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
BEST PHONE EVER HAD
The Blackberry Pearl is just the perfect phone. I haven't encountered any major flaws that couldn't be fixed with a little troubleshooting. I've had many other phones and the Blackberry Pearl tops them all.
Best Phone I've Ever Used
It's got everything I want. There's not much that it cannot do. The main thing I use it for is getting email from my yahoo account instantaneously, up to 10 email accounts from just about any provider. I can attach photos I've taken and send it right away via email. I also do a lot of web browsing on it. It has a decent camera, sms, voice dialing so you don't have to push the buttons, email browsing and multimedia features as well like videos, mp3s, ringtones and you could personalize it with wallpapers. I download videos from google videos on it and share it with all my friends and we bluetooth transfer videos, pics, songs and ringtones between each other. The videos has to be converted to fit the pearl format though. It isn't so hard to do. Just google for blackberry video converter or go to http://www.seabyrdtech.com/bbvideo for the FREE app. GUI based and very easy to use. Install it and then you can convert any videos you want that you could get your hands on. There's some free Pearl-enabled videos you could download from there too. I download videos from google videos all the time and put them on my Pearl in the video folder. Got a few DVD movies on my Pearl now and enjoying that when I'm riding in the car or something. Found a site that has lots of FREE ringtones and wallpapers at http://www.tuneusin.com so check it out.
Oh and you could also do IM and play games on it too. All in all - just has so many features you could use all in the palm of your hand. I got it because I want everything in one device that I could carry anywhere with me. Most important being my addressbook with all my contacts and reminders and tasks and calendaring stuff that I need always on me and on the go and of course my music albums and videos, especially of the ones I take of my kids that I convert and put on the Pearl so that they will always be with me wherever I go. That is priceless.
JKC
it glows!!!!
WOW!! first of all, i have to say i am a gadget lover. specially in mobile stuff. and this phone
Totally ROCK!!
phones i have owned are
BB 8703e
motorola krazr, razr, Q
samsung D500
LG chocolate slider, flip
here are my pros and cons.
PROS
1. screen : nice and crisp
2. trackball : it is just awesome, your thumb will appreciate this.
3. slim size
4 solid performance : im so sick and tired of
window mobile
5. reception : very very stable
6. USB connection
CONS
1. speaker phone : it is very loud but it has
a little distortion
2. EDGE : i was with verizon and used evdo service. it could be faster.
3. suretype : it is little annoying at first time, but you will get adjust to it.
well ive been using this phone about a month.
and i got to tell you, you will LOVE this phone. you can synch with outlook not having any problems. email service is fantastic. it is almost instant.
since apple will launches iPohne in june, im not sure i will have this for how long. but
im very happy with what im having now.
Blackberrys Best
Without question, the finest Blackberry released by RIM. I'll admit, the first day I had it, I didnt enjoy it... especially the smart text. It took some getting used too, and that wasnt a long process.
I've had it for 3 weeks, and here are my thoughts...
PROS
-It has the best phone/talk feature of any PDA I've used.
-The Camera takes great pictures.
-For a PDA, the battery life is pretty decent
-Nice glossy finish (also a con, see below)
-The trackball is GREAT, love it.
-The preloaded map feature has come in very handy
-Ringer and sound is very loud
-Great bluetooth connections
-The Size!
-The screen clarity and color is great!
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CONS
-The glossy finish smears very easy.
-The back battery cover seems to slide off somewhat easy... doesnt lock in place well.
-Trackball has locked up on me a few times, power cycling the phone seemed to fix it.
---------
As you can see, the cons were few and far from the pros. Wonderful phone.
My first BlackBerry
I've had it since launch, so about 3 months. Overall I find it to be a great phone. I've never had a BlackBerry before, and never wanted one before this one. The slim, sexy form was the first thing that caught my eye, and when I found out RIM added a camera AND memory card slot, I was really impressed. The camera is clean, the zoom is great, but no video capture! That was a big set back from my SDA. They put small videos on the BB home page, but other .avis I put on my memory card don't seem to work. The email is very easy compared to Windows based phones I've used, big ups. I also like the web browser, I'de give it a 7/10. The resolution is great, but some sites like MySpace look off.
The trackball is clean, and the button layout is much better then the old BBs with side scrolls. The voice dialing is great because you dont have to train it, but you do have to pronunciate a bit. Bluetooth is cool but some problems with transfering songs from my Mac to the phone have come up, only small files (under one Meg) can go, and they show as being "0.00" in time, but still plays. Sending from the phone is good.
I've had only one freeze up, and a couple times when I have a lot of applications open the small hour glass shows up and it gets frustrating to deal with. This is only about 15% of my total experience, the other 85% is really good.
I'm going 4/5 because I can see a few ways to improve this device, but if it does get those improvements, I can see this series being my favorite ever...
Gotta Love It!!
This is an absolutle fabulous phone. It is definitely "bringing sexy back" to the Blackberry. This is my very first Blackberry and I am more than happy.
PROS:
Look, style, feel, email, texting, camera, MP3, web browser, weight...must I go on?
CONS:
My only con to this phone is that the ringer is definitely not loud enough and the ringers preloaded to the phone are so blah! They sound like someone sat down at one of the electronic keyboards and just recorded a bunch of crap-lol. But of course that can be fixed with a few downloads.
As you can see from the reviews, you really cant go wrong with this phone. Its well worth the investment!
Best Phone Ive Ever Had
I've been using the pearl well over two months now and i have to admit, there is no better phone. I love this phone to death and seriously i cannot even begin to question how i lived without this phone. I have had a lot of phones in the past, and nothing has been better to me than the Pearl. There is no other phone out there that is this cheap and works this well. I suggest you go out and get one.
My New Favorite
I work in the cell phone business. I am a sales rep so I've played with or carried several phones over my tenure here. I was given a Pearl to try out for a couple of weeks and to be honest, I didn't want to give it up! It was the most versatile and user-friendly phone I have ever carried. I have used earlier versions of the Blackberry and often became tired of using the trackwheel on the side of the phone and the buttons were too small to maneuver my fingernails around. However, the trackball in the middle of the phone is terribly easy to use and is, in many ways, a much for convenient place to place a trackwheel. Also, the Sure-Type function on the keyboard makes the buttons large enough for me to use. Many men enjoy this function as well.
This Blackberry also ups the "fun factor." Finally, a Blackberry with a camera! The resolution is great and I love the zoom feature. The mp3 player is also great, but I would recommend buying a memory card because its internal memory is lousy (as is with most phones).
Its small form also makes it seem more like a phone and less like a PDA. I hate talking on a brick and the Pearl is so lightweight and small that it feels like I am actually talking on a phone.
As I used the phone there were few software issues and everything seemed to work together flawlessly. If you are considering this phone I can honestly give you my best recommendation on this phone!
Pretty much the best phone I have had.
I work for a cellphone carrier, so I see a lot of phones and use almost all of them. I have had a fair amount on phones over the years, and after having a Sony Ericsson S710a for a year, which I consider the best phone I have ever owned, I decided I needed a PDA phone. I went with the 8125 for about 4 months, but I needed more email access, and smaller phone. I had been waiting for the Pearl to come out for Cingular, and used a 7130c for a week or so, due to a contest.
The first thing I love about the Pearl is the size. I don't mind wearing a hip holster at work, but when I am out in my normal clothes, I hate it. This phone drops in my pocket perfectly. The navigation with the trackball is wonderful and very accurate. I have never had an email or internet problem with the phone, nor a signal problem. The Bluetooth works flawlessly and the voicedial makes my world so much easier.
As for the camera, it isn't the best, but I am a digital photographer, and my 10+ megapixel Nikon is a hard one to beat. I have yet to use the media player for mp3's as I have an iPod, but the sound quality is good.
If there is one gripe, it is the size of the keyboard because I sometimes hit wrong keys. My manager had the phone and loved it, but he has fat fingers and ended up returning it, waiting for the rumored 'full QWERTY' version of the Pearl.
For anyone who is looking to get emails and surf the web, but do not need to edit documents and Excel files, this is the perfect blend of professional options and consumer features.
My first comment and probably only one.
My carrier is from Cingular.
Comparing this from BB 7130 to this new BB 8100.
This has less battery life, weaker speaker, weaker volume and just about everything its weaker than the 7130.
Yes, with new Camera and memory slot are great features but sticking to the original idea of BB this is NOT better than blackjack.
With BB suing Samsung for very stupid reasons, I think they are not losing their focus.
I had and used it all, from Palm to Any windows mobile phone from Cingular.
But I guess, I expected too much and comparing to Blackjack this is not any better.
