Customer Reviews

Samsung Behold II t939 Android Phone (T-Mobile)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Pros:
-Awesome camera: 5MP w/flash, anti-shake, and a better interface than the stock Android camera app.
-AMOLED screen: the brightest, most awesome display of any phone not named Nexus One or Motorola Droid.
-More RAM than other Android phones not named Nexus One or Motorola Droid

Cons:
-Samsung's proprietary Touchwiz interface
-Sluggish at times (because of Touchwiz)
-Android 1.5

When it came time for me to upgrade my phone I went to the T-Mobile store and tested every Android phone they had (the Cliq, Behold II, G1, and MyTouch). None of them were particularly jaw-dropping, but the Behold II has the best hardware by far. The camera is great and the screen is bright and crisp. With the screen brightness at 9% it's brighter than my iPod Touch at 50%.

My issues with the Behold II are with its software. Samsung decided to overlay Touchwiz on Android which can be a resource hog and doesn't allow for as much customization as a stock Android build. Also, the cube interface is a neat trick, but it's pretty useless and I never utilize it. It would be nice if there wasn't a dedicated button for it or if you could at least re-assign said button. It's not a dealbreaker, it's just a bit of a head-scratcher.

I ultimately chose the Behold II over the others because its issues are software based so when Samsung upgrades the phone to Android 2.0 the performance issues should be resolved (hopefully) and this will be the best phone that nobody is talking about.

UPDATE (5/28): I've had this phone replaced twice in the last 3 months due to software AND hardware issues. I figured I would stick it out because the software issues would be fixed once the phone upgraded to Android 2.x. However, Samsung has since decided that they will not upgrade this phone past 1.6, meaning all of the cons listed above will remain. There are MUCH better Android phones available, and I would recommend to cans and string over this POS.

I think a lot of customers are discouraged to buy this phone because of massive negative reviews.
I purchased it when my t-mobile is liquidating it and I think it isn't that bad IMO.
The hardware is actually great:
AMOLED screen yields pretty beautiful graphics
calling quality through microphone is pretty good
320MB RAM, which is much more than average
easy-swappable memory card with 140MB ROM
decent reception, it's on par with most HTC phones
Now the problem is the software:
Touchwiz takes a lot of resources which causes the system lags, and the "cube" only makes the thing worse
laggy keyboard, and missing dot makes typing a hassle
the wasting of resources also cause the battery falls short

Fortunately, this is one of the few Android phones which can be easily tethered, you need to run the phone in USB samsung studio mode, and download and install Samsung Kies software.
If you want to get this phone, you may want to flash it with 1.6 custom ROM, search BH-MAN ROM and try, you'll realize what great the phone hardware is.
I give 3 stars with original ROM; 4.5 stars with BH-MAN ROM.

I received this phone three days ago and after fully charging the phone and unplugging it at 12AM, it died the following day at 1 PM. So 13 hour battery life (about 9 of them are on standby) and 4 hours of (below) average usage. Battery life on this phone is a major issue, as it has been discussed vigorously in the t-mobile forums.

See here -[...]

The phone is relatively slow. Bootup takes about 5-10 seconds, the text messaging application takes on average 3 seconds to load, making a call hasn't been the most pleasant thing in the world.

I like the responsive touch screen but at times there is a significant lag at times. Sometimes I press the screen twice before it loads the application and somehow call someone in my phone book before I even know what's happening.

The camera quality is good - but terrible in low light (but what do you expect from a camera phone right?), and even worse when zooming in. It also takes on average 5 seconds to load - so you're bound to miss a shot or two.

After 3 days of messing with the phone, I have decided to return it for a full refund.

CNET review gave it 3.5 stars - they obviously did not do a good job of actually testing the phone itself.

This is my First Smart Phone. I did take sometime to get acquainted, I am still struggling to type the letters right (I try to press "n" and always would end up pressing "m"). I really wish they would made the On-Screen keyboard a bit bigger or the letters farther away. Lovely Lovely display quality. Nice option to create your own short-cuts on the main screen. I used Wi-Fi, It works great, But seems like consuming more battery than without it. I am charging it once every 2 days without much frequent use. I wish they would make the batteries work longer.

The pictures taken from the phone's camera is very good. Each one takes around 1 MB and quality is very nice. I transferred some to my Computer using GMAIL from the phone. I used GTALK too and it works fine. Surfing net is very fast (I have always used Wifi to connect to internet so far). Youtube runs fine, and you can connect to your own account and see your private videos too.

The Look and feel of this phone is great, Sleek and stylist. Overall i am pretty happy with this phone and it's features, Just need some more things which i mentioned earlier.

I just got this phone from T-Mobile online store today. First, the performace of the phone is beyond below average. It is hit or miss. There were time it was reponsive and other times it just sits there. Second, micro USB connector failure. it just stopped working. I plugged the micro USB wall charger to the phone and phone wasn't being charged. So I used the data cable and connected to my laptop and same thing. And of course, the OS did not recognize the device that was attached via USB. I did factory reset twice and took the battery, and SIM card out still no go. Called T-Mobile tech support and they had me do the samething and got the same result. Oh one more issue that annoyed me. The phone was kept of making the noise like there were messages in the inbox when there were zero in the inbox. I am returning the phone tomorrow and wait until nexgt month to check other options.

I was duped into buying this phone by Tmo. It was my own fault. I read all the reviews, stating that the software was bloated, with little customization and resources. My local Tmo rep said over and over that it would receive the eclair update fixing most of the problems. It has very little room for applications, forcing you to delete one to add another. The battery life is horrendous. This device can use more power then you can put into it. On a trip in the car, plugged in the whole time, using gps to navigate and bluetooth with my headset, the battery level actualy went down. Useing minimal power settings ( 0 brightness, no gps/wifi/BT, < 30 min talk time and 20-30 txt/gchats) battery life is at best 4 hours. Stay away from this phone. There is a class action lawsuit against Tmo/Samsung regarding the promises made on this phone.

Not sure about why some people don't like the phone. It was akward using a touch keyboard,at first, but I caught right on. One HUGE pro for me, and the main reason I chose this particular phone amongst it's competitors is that it has the best camera which actually has flash built in! Most phones don't have a flash built in,as I soon found out when shopping for a great phone with a great camera since I have small kids.

I do everything on this phone. I'm so attached to this phone that I don't think I'll ever get rid of it. hehe

I would, and have recommended this phone to friends and family or anyone looking for a great smartphone.

I've had this phone for over three months now, and I really like it. Since t-mobile is much more flexible than AT&T and Apple, I bought the phone on their interest-free payment plan for $9 a month, which means I chose whatever calling plan made sense for me. I'm using the phone without the $25 data plan, which is a wonderful option. The WiFi is faster anyway...and they have it at home and school.

The battery lasts easily through the day with some calling, web browsing, and an hour or two of streaming music. I don't know why it's a hassle to need to charge a phone every night...so I'm not sure why people online were complaining about the battery life.

The screen is very nice. I also like having the physical buttons (except the "cube" button is a little redundant). The "back" and "hang up" buttons are totally indispensable...not sure how iPhone users get along without them.

The camera is amazing. Wow. Short of the 8 megapixel expensive new phones out there, this 5 megapixel one is shockingly better than the 2-3 megapixel cameras out there on peoples' phones. The LED flash is pretty neat too...download an app and it turns into an LED flashlight. Very bright!

Overall, this is a great phone. I kinda view it as an iPhone 4 without video calling...except it came out a year ago and can be bought cash from t-mobile for $180, no commitment. The OS is Android 1.5 out of the box, and the 1.6 upgrade is even better. Having the newer version makes a lot more apps available, including ADW.Launcher which makes this phone a lot faster and more customizable without messing around with rooting the phone or anything weird like that. I guess having Android 2.x would be nice in principle, but some of my friends have it and I don't feel like I'm missing anything.

I thought I would really like the phone and I do. It lives up to all of its reviews. I was a bit nervous about signing up for a 2 year service contract over Amazon but got the phone for $79 less than I could have at the T-Mobile store. I was really pleased that the T-Mobile folks at the store treated me just as though I had purchased the phone from them. They set me up, transfered my contacts, gave me a bunch of tips, etc. They wer great and the service has been excellent since.

I ordered this phone from t-mobile, took it out of the box charged it up and when I turned it on all that I ever got was a screen full of lines. I barely could see the cube or anything else. Oh and t mobile has gone down hill in their coustomer service department, after returning the phone at my expence they couldnt figure out how to send one back. I am still waiting 2 mo. later. from what I could see of the phone it looks awsome. hope to actually find out soon.