Blackberry Pearl
It’s been a while since Blackberry debuted their new “Star”, the Blackberry Pearl. As many dedicated Blackberry fans did, I jumped on the bandwagon and grabbed one within a week of its release. What a great phone the Pearl has been. I must state that this is my first Blackberry I have ever owned and I’m glad I chose this as my first. There are some things I like and don’t like so far about it though. Allow me to discuss in a bit more detail.
LIKES
- I love the compact size of this jam packed phone. Many people see it and say “Oh, it looks so nice” but have no idea it’s a Blackberry and what its capable of :]
- Really like the media player which allows me to listen to some music if I like, watch some videos (I put song long snowboarding videos in for those long ski trips), and go through my pics very easily
- One of the strongest points on this phone would have to be its battery life. It’s surpassed my expectations. I use the phone an average amount a day (web browsing, some IM, texting, and some phone calls) and it can last me a good 3+ days without charging. If there are days when I dont really use it much, it goes even longer. I am very impressed
- The speaker on the Blackberry Pearl is pretty good. It does seem to get a bit scratchy if its set to a high volume and the person on the other end is a bit of a loud talker. Other then that, I would say its acceptable
DISLIKES
I would have to say I don’t really have any. I love its shape and form. All the new features it came with as well like the media player, camera (which is actually pretty good in the right light setting).
Overall, I’m very happy with mine!
Do you like/dislike yours? Why? Let us know!
on April 13th, 2007 at 4:26 am
I just purchased a Pearl about a week ago and I will agree that the phone is great. Web browsing, texting and the likes have gone very smoothly and work well. Because I have Cingular, I do get a lot of dropped calls with the Pearl. Almost twice as much as when I had a base Nokia phone. The phone though is great. Like I said, I have no problems accessing internet or e-mail.
I do have two things to gripe over. First, the Pearl is a very pretty phone so I want to protect it. I bought a plastic housing which works great (I’ve dropped the phone a few times and no scratches) but makes it hard to type e-mails and read the side of the screen. I’m looking for another casing which still allows easy access to the screen and the keypad. Secondly, I’ve had pretty dismal battery life. It hasn’t been a problem because I have a car charger as well, and the phone charges quickly, but in a day I’ll use about 75-80% of my battery. Keep in mind that I keep bluetooth on in the car, internet is always on, and I have the screen set to highest and longest visibility.
But, great phone. I’m very happy about it. Been finding a lot of ways to customize it with ringtones and custom made wallpapers from my own pictures.
on April 13th, 2007 at 9:44 am
Great response, thanks for contributing :]
As for your battery life problem, try some of these things. You did point out that you max out the settings on things like brightness and keeping your bluetooth on but I will give tell you my settings. Try it out for a few days and see if you notice a difference:
- I put the auto off feature (screen shuts off) to 5 seconds or so (maybe 10?)
- I have my brightness set to the mid level
- I dont have bluetooth so unless you stop using it… that wont change for ya :]
- If you use aim, try disconnecting when not using it
My phone lasts about 2-3 days with out charging this way. This also takes into account couple of phone calls a day, texting a bit, some internet usage, etc.
With the screen being half as bright, it still gets the job done for me and doesnt seem ‘dimmer’ as I can still read it in any light.
Hope these help, even though they are very basic. :]
on April 17th, 2007 at 3:17 pm
What do you use to clean your blackberry with?
on April 25th, 2007 at 8:46 am
I got the Pearl 8100 a few days ago from Costco. First off, the price I thought was great with all their rebates and stuff. The phone/internet package costs me around 70 bucks a month which I think is reasonable considering I utilize it for messaging IM emails private and work. I think the Blackberry is awesome. The shape, look and feel is sexy. The qwerty style layout is familiar although not recommended if you’ve got fat fingers! I must agree the battery gets used majorly. I generally use 75% battery a day, I’m not a high end user by any means but it does use alot of juice, but then again I charge it at night whilst asleep so it really doesn’t matter. Overall though, I’m really happy with the 8100 Pearl Blackberry and I highly recommend it to anyone that requires email/internet on the go (although not all sites are optimized for the Blackberry which is obvious) and I recommend it to anyone that loves technology. Just keep in mind things like MSN and IM’ging on the BlackBerry usually require a seperate message service, for example mine is 70 bucks a month but for an extra 10 a month I can flog the living daylights out of this pup and get unlimited messeges which cover SMS, MMS and all the IM’ing services the BlackBerry comes with like MSN, Yahoo, AOL etc. Hope this helps!
on April 26th, 2007 at 10:01 pm
I stumbled over this site and it was just what I was looking for
on May 11th, 2007 at 9:56 pm
Where can I find theams for the pearl the ones on the black berry kinda are getting boring
on July 10th, 2007 at 1:14 pm
I just bought this pearl last week & its awesome with unltd net, messaging, mp3 player & all. I’ve received only compliments making me proud 2 show it off. But I don’t like that my calls won’t stay on my recent calls list. They just erase as if I hant made, missed or received any calls, how do u fix this?
on July 13th, 2007 at 1:20 am
Usually you have to do a battery pull. That will always update the phone and usually fixes the calls not showing up in the call list.
on August 13th, 2007 at 3:06 pm
I don’t like the blackberry perl it is stupid I hate it I have gone through 3 I’m about 2 recive my 4th my first one broke with in a month and then my second broke within a lil over a month and I just got this one 3 days ago and the camera broke! It is stupid I want a diff phone but they said no u can’t get a diferant one! Stupid! Hate this phone
on August 18th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
Sounds like Corinna probably didn’t need a BlackBerry in the first place.
on August 23rd, 2007 at 12:54 pm
I’m in love with my Blackberry Pearl. It’s been tremendously helpful in my line of work — no longer checking multiple e-mail accounts every 10 minutes for important e-mails. And the other features… I could go on and on! If only the camera had a microscopic lens. I’m a microbiologist, not crazy. Well, maybe both. I digress. The Blackberry Pearl is a dream and the people who complain about them… I just don’t get them. Cheers!
on September 5th, 2007 at 8:20 pm
Battery Pull, Battery Pull. Everyone keeps talking about it and referring to it all over the internet. Yet, so far….NO ONE has said what it is or how to do it. So, what is a battery pull and what instructions do you suggest so we all know how to do it? Thanks!
on September 13th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
Maybe if Corinna didn’t communicate like a 12 year old with a severe learning disorder, she might appreciate the ease of collaboration that the Pearl enables. If Corinna’s daddy didn’t buy her the right phone, then maybe it’s a point that she didn’t need such a device with capabilities beyond her limited comprehension.
on October 5th, 2007 at 8:40 pm
Thank you for sharing!
on November 7th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article , but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.
on December 12th, 2007 at 7:26 am
I have the blackberry pearl 8100…have had it for about 9-10 months now. For the last few months, my text messages and call logs (missed, received and dialled) get erased periodically. Once it gets erased, if I get a text, it doesnt stay and the calls dont register in the logs till I do a battery pull. The battery pull stops more calls and texts from getting erased and brings back the last dialled calls in June 2007 (weird). This has been happening about twice a month on average. I thought maybe my phone memory was not enough and the phone had to regularly dump information..but I have gotten a media card..and this is still happening. I barely have 2 songs and 4-5 pictures stored on my phone…other than the usual applications that came with the phone. Can anyone offer any solutions/suggestions? The call log is still ok…but its annoying to loose all text messages.