I just got a the Behold 2 for one full day, but had a Samsung Galaxy for a couple of days before, here are my thoughts if you are considering this phone. I am coming from an Iphone (2 years ago) and a G1 (last year) Pros: -Hardware Great Screen, better than anything else on the market (Iphone included), 3.5 mm jack, micro usb well placed, nice looking / elegant device, good weight, smart choice to put the unlock botton on the right to prevent accidental presses. Keys now light up (improvement over the Galaxy); Android phone with most RAM to date, slimmest Android phone to date. -Camera functions Best imaging / camera solution on any Android, not only for the many options and changes on the software, but for the fact (finally) that pressing the button slightly gives you autofocus before you take a picture. Also, takes photos very fast... good job by Samsung -Music player / Music Didn't try it fully yet, but it seems to be improved over stock Android a lot. Also, the music quality is very good, beats the G1. -Overall UI I will put this under the Pros because Samsung made a few changes that really improve the Android experience. First, the tray that comes down from the top has recent applications and GPS / Bluetooth / Wifi toggles, saving you more space on the home screen. Many complain that placing icons freely on the home screen and not in 'grid' style is annoying, I find it an excellent improvement so we are free to place what we want, where we want. The Dialer-Contacts-Web-Quicklist fixed bar is a very good idea and proves to be useful because it doesn't take much space, however it should be more customizable. I will definitely try Open Home and other Home screen replacements, but the Samsung interface is definitely not as bad as people make you think. Overall the UI is snappy, it does not lag at all, and it's a major improvement over the G1 and other Android devices. Bad: -Battery issue I wouldn't call it a battery problem (largest battery on any Android phone) but I would call it an interface problem. As it was pointed out in other forums, by opening Taskiller you can notice that the phone opens up random programs (myfavs, google maps, etc.) wasting battery when not needed. Also, the battery is not well calibrated, and I still have to power cycle it to make sure of its true performance. I refuse turn off autosync (what did i get an Android for?) and I hope this will be fixed either in the next update or when custom roms will be available. -The cube Not useful. Not a huge deal because one can decide not to use it, but it would be nice to customize the hardware key for something else. -Minor problems Setting up an exchange e-mail is not possible (doesn't let you jump to the next field). Quick list not customizable. The keyboard could be improved, but it's not as bad as people think and you could use custom ones. Vibration helps a lot into the typing. Phonebook - the one accessible from the fixed bar unfortunately lists ALL your Gmail contacts (also the e-mails you used once and went into your contacts- in gmail 'ALL CONTACTS') while the one you access from Dialer --> Contacts does it the right way by listing only the contacts that should be synched (basically when a name matches a number or an e-mail, it will appear, in gmail "MY CONTACTS'). I did not find a solution to this yet (let me know if you did...) but it's pretty annoying, especially because you can't pin point to the home screen the right 'my contacts'. Left pulling menu - I would rather have it from the bottom even if it clashes with the fixed bar, but you can choose to use a different home application. FINAL THOUGHTS After having the g1 I truly believe an Android phone should be judged firstly and foremost on the hardware, and the Behold 2 does not disappoint - I think it's the best looking and functional hardware on the market, far better than the Droid (a brick) or anything that is around. In the software area, I do appreciate Samsung's effort to differentiate itself from the crowd by creating some changes, but the first results are mixed. I wouldn't dismiss the UI as fast as other websites, most problems are minor and can be fixed with a Home application. Generally speaking I give this phone a 7 out of 10 that could easily become a 9 out of 10 when we will have custom ROMs - get rid of the cube, fix the battery issue, keep the good out of the interface, and use the powerful RAM at our disposal. Therefore, this phone is here to stay (trust me I am picky about phones...) but I still hope it makes its way into savvy hands soon so we can enjoy it in its full potential. Thoughts and comments are welcome!
Now THAT is what I call a review Looks like you got your phone at just the right moment, too, because kam187 and chaoscentral have found a way to repeatedly get a "Persistent Root" on the Behold II. It shouldn't be too much longer before we have custom roms. Buh-bye TouchWiz! Murf
You should be able to use exchange, I do.. Just go to the next field after you have filled the one you are on out by hitting the back button to take your keyboard away. Use the touch screen to progress forward.
I bought the behold 2 prepared to send it back after I got it becuase the reviews sucked on this phone. I honestly don't know what they expected from this phone. I think they are being more critical of the cube ui, than the device itself. I still have the G1 and MyTouch, both are rooted and modded, this phone is smoother and all around a better device than my other Google phones put together. I don't use the cube, because honestly that does suck, the cube ui is slow and laggy, NOT ANDROID!!! It is rumored that we will get an update pretty quick on this device, but I expect to have mine rooted and modded by the time they have that ready for an OTA update. The phone price is High, so what...I am a techie and I wanted it. Plain and simple, when you are complaining about this phone, it doesn't add up to actually owning it. I will put my phone against your (performance wise) and you will be complaining about yours afterwards. Quit reading the reviews..... NOTE: Camera is the best of any Google device; however it itself like ALL other Google devices gets sluggish between task. Nuf said...............
i too prefer the behold, and was very very scared when i traded in the myTouch cause all the review bashing i read, i liked android a lot but didnt want to stay with the myToy and amlost went Blackberry. i am glad i went with the behold but will admit that with these google devices i havent liked the battery performance. I DO use the cube, for the only reason i dont want to waste the button. i cannot understand the bad reviews, the behold got bashed so hard on the intertubez, were they expecting a droid or iPhone and got dissapointed? i dont get it? the behold is a darn good phone with a SUPER PIMPTACULAR SCREEN and a dang good camera. why all the hate/
Hi, I have a Question that I tried to look up but couldn't find. I got the G1 and the My-touch both on the days they came out. So I was playing with the cliq and the behold 2 at the t mobile store. I liked the behold 2 much better so I came home called and ordered one. I'll have it Tues. or Wed. of this coming week. When I asked the rep. I ordered the phone from said the Behold 2 was running android 2.0, but then when I watched an unboxing video on you tube, (I don't know how old this video was) it said it was running on 1.5 still? Can somebody tell me what android OS it's running on now please? Thanks a lot, Knot BTW is this phone rootable yet?
Yea I'm with you on that one man. After I ordered it I was looking up a bunch of reviews and it got bashed HARD. I was almost thinking about returning it before it arrived, lol. It's really refreshing to see that a lot of people really do love it, when I had a chance to play with a demo I loved it. So we'll see. I don't why it got so many bad reviews. People bitch just to bitch it seems like. Well whatever, come tues. or wed. I'll be the proud owner of a Samsung Behold 2. P.S. If anyone is interested, I'm selling my white Mytouch 3G to try and recoup on some of the cash I'm shelling out for the behold. It's only 3 months old without a scratch on it. My email is Pmcglynn72@gmail.com.
Yes, 1.5 but Samsung / T-mo promised 2.0 upgrade in the future. Phone is rootable but no cooked Roms yet.
I'm with you guys all the way!! The reviews are continually bad for this sweet little piece of technology, but imho I'm finding it to be far superior to the others out there. I started out with the G1 - early adopter, had it in my hot little hands the week it was released. Went along for the ride, and while it had its bumps along the way it was a learning experience. Skipped the MyTouch - HTC. That single proprietary jack for everything is just a huge deal-breaker for me. Tried the Cliq, thinking I really couldn't do without the keyboard and talk about HATING interfaces - that Motoblur junk? I don't use the social networking sites and even without registering it was still a pain in the butt and the keyboard sucked wind. (Ok - I will say the G1 keyboard was a decent keyboard.) The phone didn't feel good in hand, no flash, just didn't like it. Then the Behold II. Ahhh. When I got it and had it in my hand, I knew it was well worth it. I get frustrated because its Android - all of those things that people want to bash in the reviews will eventually change. The cube? We'll be able to assign apps before long I'm sure. The TouchWiz? it's not that bad. There's already solutions out there to that! On the other hand we're the proud owners of a great phone and we know it!!!!!!
What's up to everyone. My 1st post here but down with Android since day 1. I agree. The reviews are unfair. As they always have been for any Android device. I remember how they slammed the G1. I don't like touchwiz or anything else skinned on top of Android. Sense, Blur etc. all make the phone work harder for less function. The first time I checked to see what was running on my Behold 2, touchwiz had 20+ apps and processes running. Not 1 review speaks on whats really running in the background. I Got rid of touchwiz UI and the phone is fast. With all the things that I choose to have running, all the time, im left with around 140mb of RAM. Now it does need a software update. Just to smooth it out more. But so far, best. Combination of multimeadia, screen, RAM, and camera you will find on an Android device at the moment. All key factors missed by the reviews. And I like the media cube. It serves a purpose for me. It looks great and everyone that's seen it so far was amazed. Overall im happy with my choice.
I mean I use a home replacement. Then I use Advanced task manager to monitor what's running. Im confident I can have my phone running perfect with another day of use. Still exploring what or what not tasks to kill without problems
derrickps3 Also, XDA is an HTC-only site; since this is a Samsung phone, we'll have to wait for a different community to crack the code. Murf
I think what put people off to the behold 2 was the price, several of the reviews mention that. Had tmobile released this at a 99$ price point im almost sure that the reviews would have been more favorable. Personally i think the i think the moto cliq is junk but the reviews for it were decent go figure.
Yes true, but I never mined the price. You know, Tmo definitely should have handled this better. We should have 2.0 or at least a date on when we'll get it. Hell I'd take 1.6! I'm too familiar with the batt problem because I got my G1 when Android was barely at 1.0 and its the same batt problem from 1.5. Its not the battery or the phone. Its the outdated cupcake OS telling the phone and battery its charged. A well known bug in 1.5 plain and simple. Someone needs to get fired! This B2 hardware is killer, just like we demanded from Tmo. But along the way someone had a bright idea! "You know what, It would be Epic to release our next generation Android with year old software! Our faithful Android customers will love it!" This will all go sour if the update doesn't come soon. Only because its just ridiculous and terrible mismanagement by Tmo. We must let them know! After the G1, and My touch I was ready for a nice camera. And got it, but im watching my batt level fall in front of my eyes right now!
Thanks for the info rubi. I was surprised to get a bang on my door at about 9 PM last night. It was UPS with my phone! I think it took me until about midnight to make the phone the way I want it. Apps, Music, backgrounds, ect..... so I didn't have too much play time with it but a couple hours. So far so good. I like it a lot. More so that my G1 or my, mytouch. I think it's just a little rough around the edges like all android phones are when they are released but when 2.0 hits this phone should be really great!!! But everything works well, no FC's. Fast, responsive, it works very well, I'm quite happy with it. The camera is just amazing. Lots to play with today, good thing it's Saturday, lol.
I know what your saying and I agree with you %100, but the only android phone running 2.0 right now it the Verizon Droid, and with about %80 of the really really good apps. I get I always read the comments, and most of the time there's a few comments saying the app won't work on the droid. I'm wondering if that's because the alot of the apps aren't ready to run on 2.0. Before I got my SB2, I had a MT3G and I used a cooked 2.0 rom that worked great but when I went to get my apps on it half of them wouldn't work, so I'm wondering, (just wondering) if Tmo is waiting on the apps to be compatible with 2.0 or tweak 2.0 to be compatible with the apps. Just a thought man. I'm not trying to step on any toes here. I'd LOVE 2.0 and I was kinda pissed it didn't come with it as well. I don't know if this is the case or not, just a thought.
