Helio Drift review (black)

As we mentioned, the GPS technology allows Helio to offer new innovative services. The first is GPS-enabled Google Maps for Mobile, a miniaturized version of Google Maps designed just for the cell phone. We found this to be a pretty slick application, and it managed to pinpoint our location exactly. You can check out real-time traffic, get detailed step-by-step directions, and access an integrated search engine to find local businesses and their contact information. You also can move the map around, zoom in and out, and bring up the satellite image of the map. Another innovative feature is called Buddy Beacon, which broadcasts your location to your friends so they can find you easily. You can add up to 25 people to your Buddy Beacon friends list, and when you broadcast your location, their Buddy Beacon-enabled phones will receive your nearest address. In turn, you can SMS them to activate their Buddy Beacon so that you, too, can find your friends. Both Google Maps and Buddy Beacon are free for subscribers that pay for Helio's "all-in" membership, while data charges will apply for those with the a la carte membership.

We were impressed with the Drift's photos.

The Drift comes with a 2-megapixel camera with an array of settings, including image resolution (1600x200, 1280x960, 800x600, 640x480, 320x240, 240x240), quality (fine, normal), white balance (auto, daylight, cloudy, incandescent, and fluorescent), lighting (normal, spotlight), color effects, photo frames, a self timer, and a flash. There are also a few settings for the video camera, including resolution (320x240, 176x144), frame rate (14 fps, 7 fps), white balance, lighting adjustment, a mute control, and color effects. You can also adjust shutter sound, block calls when in camera mode, and choose the location of the saved media. The Drift comes with 128MB memory or you can use a microSD card, though a card doesn't come with the phone. We were very impressed with the quality of the photos, though not so much by the low-res videos. The Drift also comes with a Photo Studio, which lets you edit the photos and videos by adding filters, effects, stickers, a fade between frames, and an overlay. You can also resize, rotate, flip, stretch, and swirl your images.

Helio does not have a music store, so you'll have to upload your own MP3s to the Drift's music player. You can either transfer them to the microSD card or upload them via a USB connection while using Helio's free MediaMover application. The music sounded pretty good, whether we listened via earbuds or the phone's built-in speakers. There's also a video player on the Drift, so you can upload your favorite MPEG4 video files as well.

Personalization options are plentiful on the Drift. You can purchase and download graphics like wallpaper and screensavers from the Helio store, as well as alerts, ring tones, and "video ringers," which are short videos that play when there's an incoming call. The Drift comes with four games--Gameloft Mega Hits, Fight Night Round 3, Baseball Superstars, and Bomb Link--but you can always download more.

We tested the dual-band (CDMA 800/1900; EV-DO) Drift in San Francisco using Helio's service. We must say we're impressed with the call quality, and callers reported a very crisp and clear sound. The speakerphone quality was also excellent. We managed to pair up the Drift and the Cardo Scala 700 Bluetooth headset without a problem. File downloads took mere seconds, as did streaming media, though we experienced the occasional network lag when surfing the Internet.

The Helio Drift has a rated talk time of 3 hours and a rated standby time of 7 days. Our tests showed a talk time of 3 hours and 5 minutes. According to FCC radiation tests, the Drift has a digital SAR rating of 0.41 watts per kilogram.