![]() There's also a lot more room between the bottom row of the keypad and the lip of the phone. No longer flat, the Ocean 2's keypad has nice defined ridges and all the keys are raised above the surface. The number keypad is definitely improved over the original. The Helio Ocean 2 has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard in addition to a slide-out number keypad. What's more, these two soft keys at the top felt a lot skinnier and stiffer than the other keys, and were thus harder to press. There are also two soft keys above the display (or to the left if you view the phone in landscape mode), which act as shortcuts to the Helio Store. On standby, the navigation toggle acts as shortcuts to the browser, the Games menu, the message in-box, and the Video + Music menu. The navigation keys around the sensor felt fine for the most part, but they were a bit flat and slippery. Though we like using the touch pad for navigation, we did think it felt a bit tedious especially when scrolling through very long Web pages, but that's more because of screen size and browser limitations. The sensor presses down if you want to select something, and it leads to Helio Connect when the phone is on standby. Like the optical sensor on the Samsung Omnia, it acts as a touch pad and is a way for you to scroll through menus or a long Web page simply by stroking the pad in the desired direction. ![]() The optical sensor is encircled in a silver ring that acts as the four-way navigation toggle. It sits underneath the display (when viewed vertically), and is surrounded by two soft keys, the Talk key, the Back/Clear key, and the End/Power key. Perhaps the biggest surprise of the Ocean 2's design is the addition of an optical sensor touch pad. Because of its heft, this is certainly not a phone to put in your pocket, but its oval shape and rubber trim gives it a good feel in the hand. The slider mechanism on the Ocean 2 feels nice and solid each layer slides into place with just the right amount of give. You slide the phone vertically to reveal the number keypad and horizontally to reveal the QWERTY keyboard-you can't slide both out at the same time. Following the design sensibility of the original Ocean, the Ocean 2 has a dual-slider design with three layers: the display layer, the number keypad layer, and the keyboard layer. Two years ago, that might've been OK, but in today's market of skinny handsets, the Ocean 2's girth is a novelty. The Ocean 2 measures 4.65 inches long by 2.28 inches wide by 0.81 inch thick and weighs a whopping 5.89 ounces. There's no two ways about it the Helio Ocean 2 is one very thick phone. ![]() You can get the Helio Ocean 2 now from Virgin Mobile for a pretty nice price of $149. We definitely think it's a step up from the original Ocean, but you'll still have to get over its hefty size. You also get all the high-end features the original Ocean was known for, plus a few extra goodies like 2GB of internal storage, a tabbed browser, and more. Pantech's still the manufacturer and it still has that dual-slider design, but now it comes with a much-improved keyboard, an innovative touch pad sensor, and a wider display. ![]() Released two years after the original, the Ocean 2 has everything the Ocean had and more. It was a decent phone, but it was nowhere near the sleek and feature-rich device that was the Ocean.Įnter the Ocean 2. The first sign of this new marriage was the Virgin Mobile Shuttle, which was Virgin's first ever 3G handheld. It also branched out its payment models to include monthly voice and data plans that better suit Helio's legacy. In late 2008, Virgin Mobile USA bought the troubled network operator (The intent to purchase was announced in June and the acquisition was closed in August), which allowed the prepaid giant to introduce a whole new set of devices to its customers. ![]() But Helio didn't last too long in the MVNO space. ![]()
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