Samsung Behold II

[ryko]

Is this the reason we are not getting much help from Samsung on the Galaxy Engadget Mobile .Lo and behold they're new true Android phone !

 

[ressu]

Sigh, i wish they finished their old phones before pushing new phones out there.

 

[Rastaman-FB]

chillout

not getting much help?

you mean they have not fixed their software update system.
samsung for other countries outside of the uk are giving regular updates via nps for their devices. last month had about 4 firmware updates.

they are not forthcoming with new info etc but thats typical samsung, they are the same with all their phones and likely to be the same with the behold2

its made purely for tmobile and if you look at it, looks kinda familiar (reskin)
if anything future updates will make these phones very similar

 

[Cougar]

Link to the article (rather than the photos) is here: Samsung Behold II marries Android, TouchWiz for T-Mobile

I do hope the Galaxy doesn't turn out to be the ginger-haired stepson of Samsung's family, or I shall be cross.

 

[Rastaman-FB]

t-mobile make a habit of reskining devices.

i personally think that under the cover that is a galaxy, it will be the same chipset, same cpu, has the same screen, runs the same os, its even got the same lock and camera buttons.

its not been announced untill now because its a tmobile custom build much like how blackberries used to be when they made customer versions for operators

 

[akanbi]

Article from CNET T-Mobile introduces Android-powered Samsung Behold II | Android Atlas - CNET Blogs

I can't help but feel that Samsung Galaxy users were used as beta testers.

That phone looks like they've taken all the feedback from Galaxy users and created a better phone.
- Better keypad layout with meaningful icons for home and menu keys, and nice round d-pad
- Customised Android UI.

 

[hagi]

t-mobile make a habit of reskining devices.

i personally think that under the cover that is a galaxy, it will be the same chipset, same cpu, has the same screen, runs the same os, its even got the same lock and camera buttons.

its not been announced untill now because its a tmobile custom build much like how blackberries used to be when they made customer versions for operators

Agreed, if anything this should be a good thing, 2 phones with the same hardware means they are more likely to keep focus on the firmware which should be the same between the two.

 

[Cougar]

On the upside, it's being launched on T-Mobile "at the end of the year", meaning we'll actually see it in the UK sometime around 2013, with incomplete firmware, on a five year contract with the soul of your firstborn as downpayment. On Orange.

 

[hagi]

- No lock key
- Better keypad layout with meaningful icons for home and menu keys, and nice round d-pad
- and the icing on top: customised Android UI.

if you look at the 3rd photo on the engadget site the lock key is clearly still there. The only key change apart from shape is the touchwiz cube key.

 

[akanbi]

Agreed, if anything this should be a good thing, 2 phones with the same hardware means they are more likely to keep focus on the firmware which should be the same between the two.

I doubt very much that the firmware will be the same on both phones just because the hardware is similar. Is the firmware the same between HTC Magic and Hero?

On the upside, it's being launched on T-Mobile "at the end of the year", meaning we'll actually see it in the UK sometime around 2013, with incomplete firmware, on a five year contract with the soul of your firstborn as downpayment. On Orange.

LOL

 

[akanbi]

if you look at the 3rd photo on the engadget site the lock key is clearly still there. The only key change apart from shape is the touchwiz cube key.

Ok, didn't look at that photo.
Seems that they didn't listen to all the feedback then

 

[Rastaman-FB]

im sorry akanbi you are making odd assumptions here.

touchwiz will be an overlay app so they can use their cube like they do on the their other devices like the jet and omnia etc. thats why they have the extra button not a "custom" android os like htc which have pinch multi touch capability

if you look at samsungs device range alot of them are the same hardware with different "skins" on top for different operators.

i could be completely wrong but that just looks like a galaxy with a more modern looking button config at the front.

it wouldnt surprise me if the roms are more or less interchangeable and if not then i would hazzard as guess that development for android in samsung would be much better due to them having 2 devices supporting it

this will also mean that there is likely to be better desktop and update support for android phones via samsung

if anything this is a good thing

 

[ressu]

you mean they have not fixed their software update system.
samsung for other countries outside of the uk are giving regular updates via nps for their devices. last month had about 4 firmware updates.

Like many others mentioned, the i7500 users are considered as beta testers, we get pushed sub-production quality updates and pretty much lack support for the whole phone. What bugs me the most with the current state of support is that each and every firmware update comes with a note that you should do a factory reset after flashing. Yet there is no way of backing up the phone without rooting the phone first.

So more updates doesn't always amount to better support.

Sure in the end more android phones could mean better support and better software, but if they are having trouble keeping up with one phone, it's going to be twice as bad with 2 phones. Not to mention that that's actually the 3rd android phone from Samsung.

I've tried to remain objective when talking about manufacturers, but i'm quickly drifting in to pessimism with Samsung..

 

[Rastaman-FB]

nah

more phones on a platform then there is more people on the dev team working on the platform.
2 phones on android means samsung need to have a way of developing and updating in a more suitable fashion.

galaxy was the 1st android phone on portfolio, if you thought it was going to be problem free on their first attempt of a new os and device matrix then you were quite naive. im not saying this to insult you really think about it.
ive had many phones in the past which have had nothing but problems with no updates at all and no support by big names (SE, Nokia, Motorola). Hell, you are probably talking on here from a windows operating system which are the king on unfinished products. you still use it though right?

you mention its the 3rd? whats the other 1?


EDIT lol its a galaxy
http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_t939_behold_2-2955.php
check the pics
http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_t939_behold_2-pictures-2955.php
update on main page.
http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_t939_behold_ii_joins_tmobile_android_army-news-1155.php
as you can see its the same device with a reskin

 

[akanbi]

I really hope that I am wrong and that this is good news for the Galaxy.

However, Samsung released a phone that they haven't marketed at all!
I haven't seen a single English advert for the Samsung Galaxy (I know there was an Italian one a while ago).

When the phone came out it wasn't even listed on Samsung Mobile website for a few weeks. Even Samsung Moblie support didn't know anything about the phone when I first got the phone and contacted them.

I tried to get a case for the phone last weekend and none of the retailers had even heard of the phone before.

Samsung announced the phone back in April and eventually released in August, so they had plenty of time to get things right, but still failed to do that.

I just can't help but feel that the Galaxy was not meant to be released in the form it was and these newer phones (Galaxy Lite and Behold II) are what they were aiming for.

However, I am hopeful, as we all are, that this means better support for Galaxy and not that it will be discontinued.

 

[Rastaman-FB]

check above for my edit, its a galaxy

 

[akanbi]

Well, that's GSM Arena's opinion and not official from Samsung.

These are the same guys that say the Galaxy has 128MB of RAM when kam187 has checked and confirmed it's 192MB of RAM.

In fact it's more similar to Galaxy Lite i5700 than the Galaxy i7500. There's no mention of the 8GB internal storage (same as i5700) for example and the button configuration is also the same as i5700.

 

[Rastaman-FB]

lol everything about the phone design is exactly the same as that of the galaxy apart from the front buttons. including the camera location, shame and type.

gsm arena is generally correct, they got the memory type wrong and probably checked it the same way someone else on these forums did to come to the 128.

well see what happens but t-mobile do this with all their devices including the htc's

galaxy lite doesnt have a 5mp camera and the dimensions and layout is not the same either.

america needed a version for tmobile as the current offering of galaxy didnt support some of the 3g frequencies over there

 

[hagi]

However, I am hopeful, as we all are, that this means better support for Galaxy and not that it will be discontinued.

Remember the galaxy was probably finished 6 months ago while the devs have been focusing on the newer phones at the moment, plus android is new to samsung. I reckon with common firmware, more experience and maybe more resource from samsung seeing that there is interest in their android phones we should see some improvement soon. But then I'm an optimist!

 

[ressu]

galaxy was the 1st android phone on portfolio, if you thought it was going to be problem free on their first attempt of a new os and device matrix then you were quite naive.

Of course, it's obvious that one can't release a bug free product on the first try. I wasn't trying to imply that galaxy should have been 100% working when it was released, but one can expect a 90% working phone

Phone that crashes and breaks NPS support (which is the official method for managing the phone) on upgrades is not something i consider production quality.

ive had many phones in the past which have had nothing but problems with no updates at all and no support by big names (SE, Nokia, Motorola). Hell, you are probably talking on here from a windows operating system which are the king on unfinished products. you still use it though right?

TV used to be black and white (not to mention huge) and newspapers used to be the definite source for up to date news. Things change.

Nokia, Motorola and SE have all moved to end user firmware upgrades. Yes, once upon a time you had to go to a service center to get your phone upgraded, but in the end the phones had less features and were less prone to bugs as well. In todays world we can expect to get proper tools to upgrade the firmware. Not to mention backup..

And for the record, i'm not using windows.

you mention its the 3rd? whats the other 1?

EDIT lol its a galaxy
....
as you can see its the same device with a reskin

Third, erm.. second one would be I5700 the galaxy lite.

And yes, that would appear to be a rebranded galaxy. I wonder if we will be getting that new GUI as well...

 

[Rastaman-FB]

you bloody wouldnt be using windows lol that owned me heh

the galaxy lite i forgot about but its a very stripped down device
the other one which has still not been fully announce and only on sprint is samsung instinctq but again its not even got any form of release as its still in "concept"

EDIT: that gui is t-mobile only. probably why theyve added a button for it.
you can bet someone will hack it and make it an app

 

[Cougar]

According to the links above ^^ the woefully named Behold II is "The US version of the Samsung I7500 Galaxy"

 

[rubi76]

You guys should Chill Out!

I am a T-mo USA subscriber and I still ordered my Galaxy from Europe....
Reasons:

- T-mo strips down the features, for example, the Behold 2 has a very small battery (smaller the the G1 Android) and I guarantee you people will complain about battery life. Also, there is no 8gb of memory, and who knows what else..... We are not beta testers, as our device is much richer in features.
- By the time the Behold 2 comes out, you will have possessed the Galaxy for over 5 months.... think about the wait.
- For those of you who just entered the Android world, I have a G1 and I share my personal experience. My feeling is you should never worry about software. Whatever software is out there (Hero, Cyanogen, 1.6 etc.) it's just a matter of time until someone will post it online for your device. For example, whether the TouchWiz Android for the Behold 2 will be fully compatible with the Galaxy or not, chances are that in 1-2 weeks from release either Samsung or modders will make it available for the Galaxy.

If anything, the release of the Behold 2 with modded software is good news for Galaxy owners, who have better features on their device and will have access to the same software.

The only thing we should worry about is keeping the community strong, the Samsung Galaxy has strong sales all over the world and the requests for software provided by Samsung / people keep on growing.

Just my 2 cents!

 

[Hark]

Seems like 100% a good thing to me. T-mobile have just changed the buttons slightly, it's the Galaxy underneath. So more support, better firmware, maybe even a working PC-mobile solution. Maybe the Galaxy (even if called the Behold) will finally get some advertisement and traction which will only go to further improve the firmware/software.

I wonder if the touchWiz screens will be made available (legitimately - obviously they'll be easy enough to hack). Whether they will be worth it or not I'm not sure, it looks rather gimmicky to me. I'd rather stick the Hero Sense UI on myself.

 

[Hark]

Rubi if this forum had thumbs up then your post would deserve a big one, I totally concur.

You guys should Chill Out!

I am a T-mo USA subscriber and I still ordered my Galaxy from Europe....
Reasons:

- T-mo strips down the features, for example, the Behold 2 has a very small battery (smaller the the G1 Android) and I guarantee you people will complain about battery life. Also, there is no 8gb of memory, and who knows what else..... We are not beta testers, as our device is much richer in features.
- By the time the Behold 2 comes out, you will have possessed the Galaxy for over 5 months.... think about the wait.
- For those of you who just entered the Android world, I have a G1 and I share my personal experience. My feeling is you should never worry about software. Whatever software is out there (Hero, Cyanogen, 1.6 etc.) it's just a matter of time until someone will post it online for your device. For example, whether the TouchWiz Android for the Behold 2 will be fully compatible with the Galaxy or not, chances are that in 1-2 weeks from release either Samsung or modders will make it available for the Galaxy.

If anything, the release of the Behold 2 with modded software is good news for Galaxy owners, who have better features on their device and will have access to the same software.

The only thing we should worry about is keeping the community strong, the Samsung Galaxy has strong sales all over the world and the requests for software provided by Samsung / people keep on growing.

Just my 2 cents!