Helio Fin (Samsung SPH-a513) Cell Phone Review - Multimedia
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Alfredo Padilla Published on August 29, 2007 Comment on this |
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Accessing Music Software (5.03)
To find out how easy it is to get a song playing on the Fin we time how long it takes to go from phone closed to getting a song playing. We repeat this test five times and take the average for our score. The Fin took an average of 3.98 seconds to get a song playing. This is about average for a phone; not as fast as the Chocolate VX8550, but also not nearly as bad as the Katana DLX. We found we could quickly get a song playing on the Fin by opening the phone and using a long press on the dedicated music key. This launches the music player with the last song you were listening to, and automatically begins playing. This is in contrast to a short press on the key, which instead takes you to your lists of music. | Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Helio Fin | 3.98 | 5.03 |
| Sanyo Katana DLX | 11.86 | 1.69 |
| LG Chocolate VX8550 | 2.04 | 9.80 |
| Nokia N75 | 4.04 | 4.95 |
| Nokia N73 | 4.34 | 4.61 |
| Sprint Upstage | 6.54 | 3.06 |
Dedicated Music Controls (4.0)
The Helio Fin has only two music control buttons. As you would expect the volume keys on the left side of the phone control music playback volume. In addition there is a dedicated key to the left of the directional pad that launches the music player. Unlike many modern music flip phones like the Nokia N75, the Fin eschews exterior music controls.
Music Software Functionality and Organization (9.0)
The Helio Fin's music software does a solid job of fulfilling its functions. Our standard .pls playlist file was recognized, and the phone also allows you to build your own playlists on the device. The phone was able to recognize tags for both our test MP3 and AAC files. There is no search functionality built into the phone, however you can easily sort music by title, genre, artist, and album. There are also options to view your most recently played songs, which is a nice feature we haven't seen on other phones. You switch between these different views using left and right on the directional pad. The Fin doesn't support album art, although you do have a choice of various visual effects displayed while music is playing. Music placed in the correct folder on your memory card is automatically recognized by the music player, but there is no ability to discover music in other locations like Series 60 devices do. There also isn't support for background play; you can't start a song playing and then go check your e-mail. There is also no equalizer support. We were missing some advanced functions, especially multi-tasking support, but otherwise felt the Fin's music software did a reasonable job.
Online Song Downloading (7.0)
The Helio Fin supports Helio's music store, which can be accessed via the browser home screen. Songs can be easily searched for and are quickly downloaded to your handset. Purchased songs are protected by DRM, so they won't work on any other device. Songs typically cost $1.99 per track, which is a bit much considering most songs can be purchased online for 99 cents a track or less. Sprint Wireless has recently lowered its prices to this standard, and we hope Helio and other carriers soon follow.
Streaming (0.0)
The Flip does not support streaming music via MP3, Real, or Windows Media formats.
Podcast Support (0.0)
The Helio Flip does not have any software to download or organize podcasts.
Music Sync with PC (0.0)
The Helio Fin does not support synchronization of music between your device and a PC. Helio provides some music management software on its website, but this doesn't work with the Fin.
Music Formats and DRM (0.0)
The Helio Fin supports AAC and MP3 music files. The only form of DRM supported is Helio's own, which means you won't be able to use music purchased from iTunes, Rhapsody, or Napster on the device. Thankfully DRM free music looks like it may be in our future, so hopefully we won't have to worry about this for much longer.
Music Interruption (10.0)
The Helio Fin did a good job handling an incoming call while music was playing. The music was stopped, albeit a little abruptly, when the ringtone starts, and starts up again from the same point when the call ends.
Video
Video Software Access (4.76)
To test how easy it is to get a video playing we time how long it takes to go from phone closed until a video is playing on the phone. We repeat this test five times and take the average for our score. The Fin took an average of 4.2 seconds to get a video playing. This is a fairly good time, and only the Chocolate VX8550 was faster. In most cases the Fin was significantly faster than other phones. | Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Helio Fin | 4.20 | 4.76 |
| Sanyo Katana DLX | 8.54 | 2.34 |
| LG Chocolate VX8550 | 2.71 | 7.38 |
| Nokia N75 | 13.12 | 1.52 |
| Nokia N73 | 9.74 | 2.05 |
| Sprint Upstage | 10.92 | 1.83 |
Video Controls (5.0)
When a video is playing back on the Fin most controls are accessed via the directional pad. Left and right move forward and back in the video, the center select button acts as play/pause, and down as stop. The right soft key is assigned to toggle full screen viewing while the volume keys, of course, control volume. We liked the clean and intuitive interface for video playback controls.
Video Software & Organization (3.0)
The Fin's video software is part of the Music & Video section of the menu. Playlists are supported, and you can create a new playlist, view all videos, or see a list of the most recently played videos. This is better than most phones, where videos are managed in the album software and there is no support for playlists.
Video Sync with PC (0.0)
As with music, the Helio Fin does not support synchronization of video between your device and a PC. Helio provides some media management software on its website, but this doesn't work with the Fin.
Video Formats (2.0)
The Helio Fin was able to play back our 3GP encoded files in the H263 format. It was not able to handle our MPEG-4 files in either 3GP or H264 format. This is despite the fact Helio's website claims it supports both. It also doesn't support Flash video, QuickTime, Windows Media, or Real Media. We were rather disappointed by the dearth of video formats supported by the Fin.
Video DRM (0.0)
The Helio Fin does not support any DRM protected video.
Video Playback Smoothness (10.0)
To test video playback smoothness we attempt to play back five 3GP encoded files at various bitrates. We were pleased to see the Fin was able to play back all five of our test files without problems.
Online Video Downloading (0.0)
The Helio Fin does not support direct downloading of videos to your handset.
Video Streaming unscored
We do not score this section because of the wide variety of different streaming video standards. We do, however, try out a couple of different video sites to see how they are handled. We were pleased to see the Helio Fin was able to play YouTube videos from YouTube's mobile site: m.youtube.com. It was not able to handle streaming Windows Media video from windowsmedia.com, nor was it able to play streaming 3GP video from zoovision.com.
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