BlackBerry Pearl 8100
Phone Scoop Review
Oct 26, 2006 by Eric Lin
Our In Depth review of the sleek BlackBerry Pearl consumer messaging phone. NEW: video review added. read review ›
User Reviews
Average Ratings
excellent email phone
This is an edit to tompalm's review.
Blackberry made a mistake when they put the letters on the each key. They simulated a computer keyboard and put the letters like "QW" over the far left button and the letters "ER" over the number 1 button. Most phones have "ABC" over the letter 1. Although I typed 50 wpm, I don't know where the letter R is unless I spend time looking at the phone.
The trackball is not as easy to use as the the standard phone that has four buttons around a center button to insert info.
Overall, the phone works great once you get it all figured out. It is a lot different than what we are use too and Blackberry would have been better keeping it simple. I will still keep it, but this phone could have been made a lot more user friendly.
overrated...
i got the blackberry pearl after i broke my motorola rizr z3. this phone really [...]. i had a blackberry curve before the rizr and that was one of the best phones i have ever owned (that was my 1st bb). so i decided to get the pearl since it was cheap and i liked the curve so much so i thought i would like this phone too. WRONG!!
PROS
-small
-charges by usb
-got it for 60 bucks
CONS
-suretype (hate it so much on this phone)
-small screen
-freezes all the time
-not loud at all
-doesnt ring and vibrate at the same time (even my 10 dollar samsung t219 does that)
-software is so slow
-media player sucks (way better on the curve)
-2.5mm headphone jack (my curve had 3.5mm and on this phone i cant use the headphones from my nokia 5300)
-camera [...] (2 mp on my rizr and curve)
-weak vibrate (compared to my verizon vx8300 but thats too strong)
-way more than this but dont feel like typing them
i only gave this phone a 2 because its a blackberry and its good for e-mail and web browsing. other than that, its not worth it. get a shadow or a sidekick or a curve or any thing besides this p.o.s.
Ed. note: Removed profanity
Is there a word stronger than 'hate'?
I wish there were a way to express my utter vitriol with a word stronger than 'hate'. I have had a number of crappy phones (and good ones as well) but I have never had the strong, gut-based, intense, visceral loathing for any appliance of any type that I have for this phone. The fact is that it might very well have some merit but it continues to load itself up with promise and under, _under_, UNDER deliver in every respect I could ever imagine. Everything from the spotty service, the dropped calls (I live in NY City - this has NEVER been a problem before), the fact that the profiles some times work, and the horrendous, painful predictive text. I'll take it all back if anyone can tell me when "u'm" is preferable to "I'm". This phone loads up the options and, to be honest, it would be better if they just failed. Then at least I would know that they don't work. But they some times do work and then some times do fail. This is also a work phone and its just not worth the risk. I was better off with any of the phones I've had before - even those I had the pleasure to hate. I dream of the days when I merely hated my phone...
its okay
the blackberry pearl isn't all that great but its not a bad phone. my volume broke about a month after i got it though.
pros:
-i almost always have service, and rarely have dropped calls.
-alot of memory
- easy to use
- loud rings
cons:
- phone calls quiet
- the led light in the corner is extremely annoying
- texting with suretype goes very slow and is semi hard to use
- if you have big fingers you cant text
- big
- moderately heavy
This cookie is going back to the store
We just picked up the 8100 at the mall tonight. My wife needed something to read her email online and be able to communicate from Asian countries. I didn't trust Verizon getting their act together, so we bit the bullet and moved to AT&T and the Pearl. She knew a couple of people using the Pearl and they had told her how much they loved it. So we bought the red one. Turns out the the red phone, besides being a different color, would seem to have different software. We can even find some of the icons listed in the user guide. This machine should never have gotten beyond quality control, much less been sold.
The salesman recommended that we load the desktop software and then download the new phone software. Loading the desktop software is easy, it only give about 5 error message, but then downloading the Software Patch Kit 2 for the desktop software is over 200MB. I've done less work to get major software systems on real computers. Life is too short of this sort of nonsense! The red machine is going back to AT&T!!
dc
Reasons to not get the Blackberry pearl
Carrier: T-Mobile
Switching from: Cingular
Old Phone: Nokia 3595
Not sure if the lack of software features is because of what T-Mobile selected but would have thought that BB would have done better.
The phone works ok but:
CON:
If you are a power user and you want an all in one integrated phone device then don't get a BlackBerry Pearl unless you are a developer because all of the features I mention below are software problems not
hardware.
Can't copy an attachment from email to your media card.
Can't flag a message for follow up.
Appointment does not have a way to set the profile to either a default of silent or per appointment setting.
No time of day profiles. No timed profiles.
Can't set up a conference call appointment with someone via the address book.
Could do this with my Nokia 3595.
Workaround is to copy the phone no. into the meeting location. This is a real pain.
Can't read pdf or doc from the media card after loading the beamberry app.
Blackberry customer support isn't any help here either in fixing this.
Can't delete app. Off of your phone unless you have a computer.
In the menu key now that I have updated the phone it does not remember where it was in the menu tree when you come back to it.
They limit what app you can switch to when you are in an app (ie email, phonebook etc)
The back keeps falling off.
Fails to supply an on screen dialpad mode to let you dial digits by their letter alternatives.
It can't autolock the keyboard after a certain amount of idle time.
Final Statement:
I really don't think I am being to picky but I did buy an all in one phone for the purpose of having all of the capabilities of a PDA. I thought that was what Blackberry meant to make. This is just software so they can fix it if they want to!!!
GREAT PHONE!
I have service with Cingular and had the Motorola Slvr before switching to the pearl. The change in texting took a little getting used to, but hardly any time at all! I got the phone right at Cingular's release of it in the beginning of December and love it! I have recently purchased the red one from cingular and am now using that! The only con I have found is I cannot figure out how to bluetooth stuff from another phone to my pearl, it says file type not supported with everything! I wish it had video too. But for the first blackberry with a camera it is great. Also cingular's has push to talk, so i can walkie talkie with others who have it. It is such a great phone I even convinced my mom is get one, as well as a friend of mine. Also I work for Cingular and we have not had ANY complaints on it. It is also durable, Trust me there is only good things to say about this phone!!!
I am old school and have owned all major phones
this is by far the best phone I've ever owned....I have not been this excited since the Mot Star tech! The Razor, yes it is a beautiful phone and I owned one...but, now my 13 year old has one and all her friends.....I am so over that phone and is mass production!
Excellent phone, minor problems
First off, this is probably the one of the best phones i have owned so far. Phone is very slim without compromising to much screen size and easily portable unlike other web/e-mail enabled devices i've previously owned. The only major thing i have a gripe with, that still isn't to big a deal due to work arounds is, on the phone is that lack of being able to view Picture MMS' on the phone, the fact you can't record video with the phone, and movies that are played on the device can not be played full screen.
PROS:
-Excellent screen, visability is very good even outside when the sun is shining on the device.
-Browsing through the device is a breeze due to trackball, incredibly user friendly interface.
-Setting up E-Mail on the device litterally could not get any easier. Someone would have to do it for you in order for it to be
-Music and Video playback sounds really good when listening through the included stereo headphones.
-Camera on the device is actually very good. 1.3MP camera that can save the pictures in resolution up to 1280x1024.
-Tons of software to download for the device ranging from instant stock quote software, to Remote Control software for you tv/garage door/stereo.
Cons:
-Someone sends you A Picture MMS, can not view it directly, must go to providers web picture server. (Side Note: Can view pictures included with an e-mail so that is a sort of work around for it.)
-Video can not be played full screen on the device. Play/Pause bar takes up a significant portion of the screen while playing.
-Web browser included with the phone has some minor limitation with java scripts. (Note: Can download Opera Mini for free of charge and works very well, haven't had any problem with it thus far.)
-Web browsing on the phone is not as fully fleshed out as it is with phones such as the MDA, or Dash. Viewing pictures larger that 240x260 is almost not possible
-Not stereo Bluetooth compatible. Would of been really sweet if it were.
Am I the only one?
Cons: I cannot believe the great ratings people give this phone. The keyboard stinks. The interface of the menu is light years behind just about every other phone on the market. The ringers can barely be heard and you have should we say extremely limited choice of ringers. Cannot hear them anyway.
Pros: Beautiful design. Very elegant looking. Best camera for taking pictures I have ever used. Love the way you can set it to turn on and off all by itself.
I think Blackberry makes much better phones than this one and I will never understand one hign grade on this unit. I have owned many cell phones and this one will never be owned by me or anyone else I can protect from wasting their money. Of course, this review may only be my opinion and maybe no one else will ever agree, but for cell phone aficionado's, stay away!
