I watched this series due to the Anime Lotto Club. Anyways, I decided to review it.
Story
This is essentually a slice of life/school life type series that follows the daily lives of various girls. The episodes range from pretty cute to kind of boring (epecially if you are not into "cute girls doing cute things"). The series does have it's heartwarming moments, though. In my opinion, episodes 3 and 11 are the best.
Animation
The animation is pretty much standard. It isn't great, but it isn't bad either.
Sound
The opening song isn't anything special, but it does fit the series. Same thing with the ending song (which is pleasant to listen to, but not particularly special). The background music is forgetable.
Characters
The biggest flaw of this series (in my opinion, at least) is that it has too many characters. It might not have been a problem if this was a 50+ episode series, but this is a 12 episode series. There are not many 12 episode series that can get away with having this many characters (the only ones that pop off the top of my head are Baccanno! and, to a lesser extent, Angel Beats. And even then, those series weren't slice of life and had epic plots to back them up). Slice of life series rely on the characters and the audience bonding with the characters. However, there are so many characters in Girl Friend BETA that it's hard to keep track of them all, much less bond with them. Also, most of the characters don't get much (if any) development, though there are some that do (at least a little bit of development). I will say that this series is at it's best (in my opinion) when it focuses on the main five girls (aka gymnist girl, library girl, French girl, anouncer girl, and camera girl). If the show had focused primerally on these five girls, it would've been better (again, in my opinion). Unfotunately, the show dedicates entire episodes to other groups of girls and makes it difficult to keep track of who's who. If this was a longer (or more epic) series, then giving the limelight to otherwise secondary/minor characters wouldn't be a problem, but with as short as this series is, it just doesn't quite work.
Overall
This series isn't great, but it's not as terrible as some people make it out to be. It would've been better if it didn't have as many characters and kept it's focus on the five girls I mentioned. Still, if you like slice of life or "cute girls doing cute things", then you may find some enjoyment from this series. That said, there are better slice of life anime out there.