Blackberry Pearl 8100

I recently migrated to the Blackberry Pearl. Previously I owned a Blackberry 7250, Palm Tungsten C, and HP Ipaq. None of my previous units hold a candle to my Pearl.

The minute I took possession of it, it was amazing. No flywheel to give me Blackberry Carple Tunnel Syndrome. (I'm sure the pearl trackball will have some other medical syndrome named after it over time.)

I found navigation very easy to get the hang of. As with the Blackberry operating system, it is easy to customize the display.

The pearl trackball sensitivity can be adjusted for easy or stiff rolling. It also lights up when in use due to a built in light meter. Makes for a very smart looking device at night!

Friends tried to sway me from my purchase due to the Suretype keyboard as it has been given a bad review. It took me a few minutes to get the hang of it, so I am glad I did not allow my decision to be swayed very far. Some people swear by a QWERTY keyboard, but that comes with large clunky devices. Suretype allows for a very compact keyboard.

The phone and speakerphone quality is very good. It is also very easy to pair this device to bluetooth headsets which makes for safer driving and handsfree use.

The display is crisp, clear and bright. It isn't as big as an iPaq or Palm, but given the size of the Blackberry Pearl - I think it is sufficient.

The camera is great for times when you just need to snap a picture. However, if you take close ups the pictures are distorted. If you need to rely on the flash, I found my pictures took on a green hue. You need to play with the lighting to get the hang of it. If you plan on taking many photos with this device - I would not rate that as the best out there. The Motorola RAZR was better.

I have loaded all my favorite URLs and use the browser a lot.

I am an iTunes user, so I have not been abe to take advantage of the music capabilities as Apple encrypts their music files - so I cannot review that for you at this time.

There are new colors coming out from Blackberry as we speak. I have the traditional black one - but they also have white and red. The casing is shiny and hard. I have not been able to scratch it up yet...but fingerprints are constantly visible.

I love my Blackberry Pearl and would highly recommend it to anyone that needs a great integrated PDA, phone, wireless email device.

Released for AT&T, the BlackBerry Pearl 8110 is the first BlackBerry Pearl model to feature built-in GPS (Global Positioning System). The BlackBerry Pearl 8110 is an ideal tool for professionals and business users to manage calls, send emails, surf the net, take and send photographs, listen to music, record and watch videos, and access their organiser, calendar and a range of business and lifestyle applications. Integrating a large 240 x 260 px screen, the Pearl 8110 supports more than 65K-colors. It includes RIM's SureType keyboard with word completion, built-in spell-checker and user-customized dictionary. Rounding out features, it includes a built-in 2.0-megapixel camera with video recorder, an advanced media player, a 3.5-mm stereo headset jack, externally accessible microSD / SDHC memory slot for additional storage and Bluetooth 2.0, with support for headsets, car kits, stereo headsets and other Bluetooth accessories.

RIM BlackBerry Pearl (8110) Features

* Phone, email, text messaging (SMS and MMS), browser, instant messaging and organizer applications in a single smartphone
* 2.0-megapixel camera with built-in flash, digital zoom and video recorder
* Media player with audio and video playback in a variety of formats
* BlackBerry Maps to help users find their way
* Pearl-like trackball navigation system and SureType keyboard technology
* High resolution LCD screen with light sensing technology
* 64 MB of memory and expandable memory via microSD card
* Quad-band support for worldwide GSM/GPRS and EDGE networks

The Pearl has most of the features that I like. GPS, Camara, Video, etc, but the most undesirable is the keyboard. Two letters on each key and the keys are so small. For anyone not wanting to do very much entering or fast texting the phone would be great for you, but I dislike it very much and will be switching soon. It also is not Windows Mobile capable.

Very good product.mailing was fast, product excellent and still working pretty good. The provider was always kind and helpful.

Am using the Cingular Pearl. Came from a Samsung Blackjack, which, on paper, is everything one could want in a device. It had 3G, full keyboard, good form factor and expandability. However, what made me switch was the poor implementation of push email and the battery life.

So why did I switch to the Pearl and what are my comments after 1 wk with the device?

Pros
1)Email. Pearl's email is amazing. I am set up to receive my corp email via BES and it works flawlessly. Sometimes I get my email on the Pearl before it hits my inbox at work. You can also set it up to receive 10 other internet/pop3 emails.

2)Form Factor. Even better than Blackjack. Smaller, lighter, narrower. Reminds me of a Motorola SLVR. It is very pocketable.

3)Battery Life. Tremendous vs Blackjack.

4)EDGE. I was concerned about going down from 3G. I have to tell you, EDGE seems almost as fast, and is, according to the results I am getting from speed test using the opera browser.

5)Screen. Blackjack screen is also good. Bright, adjusts in sunlight so it is readable outside. Blackjack was not.

6)Suretype. my biggest worry was suretype. i am now its biggest fan. if you don't look at the screen and just type, the Pearl guesses the word correctly almost every time. However, suretype is not as good for entering web addresses.

7)RF. Has been very good. Blackjack was also very strong. Getting terrific signal.

8)Audio. almost too loud. have spearker on middle setting.

9)MediaPlayer/Camera. 2gig memory card. can even put a movie on the card. camera is good but not great at 1.3mp.


Cons:
1)Bluetooth. Has been a little flaky with my car. Blackjack and V3i always worked perfectly.

2)Battery door. it does feel flimsy and bows out a little.


I use email 20x vs web so for me the Pearl is and easy winner over Blackjack. The push email on the Pearl is unmatched by any other non-blackberry product from my experience.

My blackberry pearl looks new. It also runs smoothly and is a great phone. The only thing is that the back cover dosn't slide out very well and the sim card reader isn't always working.

just decided it was the phone i wanted, i always go to e-bay for my phones, its alot cheaper than a 2 years added onto my contract...

I am happy and surprised for the way they refunded the money ,for a non working cell phone. Thank you very much. Luis

After using the Blackberry 7290 for a couple of months, the switch to the Pearl was awkward but doable. The Pearl has a Sure-Type keypad as opposed to the traditional Qwerty that BB users are accustomed to. It is considerably smaller and feels more like a phone and less like a PDA but all the BB features that we all love are crammed into this pretty little package. I love the fact that the trackball is customizable with one of a few different color-changing software applications. The camera is pretty good, the media player is an excellent addition to the Blackberry. This fun little bundle brings Blackberry out of the stoic business persona it has always had brought it into the personal user market. If you like Blackberry but miss the camera and media player of a traditional phone, you'll love the Pearl!!!

The pearl is a great alternative to your everyday blackberry. Althought it looks small and difficult to type on and use effectively. Its the most powerful blackberry out there. Give that qwerty keyboard a chance it will take some getting used too. But once you've learned it you can out type anyone! Its great! I Love it! No complaints!!!!

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When will RIM learn?
Where is the touch screen lose the wheel..


Highlights
2MP camera and media player with external memory card slot
Personal information management with calendar, contact and email
Key Features
Sprint Music StoreSM
Sprint TVSM enabled
Slim and fashionable
Speakerphone
Built-in camera
Web, email capable
Bluetooth
External display
GPS enabled
Memory card slot
Voice dialing
Broadband-like speeds where available

These are the pros and cons toward my decision to buy the Pearl.

PROS:
Size - smaller than a lot of if not most smartphones or PDA (I hate holsters and carry my phone in a blazer inside pocket or pants pocket...the size makes it perfect for these pockets.

Camera - very nice camera that can take pictures well enough to print (this phone has been like my second camera for the unofficial shots...I use it a lot since the phone goes everywhere with me...came in handy for those silly acts by my kids at the playground and for documenting an auto accident..right time right place.

Powerful PDA utilities - calendar was not the best I have used (Palm calendar is best IMHO vs. Blackberry and Windows Media...I have owned and used them all) but did its job very well and was enough for my need of scheduling (rate my demand of the scheduler a 6 out of 10). If you demand very powerful calendar/scheduling utility this may not be for you (3rd party software for calendar/scheduler is expensive IMHO). Notepad and task was very functional and intelligent (i.e. you can dial a number written in notepad similar to clicking a link in a Word document. Web addresses are click-able from inside the notepad. Suretype text prediction work amazingly well. Nav maps are very nice and handy. Lots of good utilities.

Visual Appeal - this phone looks smart, sexy, sleek, and grabs attention (I had the blk/silver one). I had the rubber mold case and it still looks nice. Doesn't scream GEEK.

Internet modem - for over a year I disconnected my home service and my only internet link was via the Pearl as a modem to my PC. I don't need blazing speed so the 128k-ish I was able to get was more than enough (double 56k). Saved 40 bucks a month on home internet. T-Mobile service for Blackberry internet was only 20 bucks.

Wonderful MP3 and Video Player - it plays nice video and music.

Biggest thing that sold me was the size and visual appeal factor for a PDA/Smartphone (I like Iphone more visually but I'm not going to fork out 1/2 a grand for looks).


CONS:
Lack of software for expandability - harder to get software and what was available is expensive. A similar MS Office suite is over $100 bucks and it isn't very powerful.

Small keyboard - I personally had not trouble but it was small as compared to my old Treo 600.

No Video Capture - yep none...be nice to get a video of my kids doing silly things at the last minute.

No wifi - be nice but may sacrifice size.

COMMENT:
The price is dropping on eBay b/c ($70-$150 used as of 12/07) newer phones are out...nice buy if you need a small phone w/enough PDA ability. Do not buy if you need a work machine type of a PDA for tackling it all.

I will start out with the good and move to the bad later.

First off, it's a Blackberry, so email capabilities are easy and intuitive, like only a Blackberry can do. Second, it's a powerful smart phone in a compact package. No phone is this small with this amount of capabilities.

I'm sure you have read the specifications before, but I will highlight some of the major features that make this phone so great:

Email. This is set up through the phone itself and integrated with the cell phone service provider. Once the email is set up (entering your POP3 email address and password. That simple), you receive emails automatically to your phone, like a text message. Any links that are in the email can be selected and accessed which brings you to the internet, and I don't mean the mobile web, I mean the internet. Emails are a big part of this phone, and the bread and butter of Research In Motion Blackberries, so expect it to work well.

Concise contact lists. When you make a new contact, you have plenty of fields to optionally fill in. Home phone, mobile, work phone, email, home address, work address, etc. More than enough. You can also add more than one of the same field.

Advanced Calendar. If you have an appointment on a certain date and time set on your calendar, you have the option of alerting other people of this appointment via text message, so when the appointment occurs (or when the reminder occurs), the Pearl sends a text message to all of the people you want to inform letting them know the title of the appointment you set and the time.

SureType. This is 2 letters per key. Much faster than T9 and at times more convenient than full QWERTY. While typing, you tap once for the first letter and tap twice for the 2nd letter, and if there's a word that has the first letter and second letter on one key, you hit it twice and continue to type. The Autotext software on the phone with accurately spell out the word you want, and if there's a discrepancy, you scroll right on the list of words that pops up and select the right word. the phone also learns new words, so if it's not on the list, you simply spell it out like you want and it will remember it.

The RIM operating system interface. Extremely intuitive and easy to customize. With having a trackball as your navigation, you can fly through menus and options much faster than with traditional arrows with an OK button in the middle. The trackball clicks, so that's how you select what you want.

Media. Like any media-playing phone, you must convert the video to the proper format (.AVI or MPEG4 as the container and H.263 as the codec, music is MP3 or AAC). Videos play very smoothly, far above the image quality of any flip phone.Video size is only limited by the amount of storage on your Micro SD card (apparently, only Sandisk Micro SD cards are supported). With a 2.5-3.5mm adapter (must also have a microphone in order to have stereo sound), you can use you headphones to listen to music and listen to your movies, and you can then use your headphones as your headset to make/receive calls.

This is a rather advanced phone, rich with features. Once you go with Blackberry, you won't want to go back to traditional phones. I consider it a smart smartphone.

I have been watching the Blackberry 8100 for a while. I had to see what others were saying about it before I purchased. It also had to be at the right price. So when I saw this one, I jumped on it. The Blackberry is a very nice piece of equipment. I love the big screen and the fact that it is very colorful.

I have been looking to getting a smart phone for a while,and I'm glad I got this one. It has everything you need to stay connected, email, mms, internet, etc. Convenient voice dialing button on the side of the phone, press it and say the person's name and it recognizes your voice. I've had several voice calling enabled phones, none as good as this.Trackball is a good feature, makes it easy to navigate. keypad is a little small, but with practice it's no big deal. Smart phones tend to be big, but this compact size is what overall sold me on it (plus all the features it has). Overall a good phone that has a lot of features that you can slip in your front pants pocket with no problem. Not clunky, lightwieght and sold feel to it.

BlackBerry devices in general are head and shoulders above the competition. True to form, the Pearl is an extremely powerful "all-in-one" gadget in a very small package.

I have had the Pearl for about six months now. I have also owned and used the 7100, the 8700, and the 8800. I use the 8800 for my work PDA and the Pearl (8100) for my personal use. Just like the full-sized BB devices, the Pearl gives you the option of BIS or BES email service. The BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) gives you the ability to access your email via POP or IMAP. This is good for personal accounts really, but not going to give you the true, real-time sync that the BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES) gives you. I use Exchange for my personal email via my domain name and the Pearl syncs up my email, calendars, contacts, and tasks with the server via the BES over the airwaves. With BES, you never have to sync your device via wire to your computer.

In additon to the email options which are very easy to use, the Pearl combines phone features, games, Internet browsing, and many personalization options that are staples of the Smartphone set.

With the Pearl, BlackBerry has added the ability to add a highly-recommended one or two gigabyte mini-SD card. You can now store MP3's to play on the stereo headset or file the photos you take from the built-in 1.3 Megapixel camera. There is also a video function that allows you to store and watch videos. As a sidenote, the stereo headset feature would have been nicer if you had the opton of a 3.5mm "normal" headphone jack instead of having the 2.5mm jack used for phone earpieces. If you use an iPod or MP3 player and would like to leave it behind to use the Pearl's MP3 player, it's hard to give up high-quality earphones for the included stereo headset. This is the only complaint I have with the device.

I would recommend the Pearl to anyone looking for a compact, feature-packed BlackBerry or smartphone device for personal use. The SureType keyboard is easy to get used to, but if you are sending lots of email for work, the lack of a QWERTY keyboard gets cumbersome.

All in all, BlackBerry proves once again why they are the leaders in the industry for irreplaceable PDA's.

I have been looking to getting a smart phone for a while,and I'm glad I got this one. It has everything you need to stay connected, email, mms, internet, etc. Convenient voice dialing button on the side of the phone, press it and say the person's name and it recognizes your voice. I've had several voice calling enabled phones, none as good as this.Trackball is a good feature, makes it easy to navigate. keypad is a little small, but with practice it's no big deal. Smart phones tend to be big, but this compact size is what overall sold me on it (plus all the features it has). Overall a good phone that has a lot of features that you can slip in your front pants pocket with no problem. Not clunky, lightwieght and sold feel to it.

Love the style, design, and overall performance! I've had many many phones and this one has just about everything I need and use. Took a little while to get used to the new scroll button since previous blackberrys used the side jog-dial. In some ways, I prefer the latter.

Got a great deal on this phone on ebay and am looking forward to my next one already--though this is a definite keeper!!

I love this phone. I've had it for 2 weeks. It's the best Blackberry I've seen, mainly because of the trackball. It makes looking at maps SO easy. Intuitive, sleek, sexy, and multi-functional. Camera is not so good IMHO, but everything else is great. Highly recommended.

This is my very first PDA. Before the Pearl, I never saw a Phone/PDA that really struck my interest or could fit within the confines of my budget. This did both. Not only was it a good price, but I feel I have become more efficient with school, work, and social life. I'm worthless personally at keeping up with stuff - escpecially events or being timely -

At first, I thought typing messages on this phone was awkward, but in about 4days to a week, I'm typing full lenth messages in seconds.

The only thing I found that I did not like about this phone is when calling a outdated system that wants you to spell by name using the telephone keppad. Not many people will have this issue but I was able to get around it by pressing O or simply hanging up - sorry you missed my call - : )

Otherwise, I was extremly pleased with the camera - except when doing close up, the images get smaller when you view them from a PC. The best pics are when you are at 1x - they are large, if you want to get in closer to a object, I would recommmend that you simply get closer to have the best image possible.

This is the best phone i ever had. The phone has all you need in 1.
It has a modem automatic typing system that once you get used to use it you will love it. It will remember the words that you uses and it will be easier for you.
you can go to ebay,paypal,myspace,youtube (no video), and many other sites.
A+

s phone for a month now, and I love it. The keypad is confusing at first, however this is to be expected, but once you have used it for a week or two you will find typing is very easy and quite quick as well. The screen on this device is clear, and very nice, high-resolution.
And as for the camera on this device... never thought I could say this about a phone camera, but the camera actually is decent. Nothing like a normal digital camera, but close... In a pinch it would work and do a decent job. I was surprised with the clarity and colour reproduction. Flash is worthless, and gives photos a green-tint to them, however.
Battery is OK, I usually have to charge my device nightly, however I do use it everyday, quite frequently.

Looks great as well, it's great to hold and nice and sleek. The black colour is glossy and does attract fingerprints but looks really good; and the chrome-coloured sides and top add nice accents. This phone is, described in one word, sexy...

Overall an excellent phone. I recommend it over the TREO 650, my last phone, by far due to features and size.