As of late, I've being seeing a lot of ads for handgun dry-fire Laser Practice Systems. Basically they all use a laser snap-cap cartridge that triggers a laser. A phone app then scores your hits on a special target. Is this just a gimmick or a useful tool? Seems like a pain to have to pull back the slide each time. Any thoughts or actual user comments? TIA

Just do normal dry fire.

I can say the Mantis system sure worked for me. It is a little bit of a pain racking slide but for pistols not sure how you get around that.
My son has a special trigger on his AR that allows the Mantis to work with out working Bolt each time but Trigger feel is a little different as you would expect.
My grandkids used it as well and first trip to range with them I was impressed with how good their Trigger control was.

I used mine quite a bit last summer but fell off once hunting season rolled around and honestly haven’t picked it up since.
Use it and you will get better no doubt!

Regular dry fire about. Foot away from a light switch if you need fancy electronics I hear good things about mantis

You could also go to Benstoeger.com and get dry fire correct sizes ( I haven’t tried)