[Update:] Samsung Behold II owners seeking legal action after Sammy renigs on 2.x promises.

You know a phone isn’t that great when it’s released with old, outdated software. Unfortunately, in the Android world the practice is all too common. What’s worse however is buying a phone with the aforementioned outdated software and promises of near future upgrades only to find out the opposite is true, that the company who swooned you with flashy advertising was lying and is unwilling to right their wrong.

Samsung has a problem…

According to numerous replies from Samsung to countless Behold II owners’ emails, the 2.x upgrade that was promised many times over — In a video even! — is somewhere between “a long ways off” and “never”.

Now if Samsung had never mentioned any cold hard info or marketed on if/when a 2.x update would be released, no harm no foul. But seeing as how Samsung ran a promotional video and advertised the hell out of future 2.x upgrades being one of the Samsung Behold II’s biggest features, the picture becomes a little clearer.

Of course, the most obvious solution (rooting and upgrading yourself) won’t work either. Samsung has never released all of the source code, therefore the devs can’t reverse engineer 2.x ROM’s back to the Behold II.

It’s a pretty sad day when Samsung is basically telling all present and future customers that they stop supporting their products with updates less than 6 months out. Adding insult to injury, repeated emails from various Behold II owners have garnered responses, basically telling end users to “Leave them [Samsung] alone.” and even going as far to shift the blame onto T-Mobile, directing angry customers to T-Mo’s inbox. Classy, real classy.

The understandably angry Behold II customers are trying to get a petition going, arguing their case for one of three items:

1. A refund
2. A new Android 2.x handset
3. An upgrade of any 2.x flavor

The demands seem more than reasonable to me seeing as how Samsung overpromised and under delivered — essentially lying. The proof can be found in the original Behold II promotional video that can be found here. Samsung meanwhile has yanked all remnants of this video for obvious reasons.

For the record, the Samsung Behold II was released in November of 2009. Way to go Samsung.

**Are you an disgruntled Behold II owner? Sign the petition here.

Update 5/28/10: Samsung has given an official response, confirming that they did in fact lie and leave customers to rot and that Android 1.6 will be the highest they can upgrade. The tweet below is only part 1. Follow the rest of the douchery right over here.

Engadget > Android Headlines

Author: Mike Norris

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Gadget lover, smartphone collector, and beer connoisseur. I've been writing about gadgets for three years now and loving every minute of it. Outside of the digital landscape, I enjoy being active outdoors. I'm always up for a good conversation, so feel free to drop me a line!