Helio's Strengths Can Be Summed Up in Its Billing

While Helio's onscreen menus advertise music and video downloads, at the moment only videos are sold, at $2.49 each. Helio's video catalogue is depressingly slim and seems even thinner when you see how many times the same artists pop up.

The tested Kickflip phone provided all the standard ways to dress up its interface and then some -- for instance, you can choose a movie clip as the phone's wallpaper instead of a picture. This swivel-open handset also included a decent set of programs, including a good address book, a basic calendar, a memo pad, a voice-memo recorder and a handful of games (with others available for sale or rent).

The Kickflip provides the theoretically helpful option of data synchronization with a Windows computer, but Helio has made a mess of that with its free desktop software. Its installer caused Windows XP to throw up two "unsigned driver" warnings, much of its interface is a morass of small type and hard-to-decipher icons, and some useful functions (like converting MP3s into ringtones) go missing entirely.

If you merely want to copy your MP3s over to a Helio phone for listening on the go, you'll need to install a different desktop program and pop a tiny "T-Flash" memory card into the phone.

As for the Kickflip's hardware, its roughly inch-thick dimensions mean it's not about to shut down a Motorola Razr in the style department. A lack of Bluetooth wireless and mediocre talk time (2 hours and 42 minutes in a test) don't distinguish it in terms of utility either.

The everyday reality of Helio's service and devices doesn't quite square with its marketing. Promotional efforts like "Helio House" events at nightclubs and a quarterly magazine filled with hard-to-read type and pictures of bored models imply that this company represents an overwhelmingly cool break with the cellphone business we know.

But that's not so. For all the buzz Helio's MySpace links have won it, in practical terms this company's major contribution to the wireless market seems to be its refreshingly simple, all-you-can-eat data charges -- though people who don't spend their lives "texting" will still save money with the name-brand carriers' more complex pricing.

But the real problem of wireless-phone service in the United States isn't confusing subscription options, it's the control-freakery of established carriers that continue to ship phones locked to their own service and with useful features deactivated.

Fixing that will take much more than all-inclusive pricing, a new batch of mobile-Web links or fancier, small-screen multimedia.

Living with technology, or trying to? E-mail Rob Pegoraro atrob@twp.com.