Beleaguered owners of Samsung’s Behold II have been up in arms lately as it has become clear that Samsung would not in fact be providing an upgrade to Android 2.0 or beyond, despite their previous promises. Tonight, word comes from Samsung of an update to the phone: from 1.5 to 1.6. I’d say this is a bittersweet moment for Behold II owners, but my guess is it’s much more bitter than sweet, as it’s been the better part of a year since 1.6 was state of the art.

Give Samsung some credit for making the announcement right amongst those most upset about the situation, in a thread on AndroidSPIN’s forums:

“To All:

“Samsung Mobile and T-Mobile USA are planning to update the Behold II to Android 1.6 which provides access to Google Maps Navigation, Google Voice Search capability and quick search box for Android.

“The update will also supply additional benefits including Swype, an improved Media Player, updated core Android applications and improved Bluetooth capabilities. However, the Behold II is not upgradeable beyond Android 1.6.”

There you have it: an upgrade to 1.6 to soften the blow of definitely not ever upgrading any further. 1.6 certainly an improvement over 1.5, and throwing in Swype and a few extras is nice and all, but I’ve got to think that ultimately this only fans the flames of folks who are already angry that Samsung’s promise of 2.0 has not been fulfilled. Making it worse, the idea that it’s not technically possible to upgrade the Behold II past 1.6 rings false.

Lending credence to the announcements authenticity, a link to the forum post was tweeted by an official Twitter accounts of Samsung.

We’d love to hear how Behold II owners are feeling about this development in the comments!