The Samsung Behold II is a disappointing smartphone. From the looks, buttons, interface, and even the screen, the Behold II needs tons of improvements. And it was this close to being a great contender against Android phones like the Droid and HTC Hero. It’s talent wasted.

Design

The overall look of the Samsung Behold II is not flashy, nor pretty. Not that it has to be either of those two things, but the Behold II does not look like it was designed to look like a solid, great looking phone. The weight of it is very light and it could be forgivable if it had an industrial looking design like the Droid or iPhone, but here the Behold just doesn’t cut it. It’s not a great-looking phone, but the actual casing is very well built, which is a plus in many cases.

The 3.2-inch AMOLED Screen

There’s not much to say about it. It has a greenish/blue hue, which doesn’t complement pictures, websites, or games and video at all.

Performance

The performance is an issue in some areas. Head over to the menu to see all of your apps, and the scrolling is slow and finicky. The homescreen has terrible alignment of shortcuts. Take a look at the shots above, and you’ll see that it’s nearly impossible to get all the icons straight in order.

Web browsing is faster and smoother than on the Sprint Hero which runs on Sprint’s CDMA 3G network. T-Mobile provides the 3G for the Behold II, and it loads even the heaviest of web pages quickly and easily.  Voice Google Search gets you to the search results that you asked for most of the time. Just a quick note here: there isn’t a multitouch feature, but there is zooming in and out, which works well as a replacement.

Audio quality when speaking is superior, with the speaker on or off.  As for the GPS feature: While trying to find my current location in Google Maps, it could practically never find my location, even with the GPS turned on and a clear and full view of the sky.

Camera

The Behold II comes with a 5-megapixel camera complete with a flash and autofocus. Taking photos in low light conditions come out better that other smartphones, but not sharp enough to make out what exactly you just took a picture of. Here are 2 pics in different light settings.

Audio quality is very poor when recording. And when I mean poor, I mean terribly poor. Take a look at this video below that was shot on a drive through Aventura, FL on a rainy day. You can barely hear anything that is going on in the background or outside. The video capture quality is very decent, and in some cases it can make up for the bad sound quality.

As for the camera’s software, it is very forgiving, and allows you to change multiple settings, modes, and features, but one of that improved audio quality, so that doesn’t really matter…

Android 1.5 & TouchWiz

Sammy decided that the Behold II had to come with Android 1.5, and that with their TouchWiz UI it would be a serious threat to other Android devices. To be honest, it is the worst UI ever installed on an Android phone. Plan and simple Android 1.5 would have been easier and better to use. The overuse of orange colors and terrible on-screen keyboard make TouchWiz a complete disaster, and not to forget the terrible jingles and tunes that come along with it; each time you disconnect the charger, it makes a melody ( which is more like an annoying cacophony).

Final Verdict

For the price of $229, the Samsung Behold II is a disappointment. The Droid is $199 with better hardware, and the Sprint Hero is $179.99 with a better UI, leaving no real reason to buy a Samsung Behold II. And another thing: It’s $229 on contract! That’s over-the-top expensive for a smartphone that doesn’t even perform well.

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