Samsung Behold II review
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted November 30th 2009 3:00PM
posted November 30th 2009 3:00PM
It was but a year ago that Samsung graced us with the original Behold. At the time it was more or less positioned to win the hearts of folks who wanted a luscious touchscreen but had no real truck with smartphones. So what do we have here? With the Behold II, the company has switched things up a bit: instead of a respectable feature phone, you not only get Android 1.5, but a 3.5mm headphone jack and WiFi as well. At least this shows that Sammy has been paying attention! Still, a couple questions come to mind: how does this one compare to the original? And how does it stack up as a Google Android device? Engadget has put her through the paces and our findings are sure to shock or surprise you (or maybe not). Continue reading below.
Hardware
This is one solid device. The plastic shell does not feel toy-like in the least, you won't find one sharp edge on the thing, and your hand finds the volume controls easily when your eyes are somewhere else. Additionally, this is a handset with a little bit of weight -- not enough to be inconvenient, just enough to make it feel like you're holding a phone. The addition of a physical camera button was also a big plus in our book. You know what was not a "big plus," however? True to form (read: the previous Behold) the lock key is situated on the right edge of the handset and flush with the surface, and therefore impossible to find without searching feverishly. This is pretty much a deal breaker for this editor, who insists on being able to both unlock a phone without spending a moment (or several) to scan for the unlock key, and needs to quickly check out text messages as the phone sits on his desk. On top of that, we've spent a lot of time in dark rooms (don't ask) practically unable to unlock this one at all. And no, even after a week or so to practice it never got any easier.
Also sort of a downer were the handset's (count 'em!) six front-facing buttons -- seven if you count the one in the D-pad. Sure, that's only one more than the G1 (including the clickable trackball), but as with the unlock key this was a situation where well thought out placement could have made all the difference. Indeed, the D-pad (though in many ways preferable to a trackball) shoved the home and menu keys off to the left -- somewhat counter-intuitively, in our book. The addition of the TouchWiz 3D cube key (more on that later) was not only vestigial but took up some valuable real estate.
User Experience
The first thing one notices when the Behold II fires up is that UI. This phone reeks of TouchWiz -- whatever Android elements Samsung hasn't put a glossy coat of paint on, it's replaced altogether: WiFi and Bluetooth settings are standard to the TouchWiz UI, as are the media player, and most dramatically the 5 megapixel camera. Indeed, the camera controls are much more like those of a digicam than a cellphone -- which is definitely a good thing. Aside from those limited areas, however, the skinning seems to have overwhelmed the 528MHz Qualcomm CPU that served the G1 pretty well. Our recommendation, quite simply, would be to ditch the skin altogether -- that is, if a faster processor and the latest Android OS are too much to ask (which apparently they are).
In addition to causing performance to suffer, TouchWiz adds layers of complexity to using the phone that we found extremely annoying. The 3D cube button on the front panel, for instance brought up -- you guessed it -- a cube that you can spin using the touchscreen. Each face of the cube was a menu option for a multimedia app: YouTube, Audio, Images, Browser, Video, and Amazon MP3 downloads. One cannot use the D-pad to scroll through these elements (which we expect will be jarring to most users, who expect some consistency throughout the menus). These apps can also be accessed by clicking on a pop-up that hides along the bottom of the cube screen, in the main app tray, or they can be placed on the desktop -- which is the first thing you're going to do if you use them anyways, making the two "cube" menus totally redundant.
As for that application tray -- Samsung has placed it, in its fashion, along the left hand edge of the screen instead of at the bottom, which is customary for Android. Since the OS has you scrolling through the desktops horizontally, it's all too easy to accidentally open the tray as you scroll back and forth.
All in all, the addition of TouchWiz seems poorly considered (aside from the camera controls and, perhaps, the multimedia -- more on that below), adding nothing to the phone but poor performance and an at-times jarring user experience.
Sound and Vision
No major complaints regarding telephone call quality -- voices were definitely thinner than on the G1, for instance, but the volume was acceptable and we experienced no static or hiss. When talking through the headset, the sound quality was as thin or thinner than the earpiece, but we received no complaints from the people on the other end. The speakerphone sounded a little hollow as well -- definitely not much worse than we expect from any handset, although in noisier rooms the little speaker just didn't have enough volume to get the job done.
As a media player, this guy is definitely a last resort. We had no qualms about the sound quality -- with the included headphones things sounded pretty full and volume was not an issue -- but we experienced some major hiccups when playing MP3s (album art and ID3 tags often weren't understood by the device) and unlike the UltraTouch, DivX is not supported -- which certainly curtailed our video enjoyment considerably.
Camera
The addition of Samsung's interface was a nice touch here, as was autofocus and flash. As long as you keep in mind that you're using a camera on a phone, you shouldn't be too disappointed -- we must note, however, that besides respectable color and detail at least one out of every three shots came out blurry and had to be re-shot. Not cool, even if this isn't a "proper" camera. We've included a few test pictures taken on a typically overcast Pittsburgh afternoon for your perusal.
Wrap-up
While other companies have gone onwards and upwards with Android, we're afraid that Samsung's latest is a non-starter. By taking yesterday's version of Android, an all-but-underpowered processor, and an ill-considered user experience, the company has given us a handset that does far too many things, far too poorly. All this for $229 on contract!
"This phone reeks of TouchWiz"
what a bizarrely revolting phrase
@Uncontrol They make it sound like TouchWiz is some sort of foot fungus or something.
@technogecko6 I think they actually make it sound like it reeks of some kind of pee. Touchwiz. Like pee that comes from your finger.
It's amazing that they won't learn. I played around with the Omnia a year ago and tried out the S8000 yesterday. Both are shit. Amazingly, Samsung screwed up this one too. But then again, so has Sony Ericsson done with all its touch phones. And HTC. And LG. And... oh, just about everyone but Apple and Palm.
Is it too much to ask that manufacturers focus on one or a few projects instead of churning out crap phones
@Lundmark
Because the Hero was really that bad.. =/
@Lundmark
HTC has done a wonderful job with WinMo. They made it finger friendly and so much easier to use than the standard winmo. I love stock Android but Sense is a plus and only adds to Android.
While I agree that HTC has done a wonderful job with Windows Mobile, it's still just makeup on a legacy mobile OS. It's evident HTC knows how to make user-friendly software, but you can only do so much when you start with a shitty OS.
Nokia is doing the same thing with the 5800 and N97; skinning the über-crappy S60 platform and the result is nothing short of embarrassing. Samsung and Sony Ericsson too,
What if they could take their coding skills, HTC in particular, and actually make something from scratch? You can't make a nice bolognese with a roadkill.
@Lundmark
S60 and Windows Mobile are not shitty platforms. Windows 98 was a shitty platform. Judging that you think Apple has a good OS tells me that you take a pretty looking easy to use UI over something that is practical. Read the review for HTC HD2 and you will see that WinMo 6.5 is a fine platform and HTC made it a modern OS.
I see the benefits of Apple's OS being so simple and easy but PERSONALLY I would take S60, Windows Mobile 6.5 and Android over an iphone on the same hardware anyday.
@JXCGunrunna
Honestly, there isn't much difference between Windows 98 and Windows Mobile. And S60 clearly wasn't made for touch. Both are legacy, crap platforms with tons of issues. I have no idea as to why they are still being used in new phones, since Android is available for everyone to use.
I do like UIs that are easy to use, and those are also the most practical. What is more important than being able to use the features? S60 was OK on my N95, but it will never be able to cope with finger-friendly touch UIs. Also, the review said what I said; namely that HTC has done a wonderful job with WinMo, but that WinMo is still crap. Which HTC, Samy and all the other guys ought to know by now, or so I thought.
the question is, will the support for this phone be as appalling as for the galaxy
ie. will it remain a 1.5 phone 'till the end of time and will the pc software ever recognize it for possible updates or syncing
@mrqs This is the galaxy.....
@hondamx525 i'm not quite sure if that's supposed to be a bad joke ("we're all living in the galaxy"), but just in case...
this is the galaxy: (also known as i7500)
http://www.gsmdome.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/samsung-galaxy-i7500-android.jpg
the behold ii bears more resemblance to the galaxy spica (or i5700), but it's not the same phone either:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_UJm1lSJKEM4/SwGw578b6MI/AAAAAAAACF8/QIiWB2IzXew/Samsung_Galaxy_Spica_Black_Front.jpg
@mrqs Its the same phone man. I suppose the the three htc hero's arent the htc hero either.
@hondamx525 you might call it the us version of galaxy because of their similarity, but the galaxy has 8 gigs of internal storage and far less ram than the behold ii (192 vs 320)
also the behold ii's software is quite a bit different (just look at the photo up there)
just because samsung sells this (admittedly very similiar) phone as a replacement for the galaxy in the states for whatever reason, doesn't mean it's the "same phone"
As soon as you said 528mhz, I stopped reading.
@SamTime I somewhere heard this phone might have the 800MHz processor that the Moment had... very sad that it is much, much worse ;)
@technogecko6
Does the G1 have a microprocessor? This is from Samsungs "tweets"
"The Behold II has an integrated 528MHz ARM11(TM) applications processor and a 256MHz ARM9(TM) microprocessor. "
I think the ARM9 microprocessor is only used for phone but it kinda has 800mhz. :)
@SamTime Everyone loves a little MHz snobbery, it's not the amount you have but how you use them ; ) The iPhone 3G only had a 412MHz processor, and that still performs very respectfully.
My Hero only has 528MHz and that performs perfectly capably, any slowdown is inevitably a software issue and not a hardware issue (as HTC already proved with their updated ROM). The HTC HD2 also has slowdown issues, and that's running at 1GHz, so I see no reason why further tweaking to Android and Sense UI couldn't make for a wonderful experience at 528MHz.
Having a massive processor isn't indicative of a great phone by any means!
@SamTime 528Mhz is the new QVGA
sony xperia x1 was a great phone, i dont know what you are talking about.
i have been using it the past 5 months, and its the best smartphone experience i have had after trying many.
that is ofcourse with the touch it 10.1 custom rom.
3+ days of battery life
@(Unverified)
Given the amount of hype it caused, the X1 was a pretty big letdown.
Of course, I assume that the reviews were based off the stock rom so I can't say anything about whatever you might be using, but for the price(which is incredibly high might I add) there seem to be far better options out there. Perhaps there's nothing wrong with the phone itself, but unfortunately it's been crippled by WinMo.
But if you like the phone, then more power to you! Personally I tried it and don't like it though, mostly due to WinMo and the resistive screen.
@(Unverified)
100% agree, Love my Xperia, Ive had it for almost a year now...plussy for you!
I keep looking at the three images of this phone and I'll be damned if it's not shapeshifting. It looks huge in the first photo, meanwhile that giant thumb dwarfs it in the third shot. I's confuzed.
So many things wrong with this phone. It makes me sad, because as a T-Mobile customer and fan, I want to see them reclaim the Android crown, but this phone won't do it. I can't recommend it to anyone with such a terrible UI and the price is just ridiculous. Such a shame.
@ryaninc: I am with you on this. It's sad, the day when I...*cringe* might actually consider jumping to Verizon at the end of my contract.
...I feel dirty.
@(Unverified) plus one. unless t-mo gets the droid (milestone) over here in the US I'm with you.
Never sell a dumbphone for smartphone prices. This makes Nitesh not buy them.
@Nitesh
but the Behold 2 IS a smartphone
This is about what i expected to hear about this phone. I guess you could always put stock android on this phone to make it better, but at that rate you might as well save the time and money by getting a mytouch
I'm sooo disappointed, I really want a new phone for xmas and it doesn't seem as though t-mobile will be coming through. Smh, but does anyone know if there are any good phones coming out on T-MO before the new year, I don't think any of my family or gf will pay for a tmo uk one.
Give Samsung some credit, they have effectively taken a SmartPhone and made it a feature phone. They somehow made an Android Phone that looks and act no better than their Highlight or Memoir.
Yes, I'll admit this phone looks like a failure as well--but why didn't you mention the AMOLED screen? The screen looks amazing compared next to the G1.
@jmdsdf Perhaps because all you are getting is a "really good look" at a "really bad UI" I suspect that takes away from the experience.
I like the hardware lock button. I have a HTC hero. you can unlock the screen by pressing "call end" button, then sliding the "lock" element on the screen.... or you can press the "menu" button twice... it randomly unlocks in my pocket and dials numbers or brings up applications... it sucks.
No excuses can be made. It just looks like crap.
Bada.........is.........coming......
@(Unverified) Bada is not the answer if the are going to throw TouchWiz on top of it.
I don't quite understand why almost every review of this phone has been horrendous. I just played with this phone yesterday. Hardware wise it is nice, and it would be the best android phone on Tmobile if it didn't have that terrible UI (albeit that isn't saying much).
All this phone needs is stock android and this phone is alright. While it's sad that it has an ancient processor, at least it has a 3.5mm jack, LED flash, and 5mp cam. Supposedly it also has a good amount of ram, but I haven't seen any specific data on that. The screen is also very nice. It's about the same size as the mytouch, and it only has ONE useless button on the front. I also like the D-pad a lot more compared to what the mytouch has.
The other problem is the price. This phone should be $99 with a 2 year agreement.
So I really only see 2 major problems with this phone... the UI and price. Both can be fixed very easily.
@zeesix "Hardware wise it is nice" ... well except for the slow processor... oh and the extra useless button... but it has more ram... though only allegedly... that is a lot of compromise to "nice"
So, take away the UI... and the extra button and what you have is... every other Android device. Thus the reason why this phone gets hammered. Everything (except for the AMOLED) that was done to make this phone "different" or (allegedly) "better" than other devices are done poorly. And the AMOLED screen alone is not worth the premium.
When the fuck did 'more buttons' become a negative?
I guess RIM and Nokia should just hang it up, their phones are FULL of buttons. HTC too.
@CJ It becomes a negative when it detracts from the usability of the phone. "More Buttons" isn't the problem, more buttons in an ergonimic and design disaster that adds nothing to the mix *IS* a problem.
@CJ Because the point of a touchscreen phone is that the screen negates the need for more buttons. It should allow for a simpler looking device, which Samsung has clearly failed to achieve here.
$229 on contract?
Fail.
:(