Like other BlackBerry models, the Pearl 8120 can sync with your company's BlackBerry Enterprise server, with support for Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Domino, or Novell GroupWise, to deliver corporate e-mail in real time. With BlackBerry Internet Service, you can also access up to 10 personal/business POP3 or IMAP4 e-mail accounts. We had no problem setting up our review unit to access and retrieve our Yahoo e-mail as it merely required entering our login ID and password.
The smartphone is equipped with the latest spell-check feature that will look for errors in e-mails and memos but not text messages. Plus, there's an attachment viewer that opens popular file formats, such as Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Corel WordPerfect, PDF, JPEG, GIF, and more. Instant-messaging fans will be pleased to see that the T-Mobile Pearl 8120 comes with popular instant-messaging clients, such as AIM, Yahoo, and Google Talk.
There are several sources of entertainment on the BlackBerry Pearl 8120. First, the built-in media player allows you to enjoy your favorite MP3, WMA, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-NB, and MIDI music files, and MPEG4, WMV, and H.263 video clips. There's a search function, playlist creation, shuffle and repeat, and you get a full-screen mode for video playback. To get media onto the Pearl, just use the USB cable for drag and drop, and the process should be swift, thanks to high-speed USB support (around 10MB per second). The included software CD also contains a copy of Roxio Easy Media Creator, so you can create MP3s from CDs and add audio tags. There's 64MB of flash memory onboard, but we'd load multimedia files on a microSD/SDHC card to conserve storage. The expansion slot can accept up to 8GB cards.
Finally, the BlackBerry Pearl 8120 is equipped with an upgraded 2-megapixel lens (from 1.3 megapixels), now complete with video recording capabilities. For still images, there's a 5x zoom and flash, as well as three picture sizes and three quality options. You also get white-balance settings and several color effects you can add to the photo. Meanwhile, video options are a bit more limited with just two video formats (normal or multimedia message), three color effects, and a video light.
We were generally pleased with the picture quality, as objects had good definition. We could have used a bit more richness to the colors, but the Pearl 8120 is definitely one of the better camera-equipped smartphones we've tested. Unfortunately, recorded video looked pretty poor. Our clips were dark and grainy, so you're not going to get the best quality there.
Performance
We tested the quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900; GPRS/EDGE) RIM BlackBerry Pearl 8120 in San Francisco using T-Mobile service, and call quality was impressive. On our end, voices sounded crystal clear with plenty of volume and no distortion, and we had no problems using an airline's voice automated response system. Our friends reported similar results, though they said they could hear some slight background hiss. Speakerphone quality was also good. We were able to pair Pearl with the Logitech Mobile Traveller Bluetooth headset and the Motorola S9 Bluetooth Active Headphones.
We also made several calls using the T-Mobile HotSpot@Home service. The setup was painless as the Pearl 8120 immediately found and connected to the @Home network, and we were able to make calls right away. That said, audio quality wasn't the best. There were a couple of occasions where calls cut in and out on our side, and volume was a bit weak even though we had the phone cranked to the highest level. Similarly, our friends said we sounded a bit muffled and could occasionally hear a crackling noise in the background.
The RIM BlackBerry Pearl 8120 is rated for 4 hours of talk time and up to 15 days of standby time. We are still conducting our battery drain tests and will update this section as soon as we have final results, but we can tell you that the Pearl 8120 has already surpassed its rated talk time in our first performance test. According to FCC radiation tests, the Pearl 8120 has a digital SAR rating of 1.48 watts per kilogram.
What You'll Pay
- Set Price Alert
