HELIO KICKFLIP PHONE REVIEW

An aggressive joint mobile phone venture between Internet service provider Earthlink and Korean giant SK Telecom has transformed itself into HELIO, a company that will soon make some tsunami type waves throughout the industry with their introduction of the Helio Kickflip/VK650C. The astounding thing I found out about them is that their trademarks are as follows: Don’t call us a cell phone company and don’t call it a phone. Huh!! Well if you are a nonbeliever then I dare you to take a look at the technology and design specs itself and experience this new generation of wireless freedom.

VK Mobile announced that it will be shipping Helio’s first phone for a US launch . The VK Mobile 650c is a stylish spinner EV-DO phone based on the 600c, which is launching in Korea currently. “Now you can take your space on the go”, with the ability to photo blog on myspace directly from your phone. It comes in an impressive silver colored hard box packaging with a magenetic latch with their Helio logo in white on top of the packaging. Spending this much money on packaging shows me a consumer that these guys has put a quality-based product into the market to compete in the wireless industry. Not only do you get the fabolous box, but yes even the product itself the VK Mobile 650c, the battery, the charger the data cable, a strap to protect against scratches for the vividly large LCD, an adapter for music purposes I would presume and a bunch of instructions in Korean. Yes folks, it is a Korean based phone, that enables the wonderful people of Korean decent to text in Korean and even enables calles to Korea using their competitive international rates, but that’s still in discussion. When comparing this phone to the current market I would associate it most closely to the Sony Ericsson W550i or T-mobile MDA. The VK Mobile 650c is smaller and looks more sleeker and more cleaner for a spinner phone and has plenty of added bonuses for all you Koreans out there in the U.S. market. The kickflip has a talk time of 3.3 hrs and standby time of up to 8 days. Its dimensions are 3.88”(H) X 1.96’’ (W) X .98’’(D) and weighs in at 4.47 ounces. The technology within the VK Mobile 650c encompasses CDMA band frequencies like verizon, and an enhanced internal antenna for superb receptive qualities for either music or conversation with friends or family. The Helio Kickflip has a large 2.2’’ 240 x 320 resolution QVGA display, which is centered to be held vertically for phone use or horizontally for watching videos, as well as TV out for video playback on the large 2.2’’ LCD display. The phone is built with the latest entertainment portals which includes the latest in 3D gaming, VOD, MMS and the an MPEG 4 player for various playback modes. Helio also amazingly includes features in the kickflip like a 2 Megapixel camera with the ability to alter settings digitally and manually on the lens itself, and take vivid night shots, try it out it’s a cool feature. The phone is built with an MP3 player and stereo speakers and even a TransFlash slot for any need for additional memory. The Helio Kickflip is built with something called mega memory, which includes 70MB plus a 1200 contact list capability with the ability to add extra memory via memory cards through the transflash slot provided in the bottom of the phone. The handset design signals Helio’s intent to focus on current streaming video and music (Korean based), similar to other 3G services. Additionally, the FCC has also recently approved the SK Teletech SKY 8300, which is a slider EV-DO phone that shares most the 650c’s features but adds additional buttons for gaming. It is likely this model will also be launched under the Helio umbrella and we at acessorygeeks are awaiting its arrival with much patience.