Our Verdict
The Pantech Laser ( $ 100 with a two - year contract from AT&T ; price as of November 28 , 2010 ) is a slim yet sturdy feature earpiece equipped with a beautiful AMOLED showing and a full QWERTY keyboard . Unfortunately , the Laser ’s overall performance is hurt by an unresponsive and badly apply touchscreen .
Thin design, full-QWERTY keyboard
quantify 4.45 inches by 2.28 inch by 0.39 in , the Laser is the thin keyboard sound that AT&T extend . The phone is abstemious , too , at 4.06 ounce , so you could easily contain it in a scoop without feeling weighed down . The Pantech Laser comes package with an instructional booklet , a micro - USB cable length with AC adapter , and an interactional tutorial CD .
The 480 - by-800 - pixel 3.1 - inch resistive pinch AMOLED show prove pictures vibrantly and intelligibly . AMOLED displays more often appear on high - end phones such as the HTC Droid Incredible .
Below the screen are talk of the town / End key and a Back release that felt up tinny and slight , as though you could easy pull it off . One side holds the volume up / down key , and the other accommodates a screen lock samara . Situated on the top of the phone is a micro - USB larboard that you could utilize for charging the machine or for connecting it to your electronic computer to transfer files . However , transferring files also requires a microSD card , which Pantech did not provide with our review unit .
The Laser ’s full - QWERTY keyboard slides out swimmingly with no breath of wobble . The key nice and big , and they ’re set far enough apart that even a person with thick finger can type out long text messages with ease .
Simple software
The principal user interface is simple and straightforward : You have three unlike “ screen ” to swipe through , and in each you may total shortcuts to your best-loved applications or contacts , with the kernel display the prison term and the name of your carrier . The four tabs at the bottom of the covert send you to the dialer , to your tangency , to your messages , or to the full menu , where you may see all the applications currently installed on your phone .
If you slew the sound open , the tabs and multiple screens melt and are replaced by societal apps such as Facebook , Twitter , and AT&T ’s Social Net . Alternatively , you could get at your e - mail , Mobile Web , Contacts , the full fare , or any receptive and ongoing text conversation you may be throw .
The Menu include Mobile E - ring mail , Mobile Video , AT&T GPS , YPMobile , AppCenter , AT&TMusic , Applications , and Camera as well as bookmarks to mobile version of such social networking website as Facebook , MySpace , and Twitter . The Laser can manage some canonic multitasking , but the bit of apps you may run in the background depends on the amount of computer storage they take up . normally I could n’t run more than two applications in the desktop without having the earphone ask me to close up one of them because it was getting low on computer storage . I also notice that the screen sometimes flickered as I was opening or closing applications .
Performance
pilotage is almost only via jot comment . This do job when I was scrolling through my contacts or text edition messages : The resistive touch screenland is finicky about signalise swipes from tap . you could recalibrate the touch screen if you like ( and I establish that doing so did help a niggling ) , but all too often I inadvertently opened apps while trying to swipe to the next page .
Even over a 3 G internet , the Laser ’s online multimedia system performance was disappointing . file download chop-chop , but load up a Web pageboy such as Facebook was an exercising in solitaire and controlled foiling . If you want to use your phone to channel-surf the Web , you should probably look elsewhere .
Call quality was fair to middling over AT&T ’s 3 G connection . The someone on the other end of the line suppose that my voice came through crystal clear . Though the Laser lacks a second microphone , it did a effective job at filter out out most of the scope noise during the calls I made . The earphone is compatible with Bluetooth 2.0 , as well , so you’re able to use a headset with it .
Camera
The 3 - megapixel camera on the Pantech Laser does n’t give rise professional - timbre photos , but for intimate shots it gets the job done . Though you could adapt canonical setting like soar and blank proportionality , the touchscreen makes these round-eyed tasks a lot harder than they ought to be . picture transcription was subpar in my test , and while colors and lighting came out okay , the video itself look quite grainy . I would recommend using the photographic camera in well - light rooms ; pictures and video fill in dispirited light suffered from especially misfortunate look-alike lineament .
I would recommend the Laser to parent wait for an cheap new phone for theirtext - glad teen . The small fry will relish easy access to their pet social medium sites , and the keyboard will keep them satisfied as they text up a storm .
