When the original BlackBerry Pearl was announced back in 2006, it caused quite a stir. Until that point, BlackBerry handsets were rather large, and chunky, and very wide. But then came the Pearl, and suddenly Blackberry handsets were almost the size of a normal mobile device. The size issue with Blackberry handsets was caused by the inclusion of full QWERTY keyboards, and whilst handsets these days with full QWERTY are a much more manageable size, something like the Pearl still has a place in the pocket of some mobile users. So it is good to see that BlackBerry have taken the popular Pearl design, and updated it, bringing the handset up to date with the features and functions you would expect to find on a Smartphone in 2010.
Size wise the new Pearl 3G is almost identical to its predecessor, measuring in at 108 x 50 x 13mm, and weighing in at a satisfactory 94g, a good light weight for a Smartphone device. The TFT display has a pixel resolution of 360 x 400 and supports up to 256,000 colours. The keypad looks almost like a standard alphanumeric keypad, with keys lined out in a slightly curved fashion. Text entry utilises the SureType system, which takes a while to get used to, but once you are familiar with the technology it is a very fast way of entering text, easily on a par with T9 input. The general look and design of the navigation keys is familiarly BlackBerry, as is the menu layout, with the five shortcut icons laid out across the bottom of the main homescreen. To navigate the menu the trackball used on the previous Pearl has been replaced with an optical trackpad.
Traditionally connectivity has been a real shortcoming on BlackBerry devices, but recent releases have sought to confront this issue, and it is the same with the Pearl 3G, with a strong representation of data connection options included. The device is a quad band GSM handset for full voice roaming capabilities, and also supports Tri Band HSDPA, plus HSUPA, GPRS and EDGE. BlackBerry have also included WiFi on the Pearl 3G, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n. Bluetooth is available for local data connectivity, with A2DP stereo audio included, and there is a Micro USB port for connecting the handset to a PC with a data cable.
Obviously, the Pearl 3G excels in messaging, with full support for push email included, and it is very easy to set up. BlackBerry Messenger is also included, as well as integrated support for notification updates from Facebook and Twitter. Handling attachments is no problem, either, with a full document editor on the device, which can handle Word, Excel, PowerPoint and .pdf formats. The Pearl 3G includes a GPS receiver, and has support for aGPS, and comes with BlackBerry Maps pre-installed, plus you will also be able to use Google Maps, as an alternative, if you wish.
Media has a strong presence on the new Pearl, with a full music and video player included, offering support for a wide range of formats including MP3, WMA, AAC, eAAC+, MP4, WMV, H.263 and H.264. The device incorporates dedicated music playback keys, and also offers a 3.5mm audio output jack for listening to music playback with your personal favourite set of headphones. A digital camera is available on the device, a 3.2 Megapixel camera with autofocus and LED flash. There is ample storage on the phone to keep all your media, too, with 256 MB of internal memory, which can be expanded via Micro SD memory cards, with the Pearl 3G officially supporting cards up to 32 GB in size.
Battery performance has always been a positive for BlackBerry devices, but the inclusion of high speed data options like 3G and HSDPA has had an impact. Even so, the BlackBerry Pearl 3G still manages to offer a credible 5 hours of talktime and up to 13 days standby from a single charge. For music playback you should be able to get about 30 hours usage from a single charge. The handset is expected to release during Q3 2010, and will be available in a range of colours, Piano Black, Opal Pink, Royal Purple, Flash White and Red Gradient.
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