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Review: Pantech Pursuit

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Menus Calls / Contacts Messaging  

Messaging on the Pantech Pursuit is a mixed bag. In some ways, mostly email and social networking, it was disappointing. Like all of AT&T's newest quick messaging phones, the Pursuit uses a threaded style for text messaging. Messages pop up in a line of conversation balloons, like an instant message chat, so they are easier to follow. Some pictures in MMS messages did not come through when sent to the phone. AT&T should have given this phone a top notch text messaging app, since the audience for the Pursuit will rely heavily on SMS.

Instant messaging is available for AIM, MSN and Yahoo. It's a fairly basic app, but it looks nice and it works well. There was some lag on my conversations with my IM buddies, but all my messages went through.

E-mail is available through AT&T's Mobile Email service. It costs extra every month to use the service, and this is one of my biggest problems with this phone. Everything good costs extra. People who buy this phone are probably hoping to spend less per month on service than if they bought a smartphone, but when you start adding in all the extra features, the bill racks up quickly. AT&T Navigator, Mobile Email, the Where location-based search app; these all cost an extra fee. On a smartphone, similar features would be free, and with AT&T's new cheaper data plans, I can't help but wonder if these fees aren't a cynical way of pushing customers to spring for a more expensive device. It's a shame.

In social networking, the Pursuit starts to make up for these problems. The phone gets shortcuts for Facebook and MySpace in the main menu, but these are something of a red herring. Tapping the Facebook icon just opens the mobile Web browser and directs you to the Facebook mobile page. It's not a dedicated app with any special features. The phone does get AT&T's Social Net app, though. Social Net gathers updates from MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and even RSS feeds. It's very basic, offering little besides status updates, but if you just want to stay informed, Social Net will get the job done and AT&T doesn't charge extra for it. Unfortunately, there's no way to upload photos to Facebook, either through the mobile Facebook Web page or the Social Net app.

 

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