I have noticed that a few OS's ago, that when I get an MMS picture file, the actual picture quality gets downsized and looks horrible.

I used to be able to get high quality pics, but not anymore.

is there an option that can be changed? i looked everywhere and didn't find anything

What's the sender phone?... it might be a stupid question but you have to remember that there are many camera qualities in phones today... all the way from 1.3 mp to 8.0 (maybe more)...

Anyway I dont use MMS so much so I dont know is there is a compression like the one in the old BB Messenger...

good point about the MP, but i considered that too already. im talking in general. i have received pics from phones that have 8mp and no de-sizing when sending the pic.

its the same phones that used to send me good quality pics, now i only receive them in a very downsized format. for no reason.

I think the problem could be with the carrier.
T Mobile may have decided to downsize the pictures to save bandwidth.
I never send photos that I want someone to have via MMS for this reason. You can attach them in an email, and they get the photo in "all its glory"