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You can also purchase music directly from Helio’s Music store, which was announced last month for $.99. You can download (or upload your own) the files directly to the PC and then transfer them over, or you can order music over-the-air for $1.99 and later transfer it to the PC. We highly recommend going with the download-on-your-PC route to save an addition $1 per download. Thanks to EV-DO, connecting to services, downloading files and watching videos was quick. You can also purchase music videos for $2.50 per download. Video channels from ABC, MTV and FOX are available for viewing. Helio even includes a news aggregation program with feeds from Yahoo! News and a few other sources. Disappointingly, you can’t add your own feeds. Also keep in mind that 136MB of storage puts a lot of limitations on what you can and cannot do from a multimedia standpoint.

The audio playback sounded good with earphones, even though the speakers of the phone could use some work. The speakers weren’t clear enough, and the audio sounded depressed. Even with the earphones, the Helio Heat is no iPod. Video playback was alright, nothing too spectacular. The call quality was pretty good (loud and clear) with presence of hiss and static sounds. Callers could tell we were on a cell phone. The speakerphone was decent as well.

The battery life is rated for three hours of call time and 12 days of standby time. We confirmed the talk time in our lab, even though we believe three hours is too limiting.

Helio definitely has an interesting device with a lot of things going for it, but the Helio Heat, a downgraded version of the Drift, has its quirks. Multimedia aspects of the phone could certainly use more work before they are ready for primetime, but Helio is on the right track. If you are in the market for a cool, hip device, the Helio Heat may be what you are looking for. Personally, we would recommend Drift for $225 than the $150 Heat.

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