- Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 21 reviews Back to product review
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Full user review
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7 out of 7 people found this review helpful
2.5 stars
"This one is going back to Helio"
Pros: Google Maps is Incredible, small form factor, nice screen
Cons: poor battery, slow apps, poor ui, flimsy keys
Summary: When I saw the google maps w/ GPS I was immediately in love. Thats what initially made me take the jump. However, all the shortcomings of this phone don't make up for how incredible google maps is.
Pros:
-Did I mention how cool google maps is! Well its awesome, if I am ever out and I need to get somewhere I just look it up. Also need to find a number? Do a business search and it pops up the phone number too in case you want to call them. This is a killer app.
-Great looking screen.
-Small form factor.
-Camera takes decent snapshots.
-Generally looks like a hot phone.
Cons:
-Case feels very cheap.
-Battery latch is poor and occasionally the battery can pop off the back if you are not careful
-Tend to fat finger the keys a lot, can't distinguish between keys without looking right at it.
-Battery life is pretty bad. With moderate internet usage expect to charge every day. I charge mine every other day with very little internet usage. Also the battery meter is defective and will display one bar remaining for an entire day.
-Opening menus can be slow if you have a lot of apps installed. Helio's H.O.T. app brings it to its knees, takes 30 seconds to open the app menu.
-Texting is horrible, it doesn't properly capitalize new sentences, appears not to learn new words, and won't spell contractions without an apostrophe.
-No MP3 Ringtones!!! In this day and age this is a joke. It uses the MMF format which is absolutely horrible, its a polyphonic system which sounds like crap compared to MP3 on my Nokia. Also you have to jump through hoops to actually create an mmf file.
-Poor menu system, not intuitive. Difficult to find customizations.
-Slow camera shots, takes a few seconds after you hit the button.
-GPS is slow to update, so as you drive around the dot doesn't follow you in real time. A minor gripe.
-Would love to use buddy locations, but who the hell uses Helio besides me. Someone needs to come up with a common standard for this.
-Internet surfing is almost useless, once you leave Helio's portal it won't render half of the web pages I tried to visit.
-No way to get new wallpaper on the phone without paying Helio. Ringtones are possible, but a real PITA.
-Helio's music transfer software is flakey and took me an hour to get working.
-Battery connector feels like it might snap off if you got slightly rowdy with it. Also the phone display stays on while charging.
I really wanted to love this phone, but compared to my old Nokia with Symbian OS it just can't compare. I'm still within my 30 days so I think this one is going back and I am just getting a newer quad band nokia on ebay. Brings a slight tear to my eye when I think about having to give up google maps.
- 2 replies to this review
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You have to download a music converter program which is free in order for you to have mp3 ringtones in which you will have to chang the format to send it over to your phone. Using the helio software.
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You said "Texting is horrible, it doesn't properly capitalize new sentences, appears not to learn new words, and won't spell contractions without an apostrophe"
However.... Grammar dictates all contractions must have apostrophes. You can't(look, there goes an apostrophe now! ^_^) get mad at the phone for correcting your mistakes. Try using 'ABC' format if you don't(and another one, these things are popping up EVERYWHERE) mind butchering the English language.
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