With more multimedia, a camera and a new trackball, the Pearl is poised to attract new users to the BlackBerry platform. Will it leave RIM veterans wishing for days past?
Review summary of the RIM BlackBerry Pearl:
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 The smallest and lightest of all the Blackberry phones -- and the first to arrive with a built-in camera -- scores with its potent mix of messaging and PIM abilities, but its eponymous Pearl trackball gave us headaches. And while the handset's multimedia features and friendly main menu may draw in plenty of RIM newbies, they'll be scratching their heads once they dig into the typically arcane, text-only submenus, calendars and contact lists. Release: September 2006. Price: $80.
Pros: Striking design; push e-mail; first camera in a RIM device; great battery life; well-rounded IM capabilities
Cons: Ugly lower-level menus; steep learning curve on SureType keypad; new trackball can be tricky to use
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Full RIM BlackBerry Pearl Review:
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Competition
Find out how well the RIM BlackBerry Pearl competes with similar business phones:
RIM BlackBerry Pearl vs. Motorola Q vs. Samsung SGH-i607
Calling - Very good
Speaker-independent voice dialing has at long last been added to the Blackberry platform. Though it struggled with nuanced pronunciations, the recognition engine was adept at handling longer commands (such as "call mom at work") or taking full phone numbers. Talk time is better than ever on the Pearl, at more than 6 hours. Unfortunately, our review unit suffered from static on both ends of the call, from the handset itself and the wired headset. Bluetooth calling and the speakerphone were both adequate, and unaffected by the problem. Call conferencing was not difficult, but managing contact information felt more like dealing with long lists than short, organized chunks.
Messaging - Very good
As expected, the Pearl excels at messaging: you get instant, push access to corporate Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Domino servers, as well as popular Web and POP/IMAP service (up to 10 accounts total). Instant messaging has been improved on the Pearl over previous Blackberry devices. While users were originally stuck using Blackberry's own messenger, now users can choose between MSN, Yahoo, AIM, or ICQ. The SureType keys won't be as efficient as a full keypad, and they took some time to get used to, but even in a short period the software could be observed learning common inputs and choices. That said, after two days the Pearl's word recognition software still didn't remember the word "infosyncworld" on the first try.
Scheduling - Good
RIM junkies accustomed to the jog dial on older BlackBerrys may have problems navigating the text-heavy menus using the Pearl's new trackball. We found it all too easy to slide from one day to the next in the daily-view, and difficult to pick out the exact day in the month view. BlackBerry newbies might not mind the trackball as much, but they'll be thrown by the arcane scheduling and contact menus, which is particularly jarring thanks to the lush top-level menus. Calendar synchronization -- whether performed wirelessly or using the bundled software -- remains easy as ever.
Multimedia - Mediocre
The Pearl's much-touted camera (a first for RIM) and media features aren't bad, but they won’t replace your dedicated devices any time soon. The camera takes 1.3-megapixel photos and has a built-in flash, while the music player supports MP3 and AAC files (no WMA support yet, although RIM says it's coming soon.) For video, most popular file types other than WMV are supported -- just don't expect to stream video over the phone's 2.5G EDGE connection. Our biggest complaint will be with the media player itself, which is incapable of skimming through a track or providing any substantial options beyond pause and stop. You can transfer music to the Pearl over Bluetooth or USB, but the file manager lacks an easy user interface for managing tunes or syncing playlists. Meanwhile, the RIM browser still can't display Web pages in a wide desktop format -- indeed, it would have been nice to see the wheel used for some advanced (or even basic) scrolling functions on the browser.
Price and availability
Available September 12 on T-Mobile, the BlackBerry Pearl will sell for $199 with a two-year contract.
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