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>> Hi, I'm Bonnie Cha, Senior Editor at CNET.com. And today, we're taking a First Look at the Nokia Surge for AT&T. This little guy is actually a smartphone, but it's a bit different from the company's other smart phones, such as the devices in the N and E series and definitely geared more for a younger audience. You can kind of just tell by looking at it, it's not for corporate users. The Surge looks more like a basic phone, and even though it's nice and compact, the phone feels a bit plastic-y and slick to me. Also, the screen is on the smaller side, so it wasn't the best for viewing videos and web pages, and I'm not a huge fan of the navigation controls around the display since they're small and stiff to press. If you can't tell, I'm not really into the Surge's design, but it has one good thing going for it, and that's the full QWERTY keyboard. You can get to it by sliding the screen to the right, and as you can see, the buttons are nice and large. And they provide a good, tactile feedback when you press them instead of feeling squishy or too flat, so had an easy time writing messages on the Surge. Now, even thought the surge looks like a basic messaging cell phone, it does way more than that and includes a number of social networking tools to attract AT&T's younger customers. For example, the device comes with an app "JuiceCaster," which let's you post messages updates, photos, and more to sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr. And the Surge has a two-megapixel camera here on the back so you can take photos and then upload them directly from the phone. The Surge also features a full HTML web browser with Flashlight support, so that means you can view sites like YouTube right from the browser. It took several tries to connect, but I finally got some YouTube clips to play on the device, and it does work. AT&T also throws in Moby TV, a mobile banking app, AT&T Music, and AT&T Navigator so you can use it with the phone's built-in GPS to get turn-by-turn navigation. Like I said before, the Surge is full on smartphone, and it's running Symbian's operating system. It includes port for work and personal email, productivity tools, Bluetooth, and 3G support. Even though it has a lot of features that business users would want, I wouldn't really recommend the surge to them and would suggest spending a little more money and upgrading to the Nokia E71X. But I'd say the Nokia Surge is definitely fine for teens and younger people looking for something a little more full featured than a basic messaging phone. And it's a great value at just $79.99 with a two-year contract. Not in love with the design of the phone, but you're definitely gonna get a lot for your money. I'm Bonnie Cha, and this has been your First Look at the Nokia Surge for AT&T.
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