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If the above e-mail we were forwarded from an anonymous source holds any weight, T-Mobile is recalling all remaining stock of the Samsung Behold II back to their return center, signaling a probable end to the device’s life on the magenta network. According to our source an e-mail like this is only received during the twilight of a devices life, citing the same correspondence issued the death knell for the Sidekick. Starting today the Behold II will no longer be stocked or sold in stores, and the remaining stock that is being returned from brick and mortar T-Mobile outlets will be used to fulfill online orders until the device is officially discontinued.
So who will miss the Behold II? After a controversial promised update to Android 2.0 or higher never materialized when it was admitted the device would be stuck at Android 1.6, it left quite a bad taste in the mouths of owners and Android faithful alike. While Samsung hopes to win back some street cred with the proper handling of the Galaxy S line, we can’t blame them and T-Mobile for wanting to forget this little piece of Android history sooner rather than later.
The Behold II project was a failure of titanic proportions … thanks 4 nothing Samsung.
glad I was able to convince them to toss me a Vibrant on Samsung’s dime. The Behold II was a nightmare I’m glad I woke up from.
As far as I am concerned this is an admission of guilt. Had Samsung stepped up to the plate and offered restitution, that would redeem them. But, Samsung FAILED and bailed and left their customers holding the bag. Samsung will not get my cell phone business from this point forward. NEVER Again.
Ironically, I chose the Motorola Cliq over the Samsung Behold II this past March. I was disappointed to see Behold II uses get stuck at 1.6, but I breathed a sigh of relief. Now this news, coupled with the Cliq delays (https://supportforums.motorola.com/thread/31533?start=0&tstart=0) deflate my hope in ever getting a Motorola Cliq update to Android 2.1.
@NowVoyager, Don’t worry, Samsung will never make phones that are at par of what others offer.
So you will not miss anything.
I feel very deeply for the behold II owners , as I have come from the cliq and feel that same “pissed on feeling” that I have towards moto. Just know that it will make a good bit smarter the next time around, that none of the manufactures can toss you bone expect you to fetch! :)
the behold II is a straight up joke. my gf has that brick of a phone and it wont hold a charge for longer than maybe 5 hours with only texting and very light browsing. tmobiles customer service sucks and they act like its a great phone but when we show them the bugs that stupid phone has they just tell us its THAT specific phone and that there have never been any “major” issues with the beholod II in general. weve exchanged that phone twice already for the exact same re-occuring issues and it just sucks that they would release such a stupid half assed phone. i think tmobile should catch some of this heat too for releasing such a s****y piece of hardware and not acknowledging it
With the recent and upcoming releases of Galaxy S phones and Windows 7 phone (Cetus SGH-i917), anyone complaining about Samsung releasing bad hardware is about to eat their words.
I’m pretty sure they’re going to backup and update said hardware of the scale they’re releasing.
@bob
guess you have been living in last year and have not heard about the Galaxy S
I think every hardware geek in the world is eagerly waiting this to purchase
You can be mad at samsung all you want – I will happily be using my Galaxy S
Agree completely with comments from Ecko. I have had three behold II’s. Can’t believe T mobile doesn’t even admit to all the issues. Customer service tried to tell me there are no known issues! What a joke!! Posted all over the internet by every person who got stuck with this worthless product. Worse than that they want to exchange it for another piece of junk or charge full retail price to loyal long standing T mobile customers for their failure to provide a decent product. Very disappointed in T mobile for not making this right and taking advantage of their customers.
So they fuck up once and that’s it? I love the shit out of my Vibrant and to be honest a lot of companies have fucked up with handsets, look at Motorola, they didn’t have shit till the Droid line and before that what was their big failure? The Razr. oh but no one is on their ass now right? because they are redeeming their selves, the Galaxy S line is fucking awesome, not to mention that they make really dependable and durable lower end phones. I personally thought the original Galaxy was sexy as hell (the one that didn’t come to the states)
The behold 2 was kind of their Ginny pig for trying to incorporate their touchwiz, if people would have liked it and it would have sold I’m sure they would have said hell yeah lets give them an update, but since it was worthless with gaywiz and everyone was either into the Cliq or the Mytouch they didn’t sell and so they made the same decision anyone else would have made, scrap it
Dont worry all you little Samsung haters will break your necks one day when they come out with some sick shit (IMO the Galaxy S line is worth breaking your neck over)Im super impressed with the Vibrant and IMO its better than a good number of higher end Android phones
I bought the G1. I would categorize it as a peer with the Cliq and Behold 2, except it has less memory. I guess I feel badly for you folks that bought the Cliq or B2, but I considered it, and realized those two pieces were essentially the same as the G1. Waaay underpowered. Course, the G1 has been a great phone for me, after I got hooked up with Cyanogen.
Get over it. Those phones were not very good. The specs told you that. If you didn’t know it, you should have educated yourself before making the purchase. For God’s sake, stop your damn whining!
The Vibrant is a kick-ass phone. Get off your self-righteous pedestal, and choose a better phone next time you pay $200 and a 2-year deal. Or, pay the man the $499 (or whatever it costs to purchase outright). Or call T-Mo Cust Service and negotiate a reduced cost on the Vibrant. But the Vibrant is an incredible device, and I’ve found a great deal of joy in owning it.
Thank you samsung but I will wait for htc to come out with a better phone. I made a mistake when I purchased the behold 2. I will not be suckered again.
i am embarrassed to be sharing the same phone as these good for nothing behold 2 cry babies. The behold 2 was a good product regardless of the OS dropped support. I had mine since december 14th of 09 and it survived drops with out scratches being left behind I have been having no issues with the device. For what its worth it offered a lot. Then they got out done by a few devices it happens live with it. There is no point in all this animosity towards samsung. Samsung isn’t the first company to drop support for their devices. Why not vow to not buy sony ericcson? they didn’t support their devices as a matter of fact they are on what? 1.6 android. How about the motorola cliq? they are at 1.5 android still and how about htc’s mytouch line up all stuck at 1.6 still why not boycott them and not buy their devices? They all only will get 1 update before end time of the device themselves. This is no different to Samsung and who knows with the world wide release it may prove to be supported thoroughly till next year, The average life of a device is only 6 months. Point is all this complaining is unnecessary. Get the F*ck over it. Get a new phone and shut your trap. Thank you and good day.
I was told by a rep in a company TMO store that it wasnt Samsungs fault, it was TMO’s fault phones werent getting updates.
@ecko: You might not realize it, but customer service representatives can’t tell you that their products suck. Their phone calls are being recorded and any comment they make could come back to bite them in the ass. Nobody will ever admit their company’s products are sub-par compared to another’s because they will be fired if they are caught saying that.
@2FR35H. I agree that Samsung is not the only company guilty here. But I do not think we should accept 6 months as the life of a phone. That is getting pretty ridiculous. Maybe 6 months is how long a phone is hot. But support and updates should go on for at least a.year after purchase.
First of all, I will NEVER take kindly to getting screwed about my money. And will not give Samsung another DIME. Ah but it seems that Sammy choir are already getting a taste of the Samsung Way medicine. Your Vibrant is what…a few weeks old and already reduced to $99 across the Net? It’s got GPS issues – http://www.brighthand.com/default.asp?newsID=16853&news=Samsung+Captivate+Samsung+Vibrant+ATT+Mobile+GPS+Problem+Bug+Issues
There appear to be some battery meter issues and heat issues, I hear (Howard Forums). Sounds so much like our beloved Behold 2, LOL. But just wait. You’re going to get support to match that $99…But as you said, “Get over it” It’s the Sammy Way!
@JS – I wholeheartedly agree. But yours is the adult way of thinking about your investment. People who toss their phones every few months don’t have that mindset.
@NowVoyager:
Few points:
1) It was already 99 dollars from Costco from day 1.
2) There is a simple GPS fix posted on xda-developer and this issue been acknowledged by Samsung, expect a fix…seems to be software-related than hardware.
3) Download a battery widget…
4) I don’t have the heat issue you speak of on normal use. Only when you play a processor intensive game does it get warm, not really hot.
I get why you’re so bitter, but literally speaking, Galaxy S has a lot more on the line than what the Behold had. It is being released on multiple carriers spanning across many different countries around the world. That’s a lot of potential customers they can piss off…
It was $99 from day one at Let’s Talk with the rebate as well. My point was at debut it had plummeted in value when it was slated to cost in the $200 range. It isn’t the upper tier be-all-end-all phone it was originally hyped to be. It is instead a nice $99 disposable. Add to that sluggish sales and you get a picture of its true standings. A nice phone but nobody is standing in line to get it.
You might want to keep your eye on Howard Forums Vibrant Complaint group…its a growing group. People are reporting lagginess and slow to lock on to GPS issues or no ability to get GPS at all. And believe it or not, there was at least one Behold 2 owner who said he never had issues with his phone. He was in the minority.
Sometimes mistakes are made in business. But the company that wants your REPEAT business rectifies your issue to your satisfaction. Samsung simply turned its back on its Behold 2 users. The Tmo recall is a vindication of sorts but not the rectification that would win-back my business to Sammyland.
I have 2 identical B2 phones w/TMO. I recently (early August 2010) received the OTA 1.6 update and it is a major improvement over 1.5. My wife’s B2 did not receive the update then or since. When my phone got the update I was hopeful that my wife’s would too…since that has not happened, is there any way that I can get 1.6 for her phone other than the OTA thing? I’m not very technical, but I could hit a web site with her phone and download/install a file. I’m hoping that is all that is required. Any help would be appreciated.
I hated my B2. I consistently had force close errors and the contact list would not come up. I could get to contacts other ways, but If I hit the contacts button it wouldn’t work. After 3 exchanges they sent me a Cliq XT. I have to say, it’s a MAJOR improvement. Even on 1.5 it works way better then the B2 and holds a charge a lot longer. Plus, the charge time is way quicker and the startup time is not as bad. If you have a B2, after 3 returns within a 90 day period Magenta will send you a different phone. Most likely, it will be a Cliq XT. I would do it in a heart beat.
This whack ass phone has over damn near 268 problems and I named maybe all of them to Samsung a few months ago. They said they were looking into it, but looks like they lied AGAIN. It was a lie and a waste of money and they did nothing about it but give us 1.6 which mainly just changed the keyboard, everything that was wrong before is still there. I felt they could’ve atleast given new phones to people who bought the phone before the OTA upgrade. They got away with it and its wrong. Im still dealing with the problems of this phone even as I type this. Something needs to be done about this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 8(
I bought my Behold 2 only because they said the upgrade 2.0 was coming!!! I love T-Mobile iv been with them for almost 10 years!!!! but Im hating Samsung right now!!! I want my money back!!!!!!
I too got screwed over by T-mobile and Samsung. My best friend and I both paid full retail for these phones in December of 2009. We both swapped our phones out like 3 times each with no luck. Both of us left T-mobile and went to Sprint. I loved T-mobile but they screwed me over with this phone and wouldn’t do anything about it. I think either them or Samsung should be forced to give a full refund.
That has been the issue. I can accept end of life on a product but we were promised when the phone was just released as a brand new product an upgrade to android 2.x and the issue is not that the phone won’t support it, its simply that sammy refused to provide it. If they would release source code for the proprietary hardware folks like cyanogen could have sported it up to android 2.2 easily. Some hackers put android 2.1 on it as a period of concept to prove the phone was capable of it. But without the drivers for the hardware its not much use. Sammy firmly want update handsets if they can force you to buy another phone to get the latest. Bottom line, sammy led to us, and that is wrong.