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"The Total Package!!!" on by Amy Barrera
Pros: size, abilities, quality, user support
Cons: none that i've found...ill take a bigger keyboard
Summary: This is a great phone. I was worried that I was gonna have a lot of trouble switching from a Treo 755p but it was actually not hard to get used to at all. I had a few issues with freeing space, downloading themes and ringers but all of that was cleared up by bb users on the blackberry forums. Call Quality is excellent, the size is great. Navigation is awesome with turn by turn directions. If you turn the wrong way GPS immediately finds you and it re-routes your trip. This comes in handy with my job since most of my day is spent driving around town. I can't say anything bad about this phone. I'd like a full keyboard but this one is not bad at all for everything else that you get. It's so little It takes a little getting used to but as soon as you get it...you're golden! With the $30.00 Sprint BB plan you can't go wrong. The only way I'll be switching from this phone is if the Curve comes to Sprint! Otherwise...I'm very very happy!
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"Excellent Phone, Couldn't ask for more" on by god546
Pros: Great Camera, Well Designed interface, Runs quickly and smoothly
Cons: No MMS but thats not a big deal becasue you can email photos and such
Summary: Originally I hated Sprint, I had tried a few different phones and hadn't liked any of them. I was counting the days until my contract expired so I could move on and potentially get an iphone or a blackberry curve. After my Lg Rumor broke( not a good phone) becasue they didn't have anymore rumors in stock they allowed me to switch for a blackberry pearl. I have to say that a month later I'm still in love with this phone. It does everything I want it to do, it runs quickly and efficiently. It has a great 2 megapixel camera with a flash and 5x zoom, you can add some great applications such as google maps and facebook, and typing on it is easier than typing on a blackberry with a full keyboard. When my contract expires in april I might have to stay with sprint just becasue I love my blackberry pearl so much.
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"Great Phone/PDA, Nice interface & Features" on by radioactive1
Pros: Size, clarity of phone, easy e-mail setup
Cons: SureType can be quirky, lousy user guide, worthess online apps
Summary: When my wife wanted to buy me a new phone/PDA for Father's day, I started looking at what Sprint (my current provider) had to offer.
I immediately looked to the RIM Blackberries. I'd read some good reviews on the Pearl and after a false start with a Motorola Q (real piece of junk), I went back to what I should have bought in the first place and picked up a Pearl.
I have to say that at first I wasn't sure if I was going to like it - here's why:
- The SureType keyboard assigns 2 letters to each key (for the most part). Basically you just start typing a word and SureType is supposed to be smart enough to know what you're typing. This works pretty well - most of the time, but at times the results can be pretty frustrating and undoing an unexpected result requires you to backspace start again and sometimes you have to do it more than once. However, with a little practice, I've found that I really like the SureType technology and after figuring out a few tricks (like pressing the "previous" key when it starts to mis-spell).
- The order of the applications provided with the unit made no sense to me. A lot of the worthless apps are first and the ones you use the most (like mail and task list) were further down. Then I learned that you can move the apps in any order you want by highlighting the app and clicking on the blackberry button (which gives you a menu where you can select "Move"). I re-arranged mine so that my top 9 appear on the main screen.
- Dialing from your address book - after I synced with my laptop (with over 200 addresses in my address book) trying to call a number from my address book while in the car suddenly became impossible - until I discovered that by pressing the button on the left side of the unit takes you to "Voice Command". Much better than my old phone - you can literally say "Call" and the first and last name of anyone in your address book and the Pearl will make the call. Does a nice job of confirming home vs. office numbers too.
Of course each of these little tricks I had to pick up on my own because the users guide provided with the Pearl doesn't mention ANY of the ones I mentioned above. The manual to be quite honest only provides the basics and MANY aspects of functionality aren't even discussed at all. The Help function provided with the unit isn't much better.
What do I like about the unit? Just about everything else - great size is smaller than other phone/PDAs with full-size keyboard, the clarity of the phone is excellent (better than any phone I've ever had) and the speaker phone works just as well - I can hear the other person talking while in the car and they can here me, without any distracting background noise.
A few things that I think anyone purchasing the Pearl should do day 1 - purchase a protective case (the one I got is a hard case that snaps over the phone and provides excellent protection, but the gel cases are good too), and a screen protector (the Boxwaveprotectors are excellent).
I didn't get the screen protector immediately and sure enough, I scratched the screen somehow, which gives off a distracting glare at times. This really frustrated me. Then I learned that the "screen" is really only a plastic cover over the real screen and can be replaced (for about $20 if you do it yourself). So the price of a screen protector is well worth the few dollars you'll spend.
The battery life is a little disappointing - I find that it lasts about a day and a half to 2 days, so I just got in the habit of charging it each night when I get home and keep a car charger as well.
The online apps that Sprint provides with the unit are pretty worthless in my opinion, so I don't use Sprint Store and their online TV apps.
If your a corporate e-mail user, you should know this. If you're running Outlook (or other common corporate e-mail clients), the blackberry requires your company be running Blackberry Enterprise Server. For some reason (I suspect license costs), it costs a company more to run this than it does Microsoft. My company only charges employees $5/month if their PDA runs Microsoft Mobile 6.0, but $20/month if you have a Blackberry. That on top of the data plan from Sprint runs into a lot of moola.
But here's how I got around that little problem. Setup "e-mail forwarding" on your Microsoft Outlook (other e-mail clients support this as well), and have your work e-mail forwarded to your personal e-mail. I setup an additional account with my home e-mail provider to keep them separate. Now every e-mail I get at work, comes to my Blackberry as well (and the original is there for me when I connect via my PC). Problem solved and it didn't cost me a dime.
The software (ActivSync) provided with the 8130 allows you to sync up your PC calendar, task list and address book with your blackberry and it works very well.
Setting up your e-mail account with the 8130 is a piece of cake too - just signon to your provider's account, enter your e-mail address and your done....no need to enter POP and SMTP servers.
So, I'm pretty pleased with the Pearl - another nice product from the folks at RIM. -
"No true picture mail" on by JTinAtlanta
Pros: Great Blackberry addition to the Sprint line
Cons: No MMS Picture capability
Summary: Ok..I'm not going to harp on all the things I like, because there are a bunch and they've already been discussed by the review. The biggest, and I mean BIG, drawback is the lack of true picture mail functionality. To send a picture mail you have to send it like you would an email, which is fine if you just want to send it to an email address. If you want to send it out to your friend's cell, as most people would want to do, you have to know the carrier your friend uses and their email format required to send a email to their phone.
Sprint's stance is that the phone supports multimedia messaging as advertised, because it receives MMS Picturemail, but then gives you a link where you have to go online and look at the photo. Sending...not so much.
Trying to talk to Sprint gives you nothing. They say the reason they can't do it is Research In Motion's fault. Go to RIM's website and look up the problem on the support site, and they say to contact the carrier to configure their functionality which supposedly works.
I know it's one feature, but if you talk to any Sprint salesperson over the phone or at the store, they say it does Picture Mail. You go to the Sprint website and they claim the same thing. This is blatantly wrong. -
"Like it better than my motorola razr2" on by lakeke
Pros: battery life, color, sleek design, ability to check email
Cons: not compatible with Sprint's wireless backup, won't accept address book from other cell phones...only blackberry devices, suretype
Summary: I bought this phone to replace my motorola razr2. It has a longer battery life so I'm already loving it. It has a sleek design while being sturdy, but not bulky. I don't like the fact that I can't transfer address books from Sprint's wireless backup and I can't transfer address books from other cell phones that I own. It does come with a software disc that allows you to transfer data from one device to another, but this only supports other pda's and blackberries...not cell phones. I'm trying to get used to the suretype feature. For those unfamiliar, the blackberry attempts to guess what you are typing. The first few attempts caused me to take 10 minutes to type a 2 minute text. Supposedly, once the blackberry learns your language and the common combination of words that you use, typing should get easier. Unfortunately, texting as sped up, but it's sped up from 10 minutes to about 9. Of course you do have the option to switch to multi-tap at anytime. I did download one song to my pearl and it sounds just as good as any mp3 player. On the included cd, there is software that helps you transfer files from your computer to the blackberry pearl with ease. It uses the commond drag and click feature making transfers a snap. I've only had 3 days to use the blackberry so as I continue to experience my new toy, I'll keep you posted.
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