Pantech Pursuit II

Reviewers are not very impressed with the Pantech Pursuit II. CNET's Nicole Lee finds it "a bit of a step down from the original Pursuit," while PhoneArena.com's "Brian K." reports "call quality and battery life are our two main complaints." PCMag.com reviewer Alex Colon highlights several flaws, but his bigger complaint is with AT&T's "pricey data plans." And The-Gadgeteer.com's reviewer, John Schettino, simply says "It's hard to see who the target market is."

Decent design; humdrum phone                  

The Pantech Pursuit II retains the neat, compact flip design so many reviewers liked with the original Pursuit. It's slightly larger than its predecessor, and the user-friendly keyboard slides out from the bottom rather than the side of the phone. Experts aren't very happy with this change, as it means the keyboard is narrower and a little cramped. Nicole Lee at CNET finds the 2.8-inch, 240-by-320-pixel capacitive touch screen "not as crisp as before," but admits this is a "minor quibble for a phone in this category."

Features and performance are underwhelming        

Among the many complaints about the Pursuit II is its proprietary headphone jack. Since it doesn't ship with headphones, that feature is rendered "close to useless," as Colon puts it, since you can't use your own pair. Video quality is very bad, though Lee is "pleasantly surprised by the photo quality" of the 2-megapixel camera. The phone struggles to stay connected to AT&T's already spotty 3G network, and call quality receives mixed reviews, mostly bad. Lee complains of "tinny voice quality." Battery life is an abysmal three hours or less, according to tests. 

The bottom line

Even though PCMag.com's Alex Colon says, "If all you're looking to do is talk and text, the Pursuit II is a fine choice," he suggests that a cheap smartphone like the iPhone 3GS or Samsung's Captivate would be a better choice. In general, the Pursuit II will work fine for talking and texting, but it's worth shopping around.