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17 out of 17 people found this review helpful
4.5 stars
"Blackberry won me over with the Pearl 8130"
Pros: Predictive text entry, E-mail functionality and compatibility, call quality and reliability, Bluetooth functionality, form factor
Cons: Trackball is so, so; No Infrared port
Summary: This is the best phone I've owned to date. To sum it up, the Blackberry Pearl 8130 does what it claims to do very well. Next to switching to Mac, this has been the best piece of technology my blood-pressure could ask for.
1) The Blackberry Pearl 8130 performs flawlessly as a phone. The call quality and reliability are excellent on the Verizon network.
2) I love the keypad and predictive text functionality. I've had other phones and found the predictive text to be more irritating than helpful. However, this smartphone really is smart. I can type much faster with the Blackberry Pearl than my old Treo 700p. Basically, you just key in the letters on the corresponding buttons until the word comes together. You don't keep typing the same button until the right letter/number comes up like on most cell phones. Instead, the phone uses combinations of those letters and pulls a list of words it could be, and you push enter or select the correct word with the trackball to go on to the next word. The exception to this is when you're entering a password. The Pearl 8130 also automatically uses the correct case and capitalizes the beginning of a sentence or proper nouns. There's a button that you can push to change the case, but you can save a step by letting the phone automatically pick. You can also save time by not selecting the first letter each time, but keep keying in your word until it appears. For example, if the word you want to enter starts with "a" and the list pulls words that start with "s," it will figure it out as you keep keying in the word as if each button only had one letter.
3)Dialing is a heck of a lot easier on two accounts. The number keys are lot easier to see than most smartphones when dialing by number, and the predictive text picks up the contact for which I am searching really quick. If you have a friend named John Doe, you can key in John or Doe and it will come up either way. This is useful for someone like myself who has some entries with just the first or last name.
4) The e-mail functionality is so much better on the 8130 Pearl compared to other phones that I've used. This is the #2 feature of importance on my list of priorities. Everyone, I spoke with told me that Blackberry is the way to go when it comes to e-mail. I'm glad I listened to their advice. It's so fast and works with Hotmail, unlike the Treo 700p.
5) I really like the form factor. At first, I leaned towards the Samsung i760 because I liked the larger screen and it seemed to offer more computing power. However, I'm really happy with the size after using it for a while and have yet to be disappointed with the features. The Blackberry Pearl looks and feels like a high quality constructed device.
6) The browser works great and can be customized for personal use. Not to sound like a broken record, but the Blackberry's browser works so much better than my old phone. The Treo was really quirky and slow compared to the Blackberry Pearl.
7) One of the concerns I had after owning another smartphone was the stability of the software. I have been very pleased with the Blackberry Pearl. I have had none of the freezes, random resets and continuous loops, and waiting for the phone to reboot and discover the network as with my old "smartphone."
8) I have a Plantronics 655 Bluetooth headset and it works great with the Pearl. Once again, this feature delivers where my last phone performed poorly.
9) I've only used the picture and video functions sparingly, but I've had good results with the footage I have taken.
10) I'm quite happy with the battery life. It's one of the few things I liked about my Treo and I think the Blackberry Pearl does an admirable job as well.
The only suggestions/complaints I have are quite minimal.
1) The Treo did have an infrared port that was nice because I could use it to open the electronic key-boxes we use in my business. I have another device that does the job, but it's nice to have one less gizmo to carry around.
2) The trackball is susceptible to becoming partially responsive due to dirt, lint, and possibly oil from the skin. Cleaning helps: annoying, but not a deal-breaker.
I highly recommend the Blackberry Pearl 8130 for those who needs to stay on top of their e-mail on the go without compromising call quality or reliability.
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