Agent P’s World Showcase Adventure at Epcot debuted new smartphones today courtesy of new mobile sponsor AT&T after 2 years of using Verizon Samsung flip-phones.

Since today was the first day running with the new phones, cast members made it clear that there may be a few glitches with them and guests should locate an Agent P cast member should they have any problems. That being said, we experienced no issues during the two missions that we tried out today.

The phone itself is a nice, large screen Nokia smartphone. The touch screen was very responsive and the audio quality was noticeably improved. They also have a large range volume control on the side of the phone, a much-welcomed change since the Agent P mission phones were often insanely loud, especially when brought inside a building around World Showcase. We expected some sort of “Otter Box” type indestructible case, instead, there was just a thin, sleek rubber case around the phone. This was day one, so we can only imagine the screens getting rather dirty or smashed very quickly and new cases having to be ordered.

On a negative note, the animation sequences have not been changed. Seemingly produced for the smaller flip phone screen, when stretched to the size of the larger smart phone screen the animation is noticeably pixelated. We can only hope new animation will be made and will debut at a later time. What they fail to tell you at mission briefing is be sure not to touch the home, back or search buttons on the bottom of the phone. This will bring you to a main phone menu. When we tried to get back to the mission, all progress was lost and it asked that the phone be returned in a designated drop box. Hopefully these minor issues will be addressed, but overall, the new phones are a great improvement over the old flip-style phones.

Tom Corless