The Helio PDA: Affordable Organization
By VTech Information
VTech Holdings Ltd.
Reviewed by Bayle Emlein, VP Special Projects
with the help, support, and input of a cast of thousands.
Internet Price $179.00
This is NOT a review of the PDA platform, so I will keep my comments on that to a minimum. All PDAs share the benefit of being small enough that they are popularly called "palmtops," and they easily fit in a pocket or purse. Given their size, input is not quite the same as with a desktop work station. The popup onscreen keyboard is accessed through the touch screen via the stylus. One comes with the PDA, and all the manufacturers sell additional ones. Helio has quite a selection of more substantially pen-like styli available. A few months ago, website shopping included an almost full-sized keyboard with a cradle connection, so one could easily enter data directly into the Helio instead of synchronizing and up-and-downloading from a desktop computer that has the synch program previously loaded. Now that I've decided that I might really be willing to spend the $100 for the convenience, the opportunity to spend money has disappeared. Custservice@vtechinfo.com hasn't answered my shopping query yet.
Since I haven't had much experience with a wide variety of PDAs, I'm depending a lot on the commentary of others who have seen the Helio and used other brands extensively. There was universal agreement among my informants that the Helio onscreen keyboard is easier to use than others. While many of the Helio's features, such as the positioning of the hardware buttons (On/Off) and programability of onscreen menu items, are incrementally superior to other similar devices, the voice recorder is a feature that is so obviously lacking from all the competition that they probably will have copied it by the time you read this. The documentation promises 55 minutes of recording time, so you'd need quite a string of stop lights to use up all your voice memo time preserving your brilliant insights as you drive through your day. Or you could sing both Happy Mother's Day and Happy Father's Day. You can save each dazzling contribution to discourse in a separate file or one long file. The sound playback quality is amazingly good considering the size of the device. And each file, uploaded to an Internet connection, can be emailed as a WAV attachment. I didn't run a stop watch, but the claims that the Helio will run for about 30 days on two AAA batteries, or 20 hours continuously are in line with my experience.
At $179, the Helio PDA is definitely the premier bargain in PDAs. It also looks most cool. If any part of your motivation in adding to your collection of tech toys is the public WOW factor, the choice among 8 "stylish" colors just may influence your decision. The lime green of the review unit would not have been my first choice, but it is available in several less intrusive colors that don't have the esthetics of Saturday morning cartoon shows. Not that looks are everything in the case of the Helio.
Small, light (5.5 oz.), owners of average-sized hands report the device just barely fits on the palm of a hand in a manner that allows use of the cursor control buttons and the contrast potentiometer while held in a single hand. These primary controls can be operated holding the Helio in either hand: they are on the left side of the device and can be actuated either by the thumb while held in the left hand or by the fingers while held in the right hand. Success at this seems to depend on the size of your hand rather than on left- or right-handedness.
VTech achieves some of its price savings by selling the Helio only over the Internet through their Web site. No Helio will be found on store shelves. The company has retail experience selling cordless phones and "educational electronic products," so they may know something about what they are doing, though the Internet is littered with dead companies who tried selling a product without a pedigree. Frustrated by the inability to comparison shop because the Helio is only available online? Relax, shop in the comfort of your own home, any time. The company promises a 30 day return policy. The last time I looked, however, all colors were back-ordered 4 to 6 weeks. At least I didn't waste much time or any gas, both of which I've done for more than one mortar and brick store.
What's in the box:
The Helio PDA with stylus, a synchronization cradle with DB9 serial port connector, a 130 page User's Manual, a quick reference card for the Jot handwriting recognition software, a CD-ROM with Helio Desktop and CompanionLink PC software, a registration card, an accessory catalog, and a set of the AAA batteries needed to run the device.
The Helio has the following applications:
- Voice Recorder - record voice memos.
- To-do List - track action items.
- Memo Function - take notes, jot down memos.
- Phone Book - store names, numbers, addresses, and other details.
- Scheduler - calendar, with alarms.
- E-mail Function - download and draft e-mail (sent and received via your PC).
- Sketch Pad - freehand drawing stored as bitmap.
- Calculator - basic 4-functions with 12-digit display, also performs unit conversions, currency exchange, and mortgage calculations.
- Expense Manager - categorize and track expenditures.
- PC Synchronization - Back-up Helio data on a personal computer in either direction.
The applications, similar to other organizers and PDAs are familiar to anyone who uses PIMs and directly coordinate with common PC desktop equivalents such as Microsoft Outlook and Lotus Organizer through the CompanionLink PC software. It is more instructive to examine the features that the Helio and the Palm do not have in common. The Palm series has some features that are not available on the Helio: infrared communications (all models), wireless communications with the outside world on the $449 Palm VII, color TFT display on the $449 Palm IIIc. The Helio has some features not available on the Palm series: voice recording and playback, improved handwriting recognition software, 8 MB SDRAM against the Palm's 2 or 4 MB, front panel one-touch buttons that can be programmed to start whatever application you desire (the Palm's front panel buttons are not programmable). There is no direct comparison to a particular Palm model, but the $179 Helio invites comparison in performance and features to the Palm V and VX ($329-$399).
The Helio does not offer USB support, a feature that makes a lot of sense for a PDA, though the Palm does. It would eliminate some connection hassles. The Palm has built-in infrared communications while the Helio does not. Most PCs do not have IR lenses installed (you have to buy them separately), so this is of dubious value unless you own one of the recent laptop computers with IR, in addition to owning the PDA. For the person who depends a lot on these devices, both laptop and PDA are likely be in the briefcase, so IR communications could be a plus. For the user who simply wants a PDA as a simple extension of a desktop PC or paper calendar, it probably doesn't matter.
The Helio Sketch application is useful and a quicker solution to doing things like jotting down a phone number than either the PhoneBook or Memo applications. While the Jot handwriting recognition software is competent, it still slows you down. If you are conditioned to taking notes and later putting the information into something else (as I am from years of doing this before there were digital options) it is faster and simpler to scribble these notes in Sketch, then transcribe the information into something else later. Sketch is the only practical way to do things like write mathematical formulas.
Jot is the handwriting character recognition component of the Helio. (If you haven't seen this kind of application before, it converts each letter or number you write with the stylus into the equivalent character on the screen.) Folks with experience on both unanimously report that it is a big improvement over the handwriting component of the Palm. It is surprisingly tolerant of letters entered with double-strokes, like "f." Vtech provides a convenient crib sheet that shows preferred letter formation, though each character has three or four ways it can be entered, so you are not locked into a single method of entering each character, but are more likely to find a stroke that approximates your handwriting. If you use this feature regularly, you will no doubt want to explore Jot's macro feature, that allows you to enter whole words with a single character stroke. Jot is useful for some input to the Helio, though its overall recognition rate seems to be very similar to the standard of voice recognition software on the PC.
The Helio has a built-in back light that will be familiar to anyone who has worked with a Palm PDA and a mystery to everyone else. The manual is no help in clearing this up. It states, "Press and hold down the red Power button for two seconds. When the back light turns on, release the button." The manual fails to mention that the device must first be turned on be on before you can turn on the back light this way. If you try this when the device is off (the most likely way you will try first) the device will turn on but the back light will not turn on. VTech's Web site has a user question area where this question is posted several times.
Some of the other information in the manual is similarly incomplete, such as how to send E-mail from the Helio. Most of the information in the manual is slanted toward the user who has never used either a PDA or a PIM before and is simplistic. The manual lacks any useful examples that the experienced user might learn from, expanding the Helio's usability. There is absolutely no technical information in the documentation, though it may be obtained from VTech's Web site.
Installing the Helio Desktop software on the PC is straightforward, though the configuration of the serial port poses a potential stumbling block if you are not used to dealing with these settings in the PC environment. The Helio's manual will be absolutely no help here, as it only discusses the Helio itself and says nothing about the Helio Desktop software. The Helio Desktop manual is in PDF format and is unavailable from the Helio Desktop menus: you must view it externally with Adobe Acrobat Reader. (Acrobat Reader 4.0 software can be installed from the CD-ROM.) The CompanionLink software (used to integrate with PC PIM software) is a separate installation which must be performed after the Helio Desktop software is installed and configured. The Helio Desktop software is organized in the same way as the built-in applications: there are toolbar buttons that go to each Helio application.
Conclusions:
The Helio is a competent PDA at about half the price of a comparable Palm, with few downsides in comparison to the Palm, other than the limitations that they both share as PDA devices. The Helio offers voice recording, which the Palm does not, and includes enough memory to use it. This is a big advantage in usability. The included applications seem a bit better structured and easier to use than those in the Palm devices, and the handwriting recognition software is definitely easier to use and seems to work a bit better. Though the Palm comes in several models, VTech offers only a single model of the Helio which has enough features to match or exceed nearly all models of the Palm. The Helio is a broad-based PDA that probably contains all the features you would look for. Its price is possible in large part because VTech does not sell it through normal retail channels, but only sells it over the Internet. If you are looking for a PDA, you owe it to yourself to give the Helio strong consideration.
Product Information:
Helio PDA
$179 Web price
(Available only via Internet)
VTech Holdings Ltd.
560 Division St.
Campbell, CA 95008
877-883-2446
http://www.vtechinfo.com
Copyright © July, 2000 by Bayle Emlein