using the iPhone.
hmarque said,
i have the ocean and i have no problems with it from the comparisons i see the iphone doesn’t even touch the ocean especially with that price
Mrs. Grandberry said,
I have the Helio Ocean and it’s waaaaaaaaaayyy BETTER than the Apple iphone in which one of my friends have and he is dissapointed that he spent all that money on for a phone with no video camera and you can’t play games. I don’t know what apple was thinking when they created the iphone. It’s not worth the price.
douglas said,
Ok I do not know anything about the Iphone. From what I have seen on TV and from the carrier it do’s not do what I need. pluse why would I wont too spend more money to get text unlimted, photos, video, web when the other cell places charge like $5.00 to $10.00 a month for just 1 thing like text. when the helio gives you all that for free pluse they are with sprint and verizon 2 big dogs in cell services. when I only pay for my air time only not my web part. think people. you pay what $75.00 for your air time, $10.00 for unlimted text, $15.00 for web. then $6.00 for your pics. that is what $145.00 a month when I pay what $99.00 unimted air time and everything else is free. I’m looking at $125.00 after everything else taxs and all do the math look at your plan and then go to the web sight for helio. check theres. sorry I have been with sprint for 8years. and I just now changed over and the ocean is a good phone hands down.
clikc said,
i’ve put my ocean aginst my co workers iphone and i call him stupid every day for purchaseing the iphone, this may seem one sided because i’m writeing it, but the network was fasters, all of the IM’s and email apps came preinstalled, one thing it has going for it is its myspace contract, the camra was way better, its download speeds were far superiour to that of the iphone, i could get to a keyboard no matter what app i was running, and the best part of all my helio was 175$ with 100 deposite refundable after one year(blah) where as his iphone was 499 plus 150 deposite. when i had my Razor before i was paying about 130 a month for my plan plus what they called high speed inet that was 35, for this slower then dial up cell phone inet, 35 is what i pay for my 4 meg connection to my computer, what a crock that was, i pay 65 a month for my helio, so saveing 65 a month my new phone (which is far superiour to the razor, i can’t even start to tell you how much that phone sucked) will pay for its self being the amount of money i’m saveing a month, so all around this is a better phone, now if money isn’t a problem you have millions and can buy what ever, then maybe paying more is what you want to have a phone that i would say hard ware and software wise is less power full then the ocean. but thats just my opinion, oh yea i also use the phone daily and love it. luckly its with sprint so i didn’t have to change service providers, other things i like is how you just choose how many minuets you want and the rest is included, its the greatest phone plan ever, from what i’ve seen, as long as you don’t need to call in for support on your phone or your account, that was 3 hours well wasted. i’m not sure why but no one there seemed to know how to do anything, they have a very bad loop that they put you in, you have to pay your bill online, in order to do so, you have to have an account name and password that i never recieved, so to get the password they send you a text, well i fyou can’t pay your bill your phone is shut off and can’t recieve a text so you can’t get a password to log in to pay the bill, finally i got someone to take a payment over the phone, other then that the ocean is amazing.
Quentin said,
I have the Ocean, I think for the price this is a must have! I showed my phone to a friend of mine who has a i phone. They are now looking to buy a Ocean. I think that says it all in my book. The Ocean took this fight. Every one needs to get the Ocean!
Stephanie said,
I am an owner of the iPhone… and I have just ordered the Ocean to REPLACE my iPhone. Let’s just say, even WITHOUT the Ocean, I actually HATE this iPhone. It doesn’t have basic functions that even free phones come with (e.g. Picture-mail, being able to forward sms, being able to delete line items out of your messages, call history, etc.) This phone was NOT worth the 600 dollars I spent on it. I’m selling it for half of what I paid for it, and am replacing it with the Ocean, which I hope will be more of a fit for me.
My advice: Don’t buy the 1st generation iPhone. Wait a couple of years until they get it right.
fredy said,
I have an ocean and its by for the best phone i ever had. My friends all have voyagers and iphone and other smart phones but are all jealous of my ocean because its cooler, it can do more things then there phones, it was way cheaper then their phones, and my bill is half of what they pay!!! (has anyone figure out how to dialup on your laptop using the ocean)
hankduncanMLG said,
this comparison had to be made by Helio. They didnt even list the iPhones biggest features. The battery life on the iPhone is a heck if a lot better than the one on the ocean to. They didnt say anything about the iPhones google maps, its built in accelarometer, it glass scratch proof touch screen and the soon to come app store for the iPhone. Plus so much more etc. its graphical interphace and visual voice mail and so many other things. But when it comes down to it… It just straight up rapes any helio. Btw i did This all on my iPhone.
Markus said,
Good observation hankduncanMLG - the chart is actually a copy from Helio’s site, which as you say - is biased.
I now have an iPhone too - at the end of the day it’s just better.
Christopher said,
I have the Ocean and if you want to use it just for basic features it is a great phone, camera, sms are all great. However, if you want to browse the internet good luck. Even with the Opera Mini browser add on it falls short to the iPhone. MySpace program is almost usless in that you can get msg’s but for some reason when you try and send a msg back the service is always busy or can’t send…When a mobile phone company says they have internet access they all have it wrong, except the iPhone/AT&T. The first phone to get the internet right you are online and not just pretending…1st the screen is bigger and you can see the page, 2nd when you click a link it actually goes through, on the Ocean rarely. I can get to just about any page but from there, a massive headache. The Big plus for the Ocean is the All-In plan and they were the only ones to offer it at the time, so I went with Helio due in part that I use over 2000 min’s/mo. But now that AT&T just gave a friend an All-In with internet service for $79.99/mo and the 16GB iPhone I just might break my contract and go with that service. The main draw back to the iPhone is no insurace, so if you crack the screen which happens more often then you think good luck with getting a new one for less then $500…unless you get a good deal on Ebay…Hope this helps, if you use the internet alot try them both out and you will notice the difference in a hurry…
Markus said,
Thanks for your review, Christopher. It’s helpful advice for anyone who might be considering getting an iPhone or Helio.



JM said,
July 26, 2007 @ 2:02 pm
i would choose the ocean over the iphone any day cause the iphone seems stupid for that price