Review: Helio Fin
Browsing
The Fin uses the same browser as the Helio Ocean. It is capable of browsing desktop websites as well as mobile sites. Navigating around a web page is easy. Though it is similar enough to the Browser on past Helios that current members won't have a hard time, using this browser is very confusing.
Pressing the menu soft key on the left opens a menu at the top of the screen. The first column is automatically opened and you may scroll up and down it thinking "where is that simple function I was looking for? (Like bookmarks.)" But there are icons to the right subtly indicating you can scroll over for even more menus. The menus are more like a desktop application than something on a phone, but that's only true in the browser.
Helio makes it easy to browse to any site you want using the Go soft key on the right. It also makes entering a URL and visiting recent sites convenient with shortcuts on the Go screen. When you visit a desktop-formatted site, it is reformatted to for phone in a single column through Google. On the Fin, Helio fixed the Ocean's annoying habit of sending mobile-formatted sites through Google's reformatter as well.
Despite our complaints of slowness elsewhere on the phone, the browser is actually quite snappy.
Customize
Helio makes it easy to customize your home screen in about 100 ways - you can download new wallpapers or use your own pictures, add calendars, clocks and the like. You can also fill the home screen with Helio On Top (HOT) and its news feeds. There is a wide variety when you launch the application, but you cannot add your own RSS favorites right from the handset. Instead you have to log in to a hard to find web page and add them from there, or select from feeds other members have already added (like Phone Scoop).
You cannot use your own songs as ringtones, but can buy new ones from Helio or use one of the many on the phone, which span a wider variety of tastes than most locked handsets these days. You can select different sound effects for just about anything on the phone as well.
File Management
Adding, deleting or moving files is accomplished from the application used to access those files. There is no one-stop-shop for managing the memory and files on the phone.
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