Samsung Behold II (T-Mobile) Smartphone Review
The Samsung Here II ($ 230 with a subscription of two years T-Mobile contract, prices as of 11/12/09) Smartphone is the newest product to join T-Mobile growing army of Android phones, including the T - Mobile G1, T-Mobile myTouch 3G and Motorola Cliq. Although II Here has an AMOLED screen superb and a camera above, customers may be deterred by the high price (it is more expensive than the iPhone 3G and Motorola Droid) and the interface a little cluttered TouchWiz.
While II is supposed to be following an update of the following, which began last holiday season on T-Mobile, both phones could not be more different. Measuring 4.6 by 2.2 by 0.5 inches and weighs 4.2 ounces, the following II is slightly larger than the original (which is 4.1 by 2.2 by 0.5 inches and 3 , 9 ounces).
Even so, the following II is still enough pocket and light - and with its rounded edges and its pattern of brown and black (Samsung calls this “Mystic Brown”), the II Here is much more interesting than its boxy predecessor . The face of the phone has a small amount of metal painted brown below the screen, while the glossy piano-black back has a world map design in a subtle golden color. It sounds a little strange, but the overall look is quite striking.
Here are the original had only three hardware keys below the screen. II: Here are six - Home, Menu, Talk, End / Power, a shortcut key for the Cube menu, and back - plus a four-wheel waterways with a central OK button. It is nice to have the array of buttons, especially since the handset has no physical keyboard. I would, however, that the key Cube had been replaced by a key Google search - a useful function, we have seen on HTC and Motorola phones Android.
Here the second has a bright 3.2-inch, 320 x 480 pixel AMOLED display, an upgrade of his great predecessor, 3-inch, 240-by-400-pixel TFT screen. I like the most recent increases end Samsung phones, like Samsung Android Moment boast AMOLED technology. The quality is simply unbeatable: The colors are vivid and precise animations in the user interface are smooth, and details appear crisp. Because the display is the variety capacitive touch, you have to press firmly to switch between home screens or scroll through your photos - something I noticed at the time as Samsung. If you’re familiar with the upcoming Palm or iPhone, you may find navigating around the interface II Here’s a little frustrating at first.
II: This has 200MB of internal memory (up to 180 MB in the original) and is expandable up to 16GB (it also comes with a 2GB card). Samsung says that the offer II: Here are 6 hours of talk battery life time, which is pretty good for a smartphone. This is partly due to the AMOLED screen, which requires no backlighting and therefore retain more energy.
In my tests, call quality on T-Mobile’s 3G network is good for most. Voices sounded clear and natural, with sufficient volume. A caller at the other end of the line said I sounded distant, but most people have reported a good overall sound quality.
The touch keyboard is a bit small, so people with larger fingers might have trouble using it. Fortunately, the automatic correction is quite reliable, and haptic feedback (a slight vibration when you press a button touch) keyboard tactile feel more natural. I noticed a slight lag between when I typed and when something appears on the screen - nothing too distracting, but still noteworthy.
Here II runs TouchWiz 2.0, a touch friendly interface running on Android OS 1.5. We have seen TouchWiz phones Windows Mobile, but now He is the first handset to sport the overlay with Android. As with other phones Android 1.5, here you get three home pages that you can customize with widgets and shortcuts to your favorite applications. To add a widget, you simply press the Menu button, choose “Add Widget” and choose a list, it appears instantly on your screen. To remove a widget, you press it, and a red trash can displayed . You drag the item to the trash, and it disappears from your screen.
On the left of the screen is the tab widget tray (if you’re familiar with Android, it is the same as the start menu at the bottom of your screen in the default interface 1.5). At the top of the screen is the tray notification icons which pop up when you receive new information, such as instant messaging or e-mail. At the bottom of each home screen are shortcuts to the dialer, contacts, web, and the Quick List, a selection of 12 commonly used applications.
Here’s where things get confusing: The interface also has a full menu for multimedia applications, called the Cube menu navigation. While the three different menus with content that overlaps in more than three screens of your home. You can access the cube from a shortcut on your homepages or dedicated hardware key. The menu provides access to photos, music, videos, Internet, YouTube and Amazon MP3.
The cube-like 3D visualization is looking quite cool, but I do not know how often I actually use it since I can achieve the same application through other menus. You can roll with your finger or shake the phone to scroll through menus. Contrary to your screens, the Cube is not customizable.
The Web browser successful, and the pages looked great on the beautiful screen Here’s II. I noticed some stuttering while I scrolled through the media heavy pages, but navigation was mostly quite smooth. You can copy and paste the text, links, bookmark and view your browsing history. Unfortunately, unlike the hero HTC Droid and Eris, the following II has no built-in support for Flash Lite to Flash-heavy sites do not load properly.
With e-mail, you get some options. You can sync your Gmail account with the II Here, as Web use POP3 mail accounts such as Hotmail and Yahoo Mail. You can also get push e-mail from Outlook functionality via Microsoft ActiveSync. In addition to this you can sync your Outlook calendar, tasks and contacts.
The music player II: Here’s fits well with the Mobile Store Amazon MP3. When you listen to a track, if you press the menu button and select “Find More Like This”, Amazon will dig up DRM-free tracks like the song you’re listening. From there, you can purchase and download extra tracks - without interrupting what you hear, of course. The music player supports album art, you can create playlists, and supports MP3, AAC and AAC + files.
As expected, the video playback is terrible in AMOLED Here’s II. Another advantage is its AMOLED wide viewing angle: You can comfortably watch videos when the phone is lying on a flat surface in front of you. The video player supports MPEG-4 and WMV.
The 5-megapixel camera is certainly the element headlining Here’s II. In pictures were impressive - both indoors and out - with bright colors, sharp details, and only a little grain of pictures taken in poorly lit environments. With an LED flash, 8x digital zoom and auto focus, you get a variety of shooting modes to choose pleasure and brightness controls. The key user-friendly interface makes it easy to adjust your settings when you’re in shooting mode.
You can also choose to have sent photos to an online album hosted on Flickr, Kodak, Photobucket, and Snapfish. Imaging a useful widget that you can add to your home screen gives you quick access to any of your albums on your phone browser.
If you try to decide on an Android phone on T-Mobile, your decision will most likely between Motorola and the Cliq II contemplation - and by far they are the best among the four currently available. In terms of interface, the Cliq MotoBlur earns more TouchWiz II Here’s is simply the most innovative and attractive, and you get a daycare cloud with this phone. Heavy social networkers and text messaging will also prefer the excellent QWERTY keyboard Cliq in touch using the keypad Here’s II. But if you are looking for a more multimedia-oriented phone and you’re willing to pay a small fee (the Cliq is $ 200) you’ll want to go with the II contemplation. The camera is one of the best I’ve seen on an Android phone and the quality of the AMOLED display is hard to beat.
Pros
Excellent camera.
Stunning AMOLED display.
Cons
On the expensive side.
TouchWiz feels a bit cluttered.
Conclusion
With a gorgeous AMOLED display and an excellent camera, the pricey Samsung Behold II will appeal to multimedia junkies with deep pockets.
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