Video review of Samsung's T919 Behold for T-Mobile

Samsung SGH-T919 Behold

Samsung SGH-T919 Behold

Samsung SGH-T919 Behold

Samsung SGH-T919 Behold

The Samsung T919 Behold is one of the latest devices for T-Mobile's new 3G network that has come across our desks. It features a large 3.1" touchscreen display with a respectable 240x400 pixel resolution and also sports a nice 5 megapixel camera around back.

The physical design of the Behold is simple, plain even. The front of the cell phone is dominated by the large touchscreen and offers only minimal hardware buttons. The call send and end buttons straddle a lonely back button. A pair of sensors up top, next to the ear speaker, detect the user's face and deactivate the display to save power and avoid mistaken presses during calls.

The device is solidly built, and I really like the latch mechanism for the rear cover, but feel that the camera is located too closely to the edge of the device, inviting fingers to get in the way when taking a picture. Speaking of pictures, the camera takes really nice photos when the lighting is optimal. The flash works reasonably well in darker situations, but sometimes has a tendency to over expose when taking photos of close subjects, something that the autofocus system allows for.

Dialing on the phone is very easy to do thanks to the Behold's large on-screen buttons and vibration haptic feedback. It's not like dialing on real buttons, but it works better than many older touchscreen phones we have used. There is no real system for searching through contacts though, but it is possible to quickly navigate the list thanks to the on-screen rolodex tab (see the video for a demonstration). The contact manager is pretty solid and supports a lot of different information bits.

5 different profiles are available on the Behold, and the the 3 main ones can be quickly accessed with the Behold's volume control. There are a lot of available settings for each of them, too. Messaging options on the Behold include SMS, MMS, email, and instant messaging. The email appears to be limited to only a preset list of online mail providers, meaning that you can't add your own POP or IMAP account. IM support includes AIM, MSN, ICQ, and Yahoo!