Many people think that Research In Motion (RIM) BlackBerry devices are oversized e-mail devices that hardly anyone would want to use as a mobile phone. But they are wrong. The BlackBerry Pearl 8100 was one of the thinnest and sleekest mobile phones available at the time. BlackBerry Pearl 8100 has wide functionality, such as voice dialing, speakerphone, MP3 support, which can be set as a ringtone for almost any subscriber. In addition, this device is equipped with a standard QWERTY keyboard and the best e-mail capabilities. Of course, there are no ideal mobile devices in the mobile market, but the hero of our review is close to this.
Specifications BlackBerry Pearl 8100
Forget what typical BlackBerry devices look like. Now the BlackBerry Pearl 8100 smartphone has truly miniature dimensions, although the display diagonal has decreased by about a centimeter, but the matrix itself has become clearer and brighter to display colors. The display has a resolution of 240 x 260 pixels and is great for viewing images, web pages and e-mail, especially in small font mode.
The automatic backlight dimming sensor will help you save battery power in some cases. But if you turn on the option of flashing the trackball in various colors when you call, then the battery will drain much faster.
The trackball is pretty easy to use. It is more convenient than various joysticks and navigation buttons. The trackball can scroll horizontally, vertically, and zoom in on the image. Whichever application you are in, clicking on the trackball will certainly be useful. Despite the fact that the trackball glides quite smoothly, thanks to its good sensitivity, you will celebrate how far it needs to be scrolled. You can easily speed up the scrolling, for example if you are playing games and so on.
On the left side of the trackball are the keys for starting the dialing mode and the menu. On the right, the call cancel / hang up key. This arrangement is logical.
The end parts of the device are not covered with various keys. On the right side there is a rocker button, which is used to adjust the volume of the sound, on the top, there is a quick mute button, and one more key on the side ends. On the side there is a hole for attaching a strap. The BlackBerry Pearl 8100 is very lightweight so you can wear it around your neck without any problems. On the back there is a camera peephole, a mirror for taking self-portraits and an LED flash, as well as a connector for a charger.
By replacing the scroll wheel with a trackball, there is a little more free space on the case. In addition, the compact arrangement of the keys made this smartphone so miniature that it is convenient to hold it in the hand. The smartphone supports SureType technology, with this technology the user will enter fewer mistakes when typing. The SureType function remembers corrections and looks for context in the surrounding owls. The quality of this function leaves much to be desired, of course, typing using a full-fledged QWERTY keyboard will be much more convenient, because the device has very small buttons. But I assure you, using such buttons is much more convenient than it might seem at first glance. The buttons are pleasantly pressed. Built-in hot keys save time when typing. In fields where only numbers should be entered, the dialing switches automatically (the same happens when entering a password).
If the above is not enough for you, then the device boasts a number of telephone capabilities, namely: speakerphone, call waiting, showing the caller's photo when a call comes in, support for conference calls and voice dialing of a phone number. Of course, it is better to use the phone book for this, but you can say the phone number that the device will automatically dial without touching the buttons. The phone also has a voice recorder, support for MP3 and MIDI ringtones, and the ability to download music to the phone. Any audio file can be set as an alarm signal.
Multimedia capabilities BlackBerry Pearl 8100
The phone is equipped with a 1.3 megapixel camera module that can take pretty decent shots in natural light. The camera interface is simple and intuitive. A trackball is used to use the zoom function. For the flash, you can set both automatic and manual firing modes. The quality of pictures in natural light is much better than in artificial light. The phone has a slot for microSD memory cards, which is located under the battery, so hot swapping of memory cards is not supported.
The BlackBerry Pearl 8100 media player is the first generation application. The display shows crisp and vivid pictures and videos, but full screen video playback is not supported by the player (although images can be viewed in full screen mode). A trackball is used to control video playback, but rewinding is not supported by this player. BlackBerry Pearl 8100 has good sound quality, both in headphones and in a stereo headset. There is a button on the headset remote to stop playing music, which can be extremely useful in some situations.
Applications in BlackBerry Pearl 8100
In order to learn how to use a smartphone, it will take a lot of time, since there are fundamental changes in it, which will be difficult for even the most experienced users to understand.
The BlackBerry Pearl 8100 works perfectly with email. Plain mail works well even without running your own server. The email client automatically compresses messages as they are downloaded, so they load faster than before. By the way, to save traffic, messages are downloaded in parts from the server, each part is equal to approximately two kilobytes. As you scroll through the message, the rest of the message is automatically loaded. Files attached to the letter are not downloaded automatically to further save network traffic. But if necessary, you can quickly download them. The BlackBerry Pearl 8100 mail client can monitor ten mailboxes at once. Contacts and calendar can be synchronized with a personal computer using the BlackBerry Desktop software.
The phone has a preinstalled IM client. There is also a BlackBerry Messenger program that can work with: Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk, AOL, MSN and ICQ. The built-in browser supports most standards, but still not all sites are displayed correctly. Unlike the latest BlackBerry devices, this device does not support third-generation networks, but supports EDGE and GPRS technologies. Because of this, some web pages will take a long time to load.
The results of the BlackBerry Pearl 8100 review
The capabilities that have been applied in the BlackBerry Pearl 8100 are not new to the BlackBerry line. The SureType keyboard is a good compromise, but still not ideal due to its small footprint. Although you can quickly get used to the unusual keyboard of the BlackBerry Pearl 8100 and then start typing quickly. However, fans of this product would certainly like to see a full-fledged QWERTY keyboard here.
Let's say you've managed to get used to the keyboard. Then the obvious drawback of the device is the small resolution of the camera, and the lack of some useful functions in terms of multimedia.The advantages of the BlackBerry Pearl 8100 include an easy-to-use trackball, good sound quality, an excellent screen and good phone capabilities.
Of the interesting functions, I would like to note the ability to automatically turn on and off a mobile device at a specified time, or program it to turn off on certain days of the week, for example, on weekends. If you are a BlackBerry fan, then by purchasing this smartphone, you will receive the basic features inherent in BlackBerry in a compact body. If you have never used a BlackBerry device, then you should try using the BlackBerry Pearl 8100 as your smartphone for mailing and ask yourself why BlackBerry has so many fans.
You can buy BlackBerry Pearl 8100 phone in our online store at a special price.
