Review: Pantech Pocket for AT&T
Camera
The Pocket has a 5 megapxiel camera. The software that controls it is decent, but stripped of some features typically found on more high-end devices. The camera will open if you press the software button on the home screen, but I gotta call Pantech out for the lack of dedicated camera button and the misstep of leaving a camera shortcut off the home screen.
Once open, the viewfinder is mostly reserved for viewing your subject. Only a small sliver on the side is reserved for some basic controls (software shutter button, switch to video camera). If you tap the screen once, another control panel will appear on the other side of the screen. This allows users to adjust the shooting mode, white balance, exposure, and a few other settings before firing off some shots.
The Pocket can be set to auto-focus, fixed-focus, or macro focus (for close-ups) modes. When in auto-focus mode (which I highly recommend you use), the Pocket will focus on whatever is in the center of the screen. There is no touch-to-focus. Press the on-screen shutter button and the Pocket takes about a second or two to focus, and then another second to process the shot and get you to a review screen. From there, you have the typical options for sharing or jumping back to the camera application. It's way, way too slow.
Gallery
The Pocket uses the stock Android 2.3 gallery application. You can open it either from the camera app or the main menu. It syncs with your Google Picasa account (if you have one) and sorts photo albums based on date and location. They float in a 3D-esque space.
With an album open, photos and videos are intermingled based on when they were captured. You can navigate through the album quickly to drill down to the photos you want to see/interact with.
Sharing options for photos are ridiculous. Think of a service or social network, and you can push the photo to it. Editing features, however, are limited to crop and rotate left/right.
Hands-On: Pantech Pocket for AT&T
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Pantech Pocket
