The original Samsung Behold was released last year and at first glance it looked appealing, but after a deeper glance it was without a doubt “un-buyable”. This article will be taking a look at Samsung’s follow up, the….The Behold 2.
With people paying tons of money to carriers for their data plans it is amazing to us that this so called “smart phone” can come to the market missing one little feature. WiFi, are you kidding me WiFi? Sure the Samsung Behold didn’t do everything wrong, but with WiFi missing that was basically all we needed to know about this device.
So this brings us to now; when we found out about a new Samsung smart phone review we were asked to do we were excited for anything but the behold. Next we found out the phones name, it turns out the creative people over at Samsung choose to name this new device, wait for it…..wait for it…..yep the Behold 2. We have received many emails from people saying that they don’t want to see another Behold, so you can see why we think the name is the worst idea since the Hindenburg. Ok we were here to do a review so we made sure we reviewed this phone and not its predecessor
Just by browsing the specs before the review we could already tell that the Samsung Behold 2 is a significant step up from its older brother the Behold. With so many android models hitting the shelves of T-mobile this review will attempt to justify if it is worth it for an android user to purchase the Samsung Behold II or if they should stay away like before.
The Behold 2 has a nice rounded candy bar form factor and the hardware finds a nice clean way to fit all needed buttons and ports, but is a bit on the larger size for a phone with a 3.2 inch display. The Droid Eris is a much sleeker phone compared to this device but some may enjoy the added weight as this phone does not feel cheap.
The buttons and ports on the perimeter of the phone include a volume rocker, a 3.5 mm headphone jack, a micro usb charger/data port (strangely at the top) , a dedicated camera shutter key, a lanyard loop, and a lock switch (something more phones need to incorporate in their devices). The front of the phone is equipped with all of the standard android buttons you would expect, but they have also added a Cube UI button which would have been great if customizable. The final item on the face of the phone is a directional pad for all navigating needs. This worked just as well if not better than any trackball in our opinion.
The back of the phone was a little confusing to us here at DroidedUp. Samsung has decided to give you a nice full size map on the back of your phone just in case you get lost and need to remember what country you live in after leaving the bar. This feature has no functionality so you can understand why we would question Samsung on this decision.
The AMOLED display looks brilliant for all media, you can turn off Touch Wiz UI, it has WiFi this time around, nice GPS, the Cube UI looks good, the SMS messaging looks crisp, and finally its not the BEHOLD I.
Still running firmware 1.5, the touch wizard UI is not better than stock android in our opinion, the Cube UI looks cool but can not be customized at all (so your stuck with Amazon Downloader, thats weak), only three home screens, on screen keyboard is cramped, and we believe it has been highly over priced.
The Price: $149 with 2 year contract and $309 for just the phone no contract
Well we think this is a good step for Samsung into the Android ring, and as we stated earlier at least its not the Behold 1. Sure it doesn’t do everything right, but it is a decent phone. The only problem we found was that it priced itself out of the market. If you are on T-mobile there are 3 other Android phones at this price point that we would rather own than the Behold II, but if you are a Touch Wiz fan then maybe this is the device for you. If Samsung makes some changes, like adding Android 2.1, dropping the price to $79 (Droid Eris Price), and allowing users to customize the Cube UI to their liking, this phone could be a real contender in the world of Android.
After our team reviewed the positive and negative aspects of this device we have given the Samsung Behold II a 79 out of a possible 100. With a few easy changes to the software this phone could easily be around an 85