Samsung Mobile and T-Mobile announced a new Android phone to be offered on the carrier's U.S. 3G network. The Samsung Behold II offers a 3.2-inch AMOLED touchscreen with Samsung's TouchWiz user interface, plus WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, and a five-megapixel camera, say the companies.

Due to ship around the holidays at an undisclosed price, the Samsung Behold II borrows the name, as well as Bluetooth support and a five-megapixel camera, from Samsung's Behold phone. The II version, however, offers more advanced features than the original, which is also offered by T-Mobile. Additions include WiFi, as well as a full Android operating system.

The Behold II will be T-Mobile's fourth Android phone after the original HTC G1, the HTC-manufactured MyTouch 3G, and the upcoming Motorola Cliq. The phone is Samsung's second Android phone, after the i7550 model, which was introduced earlier this year in Europe by Telefonica's O2 network. Although technical details are fairly limited, the phone appears to fairly closely match the features and capabilities of the i7550.

Like both the i7550 and Samsung's first LiMo (Linux Mobile) phone, the 360 H1 — destined for a European release by Vodafone this fall — the Behold II offers an AMOLED (active-matrix organic light emitting diode) display, providing "crisper colors and wider viewing angles," according to Samsung. Resolution was not detailed for the 3.2-inch AMOLED touchscreen, which matches the size of the i7550, but is smaller than the 360 H1's 3.5-inch display. The buttons below the screen are slightly different from that of the i7550, with the addition of a "cube" button (see below), and what appears to be a trackball.

Samsung Behold II, showing TouchWiz cube interface
(Click to enlarge)

Up to 16GB of external memory is offered via a microSD slot, says Samsung. Other features are said to include WiFi, assisted GPS, Bluetooth 2.1, and an MP3 player. The five-megapixel camera is equipped with autofocus, flash, five shooting modes, and video capabilities, says the company. A visual voicemail feature is also supplied, enabling customers to listen to voicemails in order of preference.

The "cube" livens up TouchWiz, Android

The Behold II makes use of Samsung's cross-platform TouchWiz user interface (UI), which is said to enable easy customization by using widgets that are located in a slide-out "tray" on the left side of the three available homescreens. The UI also offers a "cube" menu that provides quick access to six multimedia features, including music, photos, videos, the Web, YouTube, and Amazon MP3. The cube interface debuted earlier this year with the arrival of TouchWiz 2.0, offered on Windows Mobile.

Side view of Behold II

Applications pre-installed on the Behold II include Google Search, Google Maps, Gmail, YouTube, and Google Talk. Users, of course, can also download any of thousands of Android apps available on the Android Market. Messaging features are said to include Exchange ActiveSync support and instant messaging, as well as text, picture, and video messaging.

Stated Omar Khan, SVP of strategy and product management for Samsung Mobile, "The Behold II follows the success of the Behold that launched last year taking the device and user experience to the next level with the Android platform, a large 3.2-inch AMOLED screen, next generation TouchWiz user interface and customization capabilities and premium features."

Stated Travis Warren, director, product marketing, T-Mobile USA, "The premium screen and quality camera coupled with Samsung's innovative cube menu makes the Behold II a multimedia powerhouse that's made even stronger by T-Mobile's high-speed 3G network."

Availability

The Samsung Behold II will be available on T-Mobile's 3G network in the U.S. by the end of the year, say the companies, which did not reveal pricing. More information may eventually be made available at T-Mobile, here.

---

This article was originally published on LinuxDevices.com and has been donated to the open source community by QuinStreet Inc. Please visit LinuxToday.com for up-to-date news and articles about Linux and open source.