Samsung Heat SPH-A303

Helio recently added a slick new slider, the Samsung Heat, to the company's growing selection of handsets. The Heat, looking ever so much like Samsung's E900 that was released last year for the European market, provides users with an elegant and versatile choice in a phone. The Heat is available in two color schemes: black onyx and gold. With its simple lines and discreet touch sensitive buttons, the Heat definitely seems to be on.

The Samsung Heat, cloaked in a glossy black sheen, is a slider form factor handset that has very clean and ergonomically friendly curves throughout. Fitting easily in the palm of the hand, the compact 93mm x 45mm x 16.5mm (3.6" x 1.8" x 0.6") Heat is sure to be a crowd pleaser when it comes to things like pocketability. Weighing a mere 93g (3.2oz), the Heat will not weigh down anyone's pockets, either.

Helio's Samsung Heat offers users a large 2" 262k color QVGA (320x240) pixel display. The bright display provides offers easy to read screens that make it a joy to use when messaging or surfing the web. Located below the phone's main display are the Heat's main attractions, its touch sensitive buttons. Utilizing electrostatic technology, these "touch pad" buttons are used instead of the traditional softkeys and call buttons. When inactive, the buttons are obscured from view. By activating the handset, which can be done in a number of ways, the Heat's touch sensitive keys will light up. The two softkeys, the send button, and the back button are all of the touch-sensitive variety. Hidden, except when the media player is active, are the dedicated previous and next track buttons that straddle the mechanical d-pad. The downside to the controls is that the touch sensitive keys were quite a chore to use at times.

Samsung claims that the Heat is good for up to 3 hours of talk time or 8 days of standby.

The Heat offers the typical Helio apps like MySpace Mobile, H.O.T, and Music+Video on Demand. Similar to its big brother, the Helio Drift, the Heat includes Bluetooth stereo support and built-in GPS functionality that can be used with Helio's Buddy Beacon and Google Maps applications. Google Maps comes in quite handy when searching for the nearest pizza shop or the closest gas station. Some other features worth mentioning are the phone's ability to sync contacts easily. This can be done wirelessly by signing up with Helio's webmail or via USB with Helio's PC Link Pro software. The phone's internal Address Book holds up to 1000 contacts, 5000 different numbers, and 999 speed dials. Newly added to the Heat's WAP Portal were the sites Digg, craigslist, Boing Boing, Metablogging, and Wikpedia. All can now be accessed directly from the Heat's browser's homepage. The Samsung Heat works with the massive library of Helio games and services that are supported by the other handsets that Helio sells.