By Phonedog has published a video review of the Samsung Behold 2 and let me tell you – that was one hell of a painful video (for Samsung) to watch. Sure, the phone *looks* nice but to at least one reviewer.. is a disaster.
John went out of his way to repeatedly point out what he hates about the phone (which is appreciated, keep it up!). Check the video out for yourself but here is a little preview of what he says.
The Bad:
– The amount of hard buttons on the bottom is overwhelming – partly due to the useless Cube button.
– The hold button is a hassle to try to use.
– Still using old Qualcomm 528MHz Processor and you can feel it.
– TouchWiz features feel like a downgrade to the Android familiar, and is totally useless at times.
– I repeat: He doesnt like the homescreen, hates the keyboard, and the mixed and matched UIs is a mess. If you get the phone – replace the UI.
The Good:
– If you’re from 1992 you will love the cube!
– When comparing to Behold 1 – big improvement.
– 320MB RAM is nice.
– Putting the Power Control widget in the notification bar was great idea.
– Camera software is awesome and takes good pictures, swiping in Gallery is nice.
So, how do you guys feel? Disagree with some of what he says or has this video alone changed your mind on the Behold 2?
I will keep an eye out for his written review and update this post when when I see it.
UPDATE: The (short) written review is up. Click on over to see the few pictures he’s include, but his text is as follows:
“Ughh. TouchWiz plus “The Cube” is overkill personified. Neither of Samsung’s customizations actually adds anything to the Android install on Behold 2. TouchWiz in this context basically just replaces Android’s application drawer with Samsung’s widget and app drawer, resulting in a more cluttered and confusing home screen – particularly if you’re coming from virtually any other Android device in the world.
Cube is just a mess. Somehow Samsung’s managed to make the user interface harder to use in exchange for bogging the system down with a layer of buttons and graphics. Seriously – what’s the point of the Cube? It’s hard to use and doesn’t really look cool.
Otherwise, Behold 2 is a worthy enough competitor it’s very similar T-Mobile stablemate, myTouch 3G. You get a touchscreen Android device that’s slim and easy to hold but lacks a high-res capacitive touch display. Compared to mT3G, Behold 2 ups the megapixel count on the camera but lacks a trackball for easier one-handed use.”
[phonedog | Written Review ]
A big Fail for Samsung. I have played with all Samsung Android phones, and they all have laggy UI, ugly add-ons, and what not. IMO Samsung has been on a wrong path with their Smartphone strategy. If you’r gonna monkey around with an already great phone OS like Android, bring something ground breaking to the table ! Being different for the sake of being different will only make you look silly.
Not all Samsung Android phones are laggy. The Moment is an excellent phone.
@Andy. Excellent is a strong word. Use it cautiously !
I have owned HTC Hero, IPhone 3GS and played with Droid. None of them is excellent IMO. Moment is slightly better than other Samsung offerings but only slightly. No excellent Android phone has been released so far by any manufacturer, much less from Samsung.
All the behold reviews i’ve seen are basically the same. I don’t quite understand why everyone likes to complain about the hard buttons. It seems like a fad. It has the exact same number as the mytouch 3g on the front, and I don’t recall reading too many complaints about it. Some of us like hard buttons. I don’t think it’s a downside at all, as long as the cube button can be re-programmed to function as the search button.
Yeah, the processor is disappointing, but with more ram it’s the best android phone on t-mobile currently (albeit that’s not saying much).
The real downside of this phone is the user interface, which renders the phone basically unusable. However, this is an easy fix, or should be. The other downside is the price. This should cost at least $100 less on contract. Both of these issues are easily fixable.
Other things that make this phone superior compared to the mytouch (if it ran stock android) is the screen, 5mp cam, LED flash, and 3.5MM jack.
I still can’t find a spec sheet sheet that says anything other than 200mb, which is also the amount tmo customer service told me it has, but of course they couldn’t tell me anything about the processor so they’re worthless…
This phone is comepletely trash ! The worst part is that you can change the icons on the cube.Samsung and tmobile need to do better . point blank!! Tmobile stop coming out with this trash and try to compete with the big boys. Stop with the lackluster phones like mytouch,cliq,behold . all tmobile talks about is having the most android phones. but it doesnt matter because they all are crap compared to the other phones.This phone is a mistake !!
I tried one in a TMo store and was seriously underwhelmed. The keyboard was the biggest problem, somehow it manages to be worse than the virtual keyboard on the G1, which I would have assumed would be the same piece of software. Plus all the other stuff, slow, wasted cube button, etc.
What is everyone’s beef with the Qualcomm 528mhz processor? I have phones that were ‘state-of-the-art’ with only 369mhz processors. Is Android so cpu intensive it needs that big of a cpu?
I haven’t even gotten my HTC Hero (Euro Import) from FedEx yet and I’m already regretting buying the damn Android phone!
If I could return it, I would. But Newegg has an exchange only policy on imported phones.
Depending on how BAD this 528mhz cpu is, this could be my ONLY Android phone I will ever own or purchase, ever.
@ Jouten its not the processor really. its what they do with the processor that makes the phone wack(cappy) gangsta(great).The ui on the Hero from what iev seen online are beautiful. The sense ui with the 528 mhz is great. The whole cube thing is really stupi. The cube itself is dumb. The worst part is that you cant even change the icons on the screen.
Android is about making the pohne whatever you want it to be and it seems though Samsung wants to be to use their stupid ui and their home screens.I changed everything on my phone ot my liking and Samsung dosnt want that.Like in the video the cube is really stupid and might be fun to a child for like 2 seconds.
Jouten youre gettinga great phone that most android heads like myself would LOVE to have.Im stuck now between companies(i currnetly have tmobile). I trying to decided to either got to Spring for the Heo and pay alot or go to verizon for the Droid and pay alot. Tmobile is making is easier for people ot jump ship to other comapanies with these lakluster phones. As Verizon has shown come with a great product and people will flock to you i.e Droid and Eris. enjoy that phone Jouten its the best phone!!
I had this phone–for 24 hours. I can say this is the only phone I ever had to return. My joy of having the amazing AMOLED screen was quickly destroyed by the useless Touch UI overlay, and the general crap Samsung lays atop the Android system.
Sad to say the best Android device–until they rooted the Droid–is still a rooted G1. Hopefully that will change for loyal Tmo customers when the Passion / Bravo comes out. PRAYING it’s a Tmo phone.
I loled yesterday when I saw this on youtube. It was rough to watch and made me even more proud of switching to the big V and geting a Droid! For reallll
JOUTEN Hero is ONE of the best….but between it and the powerhouse Droid! I don’t ka-no about that but ima say Droid wins
@Mensahwatts
I’m needing the GSM type phone though. The Droid is a powerhouse monster compared to the iPhone though. The HTC Eris looked great too.
However, I need the ‘world’ phone freq’s because I do international travel occasionally.
What do they mean the. Cube might be fun if ur from 1992? Im from 1992 and i hate the cube lol WORST android phone yet, theres alot of things that make the mytouch WAY better
the phrase “the next thing i hate is..” pretty much sums up this review.
What a horrid, horrid phone =S
@Josh
Everything is relative. As it stands, the 3gs and droid set the standard of excellency for smartphones. You don’t get to recalibrate the language based on your yet-to-be achieved expectations just to win an argument. Also, I spent all day with my co-worker’s moment today, and it is extremely snappy…even outpacing a droid with 2.0 by a fair margin. A 2.01 droid compares favorably.
@Jouten
If you need a world mobile and the Hero doesn’t pan out for you (though I think it will…excellent phone, I have one and love it), you should look into a Moto Milestone. It’s the UK version of the Droid.
@James
Thanks James, I will do that :)
i dont get it…if you like the form factor and hate the cube overlay, why not just shut the overlay off and run something like panda home to give you way more customization? and if you hate the keyboard you could probably download a more capable one from the market…its open source people thats why android phones in general trump other phone os’s because of the insane level of customization
ps, im not defending this phone at all…samsung cant develop a decent phone to save their life. they screw up other os’s so bad that they have to make their own so it can run half way effective on their own hardware
Went Smartphone shopping the other day. Wanted to buy Samsung Moment. But comparing it to HTC Hero, there was no comparison. Moment was ugly, thick, boring, and lag was so visible. finally bought the Hero, and boy ! am I gald I made a good decision.
Ill wait for the X10 to go to Tmob. Fingers crossed. Maybe I should just ditch them and pay more and have crappy customer service….. or wait for some rumors to surface and stick with who is going to have the fastest data in the country within a year.
I returned the mytouch 3G and got the behold2. i cant be more happier.
Too much behold bashing going on with in the intertubez.
Some hate touchcheesewiz but it has grown on me, and i do use the cube. I will not say touchmyselfwiz or the cube are great things but are really not as bad as what has been said.
the behold has the best screen out there and the camera rivals my canon 12mp camera. (well i exaggerated there).
you guys should know…its android, you can hack anything and when behold is 1-click rooted or 2.0 is OTA update things will be legen……wait for it……dary
Way to be rough on the Moment. I returned the Hero because dust got on the actual screen and once I did a little research it seemed like a common complaint. Using Panda Home as an alternative to Sense is not perfect but definitely good enough. Like someone mentioned, Android is open source and with a little perseverance you can get good results. The Hero was not without its own problems when I first got it. The headphones played in Mono, the battery life was worse than the moment, the messaging app kept the phone from sleeping, and it wasn’t without its own lag (though a lot of that was fixed with a firmware update). Nevertheless, I did love that phone and I originally chose it over the Moment. But since I’ve switched, the ONLY things I feel I’m missing out on are the complete Facebook integration in my contacts list and the camera app and the physical keyboard is a huge plus to me. It’s all subjective anyway but not everything Samsung does is that terrible.
I got the behold 2 over the cliq and mytouch and I’m super happy with it. I just love it and I guess maybe I’m just not geeky enough to whine about petty things. I am sure updates and hacking and so on can fix tons of things and holy shitballs batman the screen is so sharp and bright. I like it and appreciate even the cube. Don’t feel a button was needed for it because I can reach it on the screen too but yeah. Whatever people..soooo picky. tsk tsk. You guys are like the phone nazis. Is anything ever good enough for geeks? Don’t think you guys will ever be happy with anything.
I got my behold 2 a week ago, think is a really nice phone love the display menu and everything about it, to bad mine decided to start vibrating every day after the second day i got it, so I have to return it and I dont know what phone to get cuz tmobile has some bad phones and att has some crapy contracts…..
I got the behold2 12 days ago and the thing will not bootup! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I hate to complain, but I need this for a business phone and thought it would be the best phone for e-mails and booking parties. T-mobile is sending me another behold2. I hope it last longer than 2 weeks for $200.00 the price I paid for just the phone not including net service of $30.00. I hope I don’t have sucker writen on me somewhere.