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| BlackBerry Pearl 8100 Smartphone Black (T-Mobile) | 
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| Brand: BlackBerry
Category: Wireless
List Price: $349.99
Buy New: $0.01
You Save: $349.98 (100%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  137 reviews
Sales Rank: 488
Color: Black
Media: Wireless Phone
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 0 x 0 x 0
Model: 8100
UPC: 610214613370
EAN: 0610214613370
ASIN: B000ID10JE
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Promotion: Data not available Terms and Conditions
Promotion: Save $10.00 when you spend $50.00 or more on Qualifying Items offered by Amazon.com. Enter code BMLSAVES at checkout. Terms and Conditions
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 The ideal phone March 26, 2007
This phone is amazing, its basically a computer on the go. Crisp picture screen, amazing camera and nice sounds. plays mp3 ringtones and each caller can have their own ringtone and picture ID; the internet is really helpful and great when you need to check your mail and your on the go.
The only con, and it isnt even a major one, is the AIM. It doesnt always connect but a simple restart (the phone restarts rather quickly) will do the trick. Overall its a great phone
 Be Seduced... March 25, 2007
13 out of 13 found this review helpful
Yes, the Pearl is everything they say. Those who see it covet it almost immediately. Beautiful and slim, it is absolutely in a class by itself. What you need to decide is if it's really the class you want to be in. If you have to ask why you should add Blackberry Internet Service to your plan, then it may not be the phone for you. Because despite all its great features, email is still what BB does better than anyone else and is still the best reason to own one.
Sure, it's a great phone, a better SMS texter than any little phone ever made, it can handle pictures, movies the web and more, but with all the power comes some complex interfaces and potential landmines for those who just want a phone that can handle some multi media tasks. But if email is important to you, and you also need a cell phone and want them both in a small device, the Pearl may be the best thing to come into your life since, since- since I don't know what. Of all the electronic gadgets I've owned, laptops, ipods, digital cameras, this is right there at the top of the list of category killers.
In a way, it's very similar to the ipod. A device that came along and looked so good everyone wanted one, just because. It wasn't the first mp3 player on the market but it was easily the best. Now there are enough models that practically everyone can afford one, but not everyone should necessarily have one. Without the right computer the ipod is pretty much useless. Strange as it seems, co workers are asking me all the time if I can put some music on their ipod. They wander aimlessly from cube to cube, cd's in their hands...
The Pearl is not quite the same kind of breakthrough but it is similar in that those who buy it not knowing what it was truly designed for could become a little frustrated. And this is a shame, because it seems to be attracting many first time BB users, which is great. But the phone won't be as simple as their old Moto. It won't have the brute force of a Windows Smart device. It won't do simple things other cell phones do, like change time automatically as you travel around the country. But it combines email/SMS/MMS/phone/web/camera in a beautiful small device better than anything currently on the market. The Pearl track wheel transforms the device the way the ipod click wheel did for Apple. Mine works flawlessly, but I would not be surprised if future versions are of the non-mechanical variety- just as Apples click wheel evolved.
And not to sound like a broken record, but I underscore the EMAIL/Phone combination. BB users know already how well the email works, but unfortunately for many of them, they are not just addicted to their crackberry's, they are addicted to the full qwerty keyboard. They dismiss the small suretype keyboard as inferior without giving it a chance. No, it is probably not for real big guys, (but a few years ago who would have thought the original BB was?) It is probably not for power users who mash out endless missives to their unfortunate co-workers. But suretype for me has proven about 99.9% accurate and the keyboard as easy to navigate as my old BB7290. Easier in fact, as the centered trackball doesn't discriminate against lefties.
If you also understand the terms under which Amazon is able to offer such a great price, then you will have no worries. Read all the fine print. I received mine exactly as described and couldn't be happier. The commitment was no different than through T-Mobile, just way, way cheaper. TMO service has also been great in the 3 parts of the country I've tried so far btw. The Cingular claim to "fewest dropped calls" is bogus and stems from a small sample survey. The much larger Consumer Reports and JD Power surveys both rated TMO ahead of Cingy for network reliability.
Four stars only because nothing electronic can ever be perfect.
 I'm on my 3rd phone and guess what, its broken ... March 24, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
...I love every part of it if it only would just work, even for once! T-Moblie had now sent me 3 BlackBerry Pearls due to some unexplainable errors and malfunctions. Not my newest one isnn't working anymore ... the track ball is off, it freezes all the time (and I know all the secret tricks to this phone). Just put my sim card back into my 3 year old Nokia that works every time, nothing fancy but at least I can count on it working. T-mobile BlackBerry staff was very nice, spent hours on the phone with them. But obviously the model needs some more development.
An amazing phone (if you need it) March 22, 2007
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I've been an owner of a Blackberry 8100 for approximately 6 months now, and I have to say that its fine balance of features and portability have made this a great choice for anyone that needs connectivity to their enterprise server.
However, just because this phone is a hot product right now doesn't justify a hasty purchase. There's a lot of functionality that this phone has that demands its price tag and if you don't need to connect to an enterprise server or sync with outlook, find another phone. There are a lot of cheaper options out there for web/email/mp3/video phones.
If you are looking for a phone that functions as a mobile office, I suggest looking for another model of blackberry. The button layout on this new blackberry aren't set as single keys, meaning you get 2 letters mashed into one button, which makes cranking out emails somewhat more clumsy than the "fatboy" versions of other blackberry models.
When all is said and done, this is a powerful phone that I see as a viable mobile office solution for a casual user. Its balance of features, stability, and portability make it a great choice.
best phone i ever had March 16, 2007
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
i never wanted a pda, smarphone or whatever before, they were too big and hideous. i lucked out b/c of the sweet price from amazon and that it's a blackberry. now i have a gorgeous portable video player that smokes the ipod cold on batteries, and mp3 player (gotta get special headphones for it though, although speakers are sweet), excellent on the go camera, and the best portable email service out there. i've never used blackberry before but it's nice to have the choice of whether to delete your emails on server or leave them there. (why doesn't outlook/thunderbird do that?). also, the coolest thing in the world! my yahoo sent emails show up in the sent folder when i log back into yahoo! how sweet is that!
ok it might just look like i'm giddy with exitement but really i am totally pleased with this new phone, and the service. some people complain about the download speeds but sheesh, where are you, iowa? i'm in ny and i'm getting 12-20kbps (i dunno is that good? seems fine to me), i've heard sprint is better but seriously i can't tell. tmobile smokes the crowd when it comes to the $20/mo blackberry and unlimited browsing, who can beat that? too bad they dont have a video service :(
got a 1gb micro sd card from amazon for about $16, fits plenty of movies and mp3's on there. (family guy eph is 50mb, looks sweet! cooworkers are envious, heh). hard as heck to find the right video encoder out there, but there is a free one, trust me.
just one thing that other people have mentioned. if you like myself are upset with amazon for preactivating the phone (bad bad! slap on the wrist!) before sending it and having your billing start before you get the thing, just call tmobile the second you get that email and put a hold on the account. dont wait or the charges will be prorated and you will lose that sweet price! i've had mine for almost two months now and no voilation of the terms from doing that (took ALOT of calls to both to double and triple check).
lastly? dont believe what you hear about the keyboard being hard. unless you have big fingers, it's the sweetest thing since sliced bread ;)
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