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Samsung Helix (p)review
comment: 0 | Thursday, January 26 (2006) 07:27AM | Posted by Austin Vaughan
Basically, the Helix is a mp3 player/XM radio. During my tests, it worked very well, except for a few beta bugs. The battery life was really incredible. I used it heavily for a day, and when I plugged it in at the end of the day, it still had about nine tenths of a battery left. The sound quality was quite excellent, helped by the excellent earbuds that came with the device.


Read more: Beta testing the Samsung Helix from XM Satellite RadioWe had a chance to check this thing out at CES, along with the Pioneer XM2go (a rebrand of the same device) and they really are pretty nice. Well-built, colorful GUI, not too big, etc. The sucky part is the price - $ 400 - and they only come with 1gb of flash memory. Plus, you still have to shell out $ 10+/month for the satellite radio service. It's a good idea... but somewhere around $ 250 would be more reasonable.
Comments

Flid

Comments: 262
Jan 26 (2006) 10:28AM  

Set camera to *macro* mode, FFS. Urgh.

$10+ /month?!?! Yikes. I'll stick with free UK digital radio thanks. Nice idea and well implemeted device none-the-less though.




608zz
Location: DC metro area.
Comments: 270
Jan 26 (2006) 11:46AM  

You'll have to "stick with free UK digital radio" anyway, Flid, as XM (and Sirius) is only available for the US and Canada.

Paying for radio service is definitely a personal consideration. In the US, commercial-free radio is not very extensive. Public radio is good, but not available everywhere, and not always offering content of interest. So if you want radio choices on-demand in the US, and have no access to the internet or other service (such as while in the car, etc) satellite radio is a valid option. Many people pay a $30+ month for cable TV, so the $13 per month for satellite radio is not bad.


As for the ridiculous $400 price of these units, it probably won't be that high for long. The previous version of this, known as the Myfi, started @ $300 and within one year was down to $100. I'll probably wait until this is down to $200 before I buy one.




Lighter

Comments: 102
Jan 26 (2006) 02:25PM  

Both XM and Sirius price radios like cell phones with "special" prices and large rebates. In other words, they want the monthly subscription. Right now subscriber numbers are everything to those networks.




Allen
Location: Dub Vee Ooo
Comments: 1511
Jan 26 (2006) 02:42PM  

That IS good news about the battery life... considering this thing does live stream from xm....




Design Fabulous

Comments: 1038
Jan 26 (2006) 04:49PM  

I don't like the idea of this... Just a plain mp3 Player is the best choice in my opinion. I mean it's so much cheaper and you can actualy choose your songs.




Dominic
Location: Ireland.
Comments: 2408
Jan 27 (2006) 02:06AM  

that'd be an ipod then....no i like this idea, pity though




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