Digital Trends

Samsung Behold (SGH-t919) December 11th, 2008 | by Stewart Wolpin

Features and Design

Behold is a slim, stylish touchscreen phone with a 3-inch display and a 5 megapixel camera. It's piled high with the latest cell phone features: Worldwide 3G network access, AGPS navigation, mapping and voice-prompted turn-by-turn directions, POP3 and IMAP e-mail as well as texting and instant messaging, an HTML Web browser, a full digital music player, and a full slate of PIM apps, games and utilities. Behold also includes a built-in accelerometer so images and Web pages rotate automatically when you turn the phone, and an iPhone-like sensor which knows to turn off the screen when you bring the phone up to your face during a call (and lights it back up when you pull it down). For text input, you get two touch keypads, a traditional portrait alphanumeric dial/multi-touch pad, and a landscape QWERTY keyboard. But while Behold offers cutting edge features, it cheats you on the physical side – there's no 3.5mm headphone jack, and swapping out the microSD slot requires you to remove the battery.

Form Factor

The surprisingly light Behold is unfettered by buttons. Below the 3-inch screen are three physical keys – the usual send and end, which bracket a "back" bar. Your first instinct (no pun intended) will be to assume this "back" key is actually a "home" key. As frequent iPhone users, it took us a couple of days to get over that aspect.

On the right side of the phone (facing the screen), toward the bottom, is the camera activation key-cum-shutter release. Just above this is a screen unlock key. On the left side, toward the top, is the volume up/down toggle and, just below this is Samsung’s proprietary power/headphone jack.

The rear of the phone has both the 5-megapixel camera with flash, and a button-style vanity mirror. The Behold's battery cover is the easiest to remove of any I've used. You slide the raised edge about a quarter of an inch out, which releases the prongs that holds the plate in place. The back then simply lifts off.

It's a good thing the back cover is easy to remove, since you need to remove both it and the battery swap out the microSD card, which awkwardly slides into a hidden slot below.

Ports & Connectors

As noted, the Behold includes no 3.5mm headphone jack, just the evil multi-purpose Samsung proprietary power/headphone jack. We find it simply beyond understanding that a modern cell phone touting its music player would not include a 3.5mm, or even a 2.5mm, headphone jack. 

Interface

Samsung has constructed an impressive, if unusual user touch interface that requires a bit of a learning curve, but rewards diligence.

Arrayed across the bottom of the home screen are four iPhone-like access icons – phone, phone book, web and menu. You can use the menu to access functions and applications, or you can use widgets, frequently used applications that can be accessed directly from icons you can transfer to the home screen.

In the "settings" menu, you check off the widgets you want stored in a drawer-like menu that runs vertically along the left side of the home screen. You open the widget drawer by pressing (not dragging, which you'll be tempted to do) a tab on the home screen. You can then drag widgets from this drawer to a more permanent place on the home screen, then close the widget drawer by pressing on the tab again.

If your chosen dragged widget is active, such as the music player or the photo viewer, you get a mini-view of that application's current status rather than the plain icon. For instance, if the music player is playing, you get a small widget window displaying the name of the track, and touch transport controls. Tapping on the widget activates the full application, or you can drag the widget back to the widget drawer. It may be a little over-wrought and redundant, but it's fun, and actually useful once you grasp its internal logic.

The Behold's touchscreen isn't as responsive or magical as the iPhone's. Finger scrolling takes a little more dragging, and sometimes multiple attempts, and lists don't spin with momentum if you finger swipe them. It’s almost missing multi-touch controls.

A quick-acting accelerometer rotates pictures, Web pages, etc. within a second or two of the phone being physically turned.
As noted, the Behold offers two touch keypads, the traditional alphanumeric dial pad in portrait mode, and a landscape QWERTY. You can toggle between the two by touching the appropriate keypad icon when one is activated – a keypad magically appears when you need to input text – or simply rotate the phone from portrait to landscape to turn the alphanumeric keypad into QWERTY and vice versa.

The QWERTY keyboard also takes a bit getting used to. When you tap a key – and there is haptic feedback through vibration – the letter you tap appears to the left or right of your finger. For instance, if you tap the "F" key, an "F" appears where the "G" key is, which tells you you're hitting the right key. Seeing an "F" where the "G" used to be is a bit disconcerting and, in our opinion, not necessary, since the letter you tap also appears in the space above the keyboard.

The caps key is even odder. After typing a capital letter, you have to hit the cap key twice to get back to lower case letters. This is doubly odd since most keyboards automatically revert to lower case once you tap a single capitalized letter with them.