Yea, but it was the same idea. You have to remember SR had millions of dollars to develop they're special effects, I'm pretty sure Smallville doesn't have the cash to do that, especially ALL the time.
Never the less, it was the same looking, seeing as ALL other incarnations of his heat vision have appeared as laser beams. Smallville didn't do that, and SR followed suit with a more "Heat" looking heat vision, as opposed to lasers.
The ripples that form around him when he jumps are always cool. The coolest strength one was when he caught the car.
But I enjoyed the underwater ones from Aqua, when AC did his little typhoon punch move thing...
Oh, and the shattering of the sword on Clarks arm when lex hit him with it, simple but well executed.