The BlackBerry Pearl was announced at WES 9100 3G again just a short month, and is about ready for prime time. It builds on earlier Pearl RIM families with an updated HVGA display, optical trackpad to the now-dissolved trackball to replace a new 3.2-megapixel camera with flash, and is the first BlackBerry with Wi-Fi 802.11n Host .
From the Bold 9000, I was prepared to miss the luxurious screen size, but reminded me of my time with the original Pearl 8100 fondly, mostly in reference to pocketable as it was and how fast I was with the SureType keyboard. Wi-Fi-n was a great train, and I was curious to see how much better it was used as the Wi-Fi on the vast majority of handsets in the past I.
Hardware
First of all, to say that the BlackBerry Pearl 3G are extremely well built. The different parts are very close together, and the keyboard is much tighter than I remember the old Pearl. Build quality aside, the 9100 has mad style. We will get into this a bit. First, the hard product information.
So, back to looks. The chrome accent is beautiful and dark, and not so disgusting silver than other BlackBerrys. The rubberized sidings and seamlessly integrated convenience keys (similar to the 8520 and Curve 8530) add a ton of grip and flexibility. The lines are both sharp and curvy and reminds me very much of the Xperia X10. The battery compartment takes the same single-slate style as the 8500-series BlackBerry, what are my favorite since it is the number of moving parts to fiddle with minimized. Not all moving parts are bad, but – is there a new under the battery cover, you pop out the SIM card easily without having to dig and pry to. It is much better than the hinge that most other BlackBerry devices are packing.
As beautiful as the size, it is not really so much bigger than the first bead, as here, can check the iPhone and BlackBerry 8120 in comparison. a very nice medium – it is a fair amount of weight, without too heavy was. As far as input is, the optical trackpad, although supposedly a step up from the earlier track ball, Fritze even in direct sunlight. This is almost as inconvenient as sometimes put more sand on the track ball, really. RIM two letters per key SureType keyboard has a learning curve to it, so be prepared.
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Like most predictive systems, you must learn to trust the dictionary to find out what it is trying to say. There is a big subject with SureType: If you type something wrong is your word incorrectly predicted, and probably confused the word worse than if you screwed a single letter on a QWERTY keyboard. If you are comfortable with the forecast, you might want in the 9105-variant, which could have a standard number pad this function mobile phone users more comfortable with the look has. We are not sure if that will be exclusive for Europe, 9105 right now but we are so advised.
Software
You can view the entire list of new features in 5.0 see here at RIM’s Knowledge Base. In a broad sense, it has a lot of graphical improvements and is generally smooth and pleasant, but of course that depends largely on what you’re used to. BlackBerry is still a clear, no-nonsense experience, geared to help you, tasks done fast, not pretty. If you’re coming from Android, iPhone or webOS, you will probably quite unimpressed with the layout of the serious and seemingly antiquated icon menu system, but take some time to learn its nuances and efficiency.
What kind of efficiency are we talking here? Well, let’s look at the news application where people spend most of their time to search. Out of the box it only handles e-mail, but after fiddling with the options that you can get SMS messages in there. Once you start to download official RIM applications, such as Google Talk, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, your messages app is much more quickly than e-mail – it will be a hub for all your important means of communication. Most of these applications also plug in your address book so you can see information from a variety of sources, such as caller ID pictures from Facebook and GTalk status messages gathered. The media app, you can quickly and easily capture images that support in any social networks. If you do not like digging through menus for what you feel, pull up you can often get a short menu by clicking on the touchpad and it usually offers the most tasks and even emphasizes the most common initial rapid double-enable on to take care of business. See, it’s the little things.
I’ve been using BlackBerry for a while, so if someone calls the OS unintuitive, I have to agree a really hard time. I can certainly see how a lot of options can be overwhelming, but if the options that you use regularly, it is difficult to find a faster, easier way to get them to imagine. Still, if you are concerned that the BlackBerry would have experience to be complicated for you, I would be shocked if the new OS 6.0 and all its streamlined interface and shiny effect, not the concept was on the BlackBerry Pearl available 9100th It is also worth mentioning that the App-selection (and prices) for BlackBerry is far from stellar. If you are coming from the iPhone App World is definitely left wondering what you signed a new two-year contract. You probably will not reimburse you for new applications every other week. If you’re lucky, you’ll find something useful to once every few months, and even then you may need to budget your application memory depending on how desperate you are to start for new applications.
Remember that shortcuts damn life much easier, and there are some subtle, seamless things that RIM does, make your life easier when typing. For example, when typing an e-mail address, first hit space bar is in an @-sign and the second is a point. Capitals and be automatically usually, and there are a number of keyboard shortcuts to the navigation easier to use – be sure to learn it early, and they are second nature to be in a very short time.
Multimedia
The Web browser is just about as ho-hum as ever, it does the job, it chokes a little less on JavaScript than before, and the trackpad feels a bit nicer to use for cursors, but I find the whole thing awkward cursor to and bulky. I wish the browser would only snap links and scroll down automatically, as the Google Mobile App handles it, maybe it will at least be an option for them in the revised browser … I’m still waiting for Flash support, so I can finally see YouTube videos from the mobile site that works is not yet any reason for me. In the meantime, there are always third party alternatives such as Bolt and Opera Mini.
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Currently microSD cards out with 16 GB cap, so hard-core music fans will probably still want a separate music player, but for me, and casual listeners, 16 GB is enough. As controls to the media, I have found it a little uncomfortable. If you slide the phone in your pocket or a holster, you are most likely to push down from the top of the device so that accidental presses on one of the controls more than likely. On most other BlackBerry devices, you need only ask the Pause Play (Mute) button in the way so that the title will be skipped to press and hold the volume buttons on the side. I understand RIM be visible label their cell phones as a music-friendly, but I feel in this case they may have sacrificed too much.
The 3.2-megapixel camera with flash performs quite well, as you can see – here’s another picture in daylight. I would have liked a few more options, like to see the manual adjustment of exposure and agriculture, but as it is, much of the automatic settings you can manage your daily use. I’m itching to try the BlackBerry 9670 clamshell, if only for the 5-megapixel camera – are of course only for pixels that much. Lenses, sensors and software are equally important. One thing I am happy to continue with the right side convenience key (default for the camera) can see, press a two-level, so you can activate the auto focus without shooting. This is still a relatively new feature, but it also has Storm2.
Signal strength and battery life
Of the half dozen or so calls I made, none was, and heard everything just fine. Battery life felt a little better than the Bold 9000, but that’s probably because it loses its charge after two years of intensive use. The 9100 battery succeeded by a day of moderate use only fine, usually get a little left over for the next morning when it turned off overnight. What I was really interested but had Wi-Fi 802.11n.
This is the next class of Wi-Fi from g, and the highest we have now. In theory, n bump rates up to 600 Mbit /s, a significant jump of 54 Mbit /s, that b and g offered, on top of an increase in range. Unfortunately, in my tests with the 9000 and 9100 side by side, I found zero difference at all. In some cases, the Bold had even better range. I can only imagine that the battery and processor power to act as a major bottleneck, but the bottom line is that you should not really count on 802.11n, their purchase decision. It is good that RIM has to interoperability, it’s just too bad that it does not really take advantage of the higher speeds.
Conclusion
What really got me at the end of my time with the BlackBerry Pearl 9100 is 3G, it’s really the fullest possible experience BlackBerry bear little or no compromise in the interest of size. The reduced screen size, if a necessary evil, is offset by the convenience and portability of a slimmer handset. The SureType keyboard takes training, and will not feel like it is worth it for the first few weeks, but over time you can type as fast as on a standard QWERTY keyboard. I did not quite get back in my best speeds again, and still stumbled on irregular words and typos, but I only had less than a week to play with him.
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So, pick up the 3G BlackBerry Pearl should be 9100? People who can juggle many balls, but wish to be recognized immediately as an office monkey chained to their BlackBerry. The Pearl form factor is always an excellent job of camouflage as a “normal” phone – the 9105 and its keypad is a clear allusion to such status. Personally, I do not mind a big fat phone, but for those who want the BlackBerry Pearl 3G you will be treated well. The screen is excellent, the software in very handy, and the housing incredibly stylish, but it’s not much more than a smaller version of the Bold 9700
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