Helio Hero Video Tour

Picked up a Hero today so that I could hand down my Kickflip. The Hero is definitely the power-user handset. It played any video I threw at it (1000kbps encoding, etc) which was pretty impressive, as the Kickflip can really only play files encoded with the Media Mover software (which is 64kbps and QCIF size, IIRC).

Additionally, photos are stored as JPEGS instead of the strange "database"-like format that the Kickflip uses.

Overall the Hero is pretty kickass - great speakers, better audio player (it actually pumps out some solid volume through headphones), faster interface, faster browser, etc.

The ONLY shortcomings, and these apply to both handsets, are:

- Doesn't seem like you can set an MP3 ringtone. This is really bad on the Hero as it includes no standard ringers, only songs! I'm using the one that best passes for a standard ring.

- They don't run J2ME apps. Another dealbreaker for some, but I can deal for now. Additionally, the browser is strictly WAP-only, but they've expressed interest in another browser. The coming developer tools should speed this along - once I have Google Local for Mobiles on this bad boy I'll be all set.