The Samsung Behold is the first 5-megapixel camera phone available from a U.S. carrier that can truly give your point-and-shoot a run for its money. Snapping good shots both indoors and outdoors, the $149 touchscreen phone also features Samsung’s TouchWiz interface, which is just as pleasing to look at as the photos it takes. The Web browser is somewhat lackluster, but fast 3G speeds and a classy design make the Behold a solid option for T-Mobile customers.
Design
At 4.1 x 2.1 x 0.5 inches, the Beholid is about half an inch shorter than the Samsung Instinct, and is available in Espresso or Light Rose. The 3-inch touchscreen display is centered on the piano black face of the phone and accented by three silver buttons below it. The Behold provides haptic feedback (a slight vibration) when you make a selection on the screen, letting you know that the Behold has registered your command. A built-in accelerometer automatically rotates the screen from portrait to landscape mode, but only for viewing pictures, video, or the Web.
Along the sides of the Behold are volume controls, a proprietary headset/charging port, a camera quick-launch button, and a phone lock key. The brushed metal back plate is home to the 5-megapixel camera lens and single LED flash; the cover was very easy to remove, but we didn’t appreciate having to remove the battery to insert a microSD Card.
User Interface
The Behold is one of the first Samsung phones available stateside with the TouchWiz user interface. A toolbar on the left side of the home screen holds customizable widgets that you can either drag out onto the desktop or launch directly. The 19 widgets include a music player, photo viewer, T-Mobile MyFaves contacts, and an instant messaging application.
We liked that we could drag the music app out to the home screen to play music, and then hide it again when we were done. But while TouchWiz is colorful and fun to look at, this interface was noticeably sluggish at times, especially with the MyFaves application open.
Keyboard
The Behold has two primary keyboards: alphanumeric and a full QWERTY when typing in landscape mode. The alphanumeric keypad had a handy .com button, which we appreciated while entering Web addresses. We liked the autocorrect feature of the full QWERTY keyboard but found it distracting that suggestions popped up below the current line of text while we were typing. We couldn’t type as quickly as on the Instinct, which had a more spacious keyboard, but the layout was easy to use from the get-go.
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