BlackBerry Pearl

[LS8]

Hey folks. I am looking at the BlackBerry Pearl to replace my current phone (Treo 650). Sprint is offering me a certain $ ammount off since I have been a customer so long (5 years).

My question is really to anyone who has moved from a Treo (any model) to the Pearl. Was the lack of a full keyboard hard to adjust to? What about not having a stylus? Any other querks about this phone I should be aware of?

I have read a bunch of reviews online but first had opinions are usually better. Let me know what you think. Unless I hear anything outrageous I'll probably be picking up the phone sometime in the next week or so.

Thanks!

 

[DivideBYZero]

I've had the 8100, 8110 and 8120 versions of the Pearl. I really liked it and it was, until I got my Bold, the best Smartphone I have ever used.

See sig though.

 

[dainthomas]

Why not wait until the Curve comes out with GPS and Wifi? Sometime in November I believe.

Not sure if I'd like the whole Suretype thing.

 

[LS8]

Well, part of the reason I am looking at the Pearl is that I want something that isn't as wide as a traditional smartphone. The Curve is pretty wide (as wide as a Treo).

 

[minendo]

I went from a BlackJack to a Pearl. It took about 20 minutes to get used to the multitap feature. I, like you, switched because I wanted a smaller phone.

 

[grimlykindo]

I was sceptical about the 8120 that I recently bought but after a day or two I was obsessed. The smaller size is what makes it so great - the big square blackberrys are so unattractive to me. People look so nerdy attaching them to belts and carrying them around! The screen is surprisingly clear and bright and the SureType feature is very accurate with the split up keyboard. Google maps is amazing and you can get the opera mini browser that is much better then the BB browser. I'm posting this from my pearl at my desk at work!

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

My gf has the Pearl, and I have the Curve. She went from a Chocolate rev 2 previously and loves it for the most part. She is having some issues with it, but they are related to her individual phone. I have used it a few times, and going from full size keyboard to that one took about 30 seconds to be able to use it effectively, and ~15 min to be decent at typing on it.

What about waiting for the Kickstart?

 

[drbrock]

I loved the pearl when I had it with tmobile. If I could get it on sero I would get another one. The only problem is with typing long emails. the suretype thing gets annoying for long messages. But the Pearl is the best non traditional smart phone out there.

 

[QueBert]

I picked up a 8100 a few days ago, not a bad phone but I don't see why people get so excited over these things. My favorite feature is the Voice Dial, which is oddly enough what I have the biggest grip about. It does a remarkable job of knowing names in my phone book, it's almost scary how accurate it will be on weird names. But, I can't get the damn thing to understand "yes" half the time lol.

the screen is pretty crummy, it takes what seems like 10 minutes to boot up when you remove the battery. The selection of software you can buy for it is kind of lame, and a few of the apps I wanted cost $20-$30 bucks to do simple sh!t like full screen caller id pic.

I had a Q, which isn't a Palm phone and doesn't have the touch screen, but the keyboard on the Pearl is weird, the small size has me thinking regular phone so I'm looking for ABC/DEF layout. I'm sure I'll adjust in a few more days but QWERTY on something this small just doesn't seem right. And I honestly don't believe even when I get comfortable with it, that it will be any faster for me to type on than a regular phone with T9. I could be wrong though...

I do like the shape and size of it, and the scroll ball is definitely different. Not a bad phone, works great with my Plantronics 925 BT headset.

 

[Jawo]

I just got the phone...an upgrade over a Motorola e815 (flip phone). I never was able to effectively text message due to the letter layout (alpha order). With the predictive text, it works sweet when you are typing common / frequently used words. You can also put it in multi-tap mode if you like it better, plus its more of a real keyboard layout. It all depends on what your used to though and what platform your coming from. Its not a very large physical screen, but pretty large resolution, if you want a wide screen, get the Curve/Bold.

There is an amazing selection of software for it (mostly FREE) that I have found over on Howard Forums or a simple Google search. The Google tools are sweet...GPS directions from your current location to an address, voice search for local attractions (say pizza...and it will return local pizza places). Alas, it doesn't have spoken turn by turn directions, but still its cool. There's endless RSS readers, Viigo, Google Reader, et al; News from Google, WSJ, etc. The only game that's included is brick breaker, but there's more to add. I find its more intuitive than using WM on an PDA, not to mention an easy to use cut and paste!

I like being able to charge from the computer, and a near-universal charger tip (damn you Moto and the stupid plug on the e815).

 

[addragyn]

Great phone. Form factor, keypad, intuitive, battery life, ui speed & USB charging. And it's gotten better. Headphone jack is now standard size. GPS and WiFi are options. Flip is coming.

The keypad is a great compromise between T9 and qwerty. I grew to really like it. Going to T9 or an iPhone was really irritating. Back to the Pearl.

 

[QueBert]

wait is battery life a plus addragyn? my 8100 dies FAST! My Motorola Q had better battery life, and the battery in it was smaller. I like my Pearl (so far) but the battery life is horrible, 3.5 hours of talk time urks me. I ordered the bootleg extended battery because I was sick of charging it every day (I don't use it that much even...)

as for intuitive I don't know... with the default theme the only way I could figure out to access the camera was to assign it to a side button, the "media" icon isn't in my default theme either and I'm unsure if there's a shortcut you can use to access it. I finally figure out what to do when i changed the theme, but it was making no sense I couldn't pull up a menu of all the icons, regardless of if they're apart of the theme or not. I suppose if one uses BB's fot a good while they'll seem intuitive, but for a n00b like me a lot of the stuff is "WTF?" so far. I'm adjusting but it's not going totally smoothy. My Q I picked it up and could do pretty much whatever without the manual. My mom who hardly knows how to turn on a PC could figure out an iPhone. I wouldn't give her a Pearl ever tough

I do like the form factor, and aside from the SD slot being behind the battery I like the phone overall. Just adjusting to the weird interface and lack of logical layout for it.

 

[addragyn]

I've been very happy with the battery life with my 3G Blackberrys. I have noticed the CDMA versions do not last as long. It's never been an issue, which I like. Can't give numbers, it's just the fact that I've never had to worry about it. I do plug the phone in when I go to sleep.

It's not a brilliant UI but it's a very effective and efficient UI. I found it quick to use and quick to pickup. I really don't care about media/camera so never paid attention to it. But I'm positive the default setting is that the right side button will open the camera app and then take pictures. That's pretty standard across brands.

You choose a theme that gives you front page access to what you want. One press of menu button and you have all apps/options available. Not being able to customize themes on phone is lame.

SD is on the side on all newer versions.

The iPhone is slick. It's also irritating as hell. Until we can swype on touchscreens I'll stick with a keypad.