Features
Even though we were not pleased with the Fin's too-thin design, the phone's high-end features make up for it. But first, the basics. The Helio Fin comes with a 1,000-entry address book, and each entry is able to store up to five numbers, an e-mail address, a birth date, a home address, and a memo. Each contact can be assigned a caller group, a photo or video for caller ID, and one of seven polyphonic ringtones. Bear in mind that the Fin doesn't have an external screen that supports photo or video caller ID, so it's only applicable when the Fin is open. The Fin has a full-featured messaging dashboard that includes all kinds of messaging options in a single menu--text and multimedia messaging, instant messaging, and access to a variety of e-mail options that include POP3 and IMAP support, Web e-mail access, and push mail support for Yahoo, AOL, Windows Live, and Helio Mail. Other features include a vibrate mode, a speakerphone, voice dialing, a calendar, an alarm clock, a calculator, a to-do list, a world time clock, a wake-up call alarm, a unit converter, a notepad, a voice recorder, and a stopwatch. On the higher end, there's a wireless Web browser, stereo Bluetooth support, USB mass storage mode, EV-DO support, and built-in GPS.
As with the Helio Drift, this built-in GPS allows Helio to offer location-based applications such as Google Maps for Mobile, a miniaturized version of Google Maps with traffic information, step-by-step driving directions, and an integrated search engine to find local businesses. There's also Buddy Beacon, Helio's own friend locator service that works by broadcasting your location to your friends (and vice versa). Finally, the latest GPS application to join the Helio family is Garmin Mobile, a full-on GPS application with a moving map and turn-by-turn directions, as well as voice instruction. Another cool thing about the Garmin Mobile application is that it comes included with 6 million points of interest preprogrammed into the service. However, using Garmin Mobile will cost you--you rent it for $2.99 a day.
Thanks to the Helio Fin's EV-DO support, the phone comes with an array of rich broadband services like Yahoo Search, shortcuts to sites like CNN, Digg, and MySpace Mobile, and even video and audio streaming from content partners like ABC, MTV, and Fox. You can choose to purchase and download music videos for $2.50 each and video ringers for $2.99 each. As with previous Helio devices, the Fin also has an optional dynamic newsfeed aggregator called Helio On Top (H.O.T.), which displays the latest headlines of your favorite newsfeeds right on the home screen. Unlike previous versions of H.O.T., the latest one actually allows you to add your own newsfeed so you can get the latest updates from your favorite blog--an upgrade we definitely applaud.
The Fin also has access to Helio Music, Helio's own music service where you can download a song over-the-air for $1.99 and have it transfer to your home PC as well. If you prefer, you can download a song for 99 cents to your PC and then upload it to the phone later on. You can read more about Helio Music in our review of the service. Another way to upload songs to the Fin is via Helio's free MediaMover application, and thankfully the Fin comes with 100MB of internal memory plus a microSD card slot for additional storage. The Fin comes with a pretty standard music player, which groups songs into genres, artists, and albums, or you can create your own custom playlist. The music player supports MP3s and AACs. There's also a built-in video player that supports MPEG4 and H.264 video.
To go along with the camera, the Fin comes with the built-in Photo Studio that lets you edit the photos by resizing, rotating, flipping, stretching, or swirling the images. You can add filters, effects, stickers, fades, and overlays in the videos as well. Also, you can download the optional HelioUP application that lets you upload photos directly to Helio's site, MySpace Mobile, or even Flickr. Even better, you can upload your video directly to YouTube. Since the Fin has built-in GPS, you're able to automatically geotag your photos and videos with location information when you upload them to these sites. That means your photos may appear on Flickr's World Map, letting you chart where your photos were taken.
Of course, personalization options are plenty with the Helio Fin. You can customize it with wallpaper and screensavers, plus download more graphics and alert tones from Helio's store. The Fin comes with four games--My Pet, Midnight Hold'em Poker, and trial versions of 3D Homerun Derby and SiL--plus you can always purchase more from Helio.
Performance
We tested the dual-band (CDMA 800/1900; EV-DO) Fin in San Francisco using Helio's service. Call quality was spectacular--callers heard us loud and clear, even when we were speaking in a relatively soft voice. We heard them just fine as well, though there was the occasional hiss and pop in certain locations. Speakerphone quality was pretty good as well, though it sounded a bit tinny on our end. We paired the Fin with the Cardo S-2 stereo Bluetooth headset, and audio heard through the headset was great.
Music quality was fair--there wasn't too much bass, but the melody sounded fine. It probably won't replace your MP3 player, but it'll do for a quick hit. EV-DO speeds were quite impressive--we downloaded a song from Helio Music in mere seconds. We did experience considerable lag when trying to collect data from the satellites for Garmin Mobile however, but that may be an application issue. Streaming videos had little to no rebuffering, though the quality wasn't the best--there were a lot of blurred images, especially with action sequences.
The Helio Fin has a rated talk time of three hours and a rated standby time of eight days. We managed to get a talk time of 3 hours and 41 minutes in our tests. According to FCC radiation tests, the Fin has a digital SAR rating of 1.27 watts per kilogram.
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