As a collegiate woman desperately afraid to fall victim to the iPhone craze, and thus fail every class due to a guaranteed obsession with Words With Friends, I have chosen to cling to a lesser, text-centered phone: The Pantech Laser. What follows the submission for my phone into the Hall of Fame and Shame.

Basic Facts: The Laser was designed (based on my estimations) as a texting focused phone made with adults in mind, as its styling is not overly teen centered. The device has a slide out keyboard, touch screen and does offer access to basic, popular applications such as email, facebook, twitter and the world wide web.

Hall of Fame: I was excited when I acquired this phone, largely due to its physical characteristics. I find the styling to be mature instead of vibrantly green and playfully shaped like its little brother, the Pantech Pursuit.

I like the feel of the slide out keyboard, and appreciate that the buttons do not click too loudly when texting. It is appropriately sized to fit into my pocket or a small clutch and I did not feel as if I am in danger of destroying it when it is dropped.

When initially bringing the device home, I was able to customize the lock screen with a picture of Hank the Heron on Beebe Lake and my home screen to an artistic photo from home town.

Becoming familiar with the device, I was able to set the various menus (accessed by sliding the screen left or right) to display the icons which I most frequently use. The method involved pressing on an icon and holding until they all became selectable, then dragging and dropping them onto the appropriate screen (similar to an iPhone) which I found quick and intuitive.

I am easily able to create multiple alarms, and simply slide the ‘on off toggle’ to select the one that they will require. I found this to be and extremely convenient feature for dealing with my daily flip between 8:40 or a 10:10 lectures. Additionally, I am able to choose from both preset and customizable “Profiles” including “Normal, Outdoor, Vibrate Only, Silent and Flight Mode”.

Hall of Fame Summary: The physical structure of the phone exemplified what I was searching for; a mature, text friendly phone that was able to handle everyday wear and tear. The touch interface is largely intuitive and familiar, due to its similarity to other touch screen devices. I found it to be highly customizable, and I was able to place the features I used most frequently where they were most accessible.

Hall of Shame: While not enough to condemn the entire device, the slight interface hitches have been enough to cause me to huff and complain around lunch tables on a moderately regular basis.

As I previously mentioned, my main intended use for the phone is text messaging and this is where I began to encounter the most problems. First, when sliding out the keyboard, I am met by the only uncustomizable screen on the phone. As I do not require any of the apps aside from “Conversations”, I found this screen to be unnecessary. And though I do understand that these represent the most frequently used applications (all of which would also require the texting keyboard), I feel the screen could have been more successful if it had maintained the same customization as the rest of the phone.

The next issue arises when receiving a text. The incoming message screen displays the name of the sender and two slidable toggles to either “View” or “Ignore” the message. If “View” is selected, the phone is unlocked. However, instead of revealing the conversation related to the sender, it displays the last viewed page. Often this page is a conversation view with another person, leading to confusion over the conversation’s content. In order to see the new message, I am forced to back track to the main message screen and select the appropriate conversation.

The final problem related to a frequent texter is the the interaction between a pair of buttons. The phone can be unlocked by pressing and holding the lock icon on the lock screen. As mentioned previously, the phone opens to last viewed screen, which, in my case, is often is a conversation view. Unfortunately, in the same location as the lock icon, is the “Call” button on the conversation view. If the lock icon is held too long, the result is an unintended call to the other member of the opened conversation. This leads to frequent “butt dial” style calls.

Hall of Shame Summary: While the phone is largely successful, the frequent encounters with the aforementioned problems leads to the device seeming more problematic then it actually is. A further consideration of user behavior would have likely have revealed these issues during development.

Modifications: A discussion of possible solutions to the aforementioned problems including the uncustomizable keyboard menu, incoming messages opening to the last viewed screen, and the location of the lock button.

The Keyboard Menu: This screen could be easily improved by allowing for the same customization mechanics as the rest of the phone. Personally, I appreciate access to the alarm and calculator functions much more than Facebook and Twitter (call me crazy).

Incoming Message Opening to Last Viewed Screen: While I feel that opening the phone to the last viewed screen is largely a good mechanic, it does not make sense in the case of receiving the message. By choosing to “View” the message, the user is indicating their desire to see it. Thus, it would be logical for that mechanic to be overridden and to instead display the related conversation view.

Unlock Button: While an easy solution would be to relocate the unlock button, I feel that a more elegant answer would be changing the button into a slide toggle. As the main gesture which the phone employs is swiping, both for opening text messages and for navigating though screens, a slide toggle would both seem seamless and reduce the frequency of “butt dials”.

Conclusion: Until taking the time to consider the things my phone does well, I had largely negative feelings towards it. This is likely the result of the majority of my interactions with the device being seamless and intuitive, causing the small texting failures to feel jarring in comparison. In addition, I was surprised to find how simple the modifications necessary to make the Laser a significantly improved phone.

Overall, this device is not one which seeks to inspire or to make great strides in design or technology, nor does it claim to. I appreciate its effectiveness at completing the task for which it was designed, as well as the understanding that not every user requires or desires the most tech savvy solution.

So I’m sorry Word’s With Friends, the Pantech Laser is my choice for keeping my GPA alive at least one more day.