iPhone 3GS from AT&T. Free Shipping
- Average user rating: 3.5 stars out of 58 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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61 out of 66 people found this review helpful
4.5 stars
"Perfect but...(Info all buyers need to know)"
Pros: Best Phone, ever...hands down
Cons: Read the desciption
Summary: Okay, this phone does everything.
Programs-The reason I included this first is because all Cingular Users need to be aware of this. This phone is capable of AIM, Yahoo messanger, ect... but you must download an additional program, Cingular does not provide any Apps for this. This link will provide you with programs to use instant chat services for this phone. I use Rambal, a free program for AIM and it works flawlessly. Second note-Instant messanging with programs such as this counts as general Data, not messanging. So, all owners must have (I have the $40 unlimited DATA plan, but plans start in the $20s) data plans, not SMS messaging plans to use this. Use this link to find aftermarket messaging programs that you require.
http://www.blackberryforums.com/aftermarket-software/2973-blackberry-instant-messaging-faq-msn-aim-icq-yahoo-chat.html
Screen-Outstanding, very sharp, great color saturation, great shape. The colors stand out more than on the screen of a 5.5G Ipod, its fantastic.
Sound Quality/ Call Quality-Decent, not outstanding, far better than your average Razr or of the like, but this phone is $499 without contract and there are phones with better Sound/ Call Quality. Note: You must by an adaptor to use headphones if you intend to listen to music as this uses a very small mic. jack. You can purchase one for about $15 on everything blackberry.com
Suretype-This is better than Qwartry, my friend has one for her business and this is far superior. It takes about 2 hours to really master, but its outstanding. I can type much faster than she can, even though the Pearl does not have a regular Qwartry keyboard.
Memory-The phone has enough memory on board if you only plan on using it as a phone. But, if you want to use that camera or recieve emails you need to buy MicroSD, Scandisk makes up to 2 gig capacity. I highly recomend at LEAST 1 gig because of all the features of this phone, if you buy this phone with Data, GET 2 Gigs ($70 on amazon about). It is not a hassle to access the memory behind the battery, given the size of SDMicro (about the size of a thumdnail) I am glad to know it is safely enclosed.
Email-When you get this phone, you can easily send all your email to this phone.
Currently I am sending my Gmail, .Mac, and Aol email to my Blackberry. All three have their own message boxes on my blackberry interface, but all emails are also shown in my blackberrys general mailbox which is convienent and works similiarly to Enterage.
Music/ Camera- This phone can play everything, MP3s, MPG4s, AACs, ect. Just note to all Itunes users-IT CANNOT PLAY MUSIC BOUGHT FROM ITUNES. Remember that Itunes music is encryped with protected AAC so you must convert your music to MP3s for it to work. The Camera is decent, images are fairly grainy, I would compare picture quality to Isight. Only drawback is that it cannot record Video, a feature I am sure the next iteration will entail.
Syncing-Has problems with Bluetooth syncing with Apple computers. I have found though that using Pocketmac (google it, RIM bought Pocketmac so while it is free you cannot download it from Pocketmac anymore, and instead must go to a RIM webpage). Remember for Pocketmac though, you have to OPEN THE PROGRAM FIRST THEN ATTACH YOUR BLACKBERRY USING USB, OTHERWISE THE PROGRAM WILL HAVE A SYNCING ERROR.
No Wifi is a drawback, but for Data Cingulars network is actually very fast, it does take about 10 minutes for all my emails to appear on my blackberry.
Overall-Best phone I have ever owned.
If it synced better with my mac, had video capture, had Wifi, and played all my tunes along with a regular headphone port, I would be VERY happy. Also, it is too bad Cingualr doesnt provide IM support out of the box, but reseaarch and 3rd party developers firxed that.
- 6 replies to this review
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Addressed all of my main concerns. I'm jumping ship from Verizon to Cingular and buying one of these.
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A great, informative review covering all aspects of this smart phone. Thank you!
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How to get itunes on your blackberry pearl. It's a little work but here is how you do it.
In itunes go to edit, prefrences, advanced, importing, select import using mp3 encoder.
Ok now thats you did that. Buy whatever songs you want on Itunes. Then burn them to a cd. Then import songs from the (cd) as mp3's! to your itunes. The pearl can play mp3's just not mp4's. Then your done just transfer them as mp3's to your pearl.
Great review by the way , I love mine to! -
Great review... emrtr4 or anyone else... lmk how you purchased and what upgrades did you use with cingular...
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Like that your provided data for Mac users. Too many pilgrims still usings the beige boxes.
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I am so glad someone took the time to write a serious review that goes beyond the usual "I love it" "I hate it" that seems to abound in this forum. RELEVANT and USEFUL information: how the unit performs doing X, Y , Z etc. what goes well, what does not with EXAMPLES!
Bravo emrt4 !!! we need more reviewers like you!
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