BlackBerry Pearl 8100

The RIM Blackberry Pearl is a PDA, phone, organizer, and everyday tool all wrapped up in a small, attractive package. It is, of course, not without its disadvantages and quirks, but it gets the job done especially well; be you a business person or just the average joe, this could be the phone for you. SO... for the break-down:

Summary:
-Dimensions: 4.2 x 2 x 0.6 in
-Weight: 3.2 oz
-Network: EDGE/ GPRS/ GSM
-Connectivity: Bluetooth (2.0)/ USB
-Display: Color TFT (65.536 colors)/ 240 x 260 pixels
-Memory: 64MB/ 1 miniUSB external port
-Battery: Lithium Ion 900mAh/ 360 standby hours/ 3.5 talk hours
-Camera: 1.3 megapixel/ 4x digital zoom
-Messaging: SMS/ MMS/ eMail/ T9 or Qwerty
-Entertainment: Java/ MP3 Audio/ MPEG4 Video/ Brick Breaker
-Other: Calc/ Calendar/ Reminder/ Currency Converter/ Document Viewer/ Memopad/ Hands-free built in

DESIGN: 9/10
The design itself is, in my opinion, very nice. The size is convenient if you don't have a habit of misplacing your phone, the size of the display makes it easy to read, and the qwerty keyboard makes it easy to use for people who aren't accustomed to T9. The only drawback is that the trackball (the primary control on the PDA) will sometimes stop working. This has never happened to me, but some people have claimed it as a problem.

USER FRIENDLY?: 8/10
Yep. I would say so. Other than the initial set-up, there is absolutely no problems I can see with it. Of course, if you decide you want a new background or you need to change the font size, you may have a problem. The users manual is your best friend for this phone. You could do some damage without it.

FEATURES: 9/10
For the every-day person, the features on this phone are somewhat useless. Sure, its cool to have a neat mapping app so you can see stuff from space, but it is unneccessary. For the business person who will actually use the PDA functions, however, many of these features are simply amazing. Now, instead of having your day scattered across several different planners and calendars, it all can fit in the palm of your hand.

PERFORMANCE: 10/10
No problems here except for the occasional lag in picture downloads. It can take quite a while at times for the phone to retrive pictures people have sent you, but hey, a lot of phones are the same way.

PRICE/QUALITY RATIO: 8/10 or 10/10
This depends greatly on where you buy it from. If you buy it new, then you may have made a mistake. I'm not saying that the Blackberry isn't worth every penny of $200, but that is quite the heafty pricetag.However, if you can buy it somewhere like, say, on eBay, then its solid gold. If you can get it for under $100, then there aren't many phones that are better.

PROs: 1.3megapixel camera, EDGE support, Bluetooth, and expandable memory

CONs: MicroSD card slot inconvieniently located behind battery, call quality not bad - but not the best, no video recording, and no external control for media player

TOTAL: 8.8/10 or 9.2/10
I have owned and loved my blackberry for over a year now and I plan on replacing it with another Blackberry when the time comes. I would strongly reccommend this model to anyone, as it is one of the best that I have ever used or owned.

Design: 9.5/10

Very comfortable phone, especially if you're going from a "traditional" cell to a smartphone. It was a bit bigger, than my old phone but it still fits wonderfully in my jeans pocket. The qwerty keyboard takes some adjusting to and it can slow down the whole messaging process. The trackball is very comfortable to use (some complain, but I think it's a great idea).

Features and user friendliness: 9/10

Has some very good features that are already pre-installed, but some things (like a PDF-reader) aren't there, so I guess that that's not so good. Opening pictures can take a long time. The menu is easy to use and there are themes with which the whole menu-most commonly used applications thing becomes a lot easier.

Price/Quality ratio: 10/10

This phone is definitely worth the money you spend on it (probably even more).

Pros:

Very useful. Expandable memory. Very good call quality. Didn't really think that there would be a phone out there that would get me off nokias.

Cons:

Awful camera. Opening pictures takes ages. No timer.

Overall: 9.75/10

The best thing if you're only starting to use a smartphone. Never thought that it would be possible to switch from nokia to another brand. This is definitely a phone to buy.

I would update software at Blackberry site. Factory Installed software outdated and not user friendly. Great value vs. tradional blackberry, but QWERTY keyboard not as user friendly. It is a compromise between compact and user friendly. If you will text or email allot not a good item. For common use it is great.

I got this phone thinking it was an 8100 when in fact it's an 8130 (yes!!!) It was perfectly priced by the seller and is in awesome condition. The camera on this phone is phenomenal! The screen is crisp, the sure type technology is great, it's sleek and just the right size. The scroll ball is perfect and you can adjust this phone in every way to suit your preferences. I LOVE my new Blackberry Pearl!

I was looking forward to my new BlackBerry 8100, unfortunately, 1 month after I received it I tried the usb charge included with the purchase - it was not working. 1 more month after that, the phone stopped charging from the wall charger. Now (6 months since purchase) I can hear callers, but they can't hear me - basically, the phone is no longer usable. There were a few other quarks, but I could live with them. The fact that callers can no longer hear me and lack of charging options (from originally sent accessories, the phone is able to charge through car charger only).

I was so excited with the purchase and it came as fast as I expected, but as described above, the phone itself has been very disappointing.