Home › News ›

Hands-On: Pantech Hotshot, Jest 2, and Caper

Hotshot Jest 2 Caper Comments

The Caper is small, monoblock messaging phone that has a full QWERTY keyboard.

Caper

It is lightweight and feels good in the hand. The overall fit and finish is somewhat on the cheap side, and the materials are not of the highest quality. It is put together reasonably well, but doesn't have the tightest build I've seen.

It is covered with buttons. Below the smallish display, the navigation cluster has no fewer than six buttons and the d-pad. They have a good feel to them. The action was a bit stiff, but stiff is better than mushy. The keys have a good amount of travel and feedback, and were satisfying to use. The d-pad felt good under the thumb, and the edge was well defined, making it easy to find and use.

The keyboard felt pretty good, but is short of fantastic. The individual keys have a nicely rounded shape, which makes it easier for your thumbs to tell them apart as you move around the keyboard. They are a bit on the loose side, and have too much side-to-side travel for my tastes. The travel and feedback of the keys was acceptable, but I found the "wigglyness" to be off-putting.

There are tons of bottons on the side edges of the phone. The volume toggle is on the left, and has a tight feel to it. The voice command key is below it. Both buttons have a pleasant shape to them. Same goes for all the buttons on the right side, which include a keyboard lock key and the camera button. I wish the camera button were a bit further away from the lock key, as it is all too easy to accidentally lock the keyboard when you mean to open the camera application.

The user interface is the typical (and crusty) Verizon Wireless feature phone interface. Pick up any off-the-shelf feature phone at your local Verizon store and you'll see what the Caper is all about. It is usable, but badly needs to be updated.

In all, it's not a bad little phone that is probably best used by young teenagers as a messaging device.

Related

U.S. Cellular Adds Pantech's Verse

May 8, 2012
U.S. Cellular has started selling the Pantech Verse, their version of Pantech's Jest 2 for Verizon.

TCL's New Foldable Concept Swings Both Ways

In what has become something of an annual tradition, TCL has unveiled new, unique flexible-display concepts. The newest and most unique is the "360-Degree Ultra Flex", which has a 360º hinge that allows the device to be folded either inward or outward.

Hands On with the Motorola edge+ (2022)

Motorola's newest flagship phone ticks all the standard boxes for a high-end phone, but it also has one totally unique feature: a wide-angle camera with a full 50 megapixel resolution, the same as the main camera. The selfie camera has a similarly unheard-of resolution at 60 megapixel.

Hands On with the Motorola moto g stylus 5G (2022)

Motorola has a new edition of its mid-range, big-screen phone with a stylus. It has 120 Hz display refresh, an unprecedented feature in this price range.

Hands On with the TCL Stylus 5G

Now that LG is no longer making its Stylo phones, TCL isn't content to let Motorola have all the fun in the popular affordable-stylus segment of the US market. Enter the TCL Stylus 5G, an entirely new foray for TCL.

Pantech Caper

2.2" display 220 x 176 pixels
920 mAh battery
Hardware Text Keyboard

Pantech Jest 2 / Verse

2.4" display 320 x 240 pixels
950 mAh battery
Memory Card Slot, Hardware Text Keyboard

Pantech Hotshot

3.2" display 240 x 400 pixels
ARM11 processor 0.25 GB RAM
1,000 mAh battery
Memory Card Slot, Headphone Jack (3.5mm)

more news about: