At least twice a day over in the forums, someone shows up and posts something that they’re totally sure is Oz2. It’s been the same set of images on a constant loop for months now. We still don’t know how Oz2 will look, but having seeing these images about a bajillion times, we’re pretty sure how it won’t.

1) Pantech’s Tri Slider Concept:

Why it’s probably not Oz2:

• We’ve been seeing this since November of 2006 - a full 6 months before Oz1 was released.
• The market for “People that want to be able to block their keyboards with the numberpad” is pretty small.

2) Fujitsu’s Slider Mockup:

Why it’s probably not Oz2:

• This concept device was made - but not for Helio. This was a concept device made by Fujitsu for their own use. The Helio logo on the screen was photoshopped in as a joke by one our of forum members, and it spread like wildfire.

3) Helio Ocean Cake:

Why it’s probably not Oz2:

• It’s a cake.

Hopefully these rumor shots can rest in debunked peace now. We’ll have images up as soon as we know what Oz2 actually does look like.

Looks like the jig is up for the Mysto. This morning, Peter Ha of CrunchGear posted some shots of the upcoming Helio device. We first heard about the Mysto a few months back as various trademark/FCC stuff made its way through the pipes. As we (and damn near everyone else) speculated, , the Mysto does appear to be the CDMA version of Samsung’s U600 device. According to the image, the device will be launched at $150.

Additionally, an icon of the Mysto started showing up on the new Helio price pamphlets sometime last week (See bottom right of the above image, courtesy of forum member Allsop154.). Looks like the deal is pretty much sealed - we’ll let you know when we hear a release date.

(Click the shot above for a bigger image)

So, as the Helio-oriented (Heliocentric?) internets are ablaze with speculation over the SPH-A523 (Which may or may not be called the “Mysto”), we figured we best weigh in with our opinion.

After comparing the images found in the FCC report with various other device photos, we’re willing to take a stab and guess that the A523 is a CDMA/Helio-fied version of the freakin’ gorgeous SGH-U600.

The SGH-U600 is a GSM slider phone, not currently available in the US. Coming in at a damn-slim 10.9 mm, it’s only available as the U600 in Europe, or in a similar form as the SCH-C220 (AKA Miniskirt) in Korea.

If our guesses end up being near correct, we can’t friggen wait to get our hands on this thing. We’ve heard nothing but great reviews of the GSM versions of these devices; I started drooling over pictures of this device back when they first started showing up on gadget sites, so the idea that it may be comin’ to Helio is a welcome one.

Other Speculation/Notes:
- It probably won’t be an identical clone of either the U600 or the C220 - different internals means different overall layout. For one, the MicroSD slot in the FCC shot is behind the battery, rather than on the side.
- Camera on the C220 is 2 megapixel, while the U600 is 3.2. Which will end up on the A523?
- U600 has AutoFocus/LED Flash; same should be true for the A523 according to the FCC pics.
- If it’s to take the place of any current model, we’d have to guess it’ll be the successor to the Heat.