BlackBerry Pearl 3G Review
Blackberry are traditionally recognised as QWERTY keyboard fronting, email PUSHing, instant messaging, fast internet browsing for the business type.
The Blackberry Pearl 3G has all but one of these – it’s missing the full QWERTY keyboard but instead has the ‘old school’ numbered keypad. This is a slimmer, smarter, more affordable Blackberry that is not limited to business users.
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE PEARL 3G ON VODAFONE
Look & Feel
The Pearl 3G is extremely light (just 93g) and designed with clever functionality. They’ve extracted the optical trackpad from the Bold 9700 that is so slick to use and implemented this on the Pearl 3G – navigation is a breeze. Compared to most large touchscreens out on the market, the 2.2 inch display might seem small but it is to be expected as RIM are clearly compromised on space here. Although, after a little use the screen feels fine on this compact smartphone.
Interface
The Pearl 3G runs on Blackberry OS 5.0 which is a speedy setup with an iPhone-like grid menu and a homescreen with shortcuts, so you can pipe your PUSH email to your home page. The OS 5.0 certainly isn’t as flashy as the likes of some top-end smartphones but it’s tried and tested and was uber popular on the Bold 9700 and Curve 8900. Newcomers won’t have any usability worries here.
Camera
Pearl 3G isn’t a photographer’s phone but its camera certainly does the trick. Don’t be put off by its 3.2 megapixel camera (megapixels actually aren’t everything), it takes better pictures than we’ve seen on some low-end 5 megapixel cameras. The camera comes with autofocus, flash and 2.5x digital zoom, so no smile detection, or anything like that, just the basic in this department. Plus very reasonable video recording.
Battery
Blackberry’s have always had a strong battery life but the Pearl 3G’s is hands down the best we’ve experienced. This has 18 hours of standby and 5 hours of talk time, so don’t get too humpty about forgetting your charger when you go away for the weekend, because you’ll probably be fine.
Messaging
The Blackberry always shines here and the Pearl 3G is no exception. The Twitter app is official on all Blackberry phones and instant messaging on Windows Live and Blackberry Messenger means you can keep in touch with friends on the move. What is nice is when you get a message, it’ll pop up on your homescreen so you can play around whilst waiting for responses.
Verdict
It’s quite simple really, the Blackberry Pearl 3G is your best Blackberry in a smaller shell. The Pearl 3G is incredibly well thought-out and strong in every department. It may not be your top-end, flash smartphone but in terms of reliability, functionality and speed, you can’t beat it.
