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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: $23.63
You Save: $326.36 (93%)
New (2) Used (1) from $23.63
Avg. Customer Rating:  135 reviews
Sales Rank: 328
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
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Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 Bought it and returned it October 8, 2006
6 out of 8 found this review helpful
The phone is nice and small, but the small keyboard makes it tough to type. I like to put my phone in my pocket, this phone is the perfect size for that. The battery cover kept coming off. Not impressed with battery life. I really like the fact that you could start dialing a person by name from the home screen instead of going through address book. Seemed to have software issues (slow). Traded it in for the 8700G could not be happier. Google maps is far superior to the map software in the pearl. I would rate the 8700g with 5 stars.
 Greatest Wireless Email Device Ever!!!!! October 7, 2006
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
I have been using a BB since 1999/2000, but was convinced to make a switch to the MOTO Q in May, because I need the camera feature and was tired of carrying around 2 devices. Was also told there would be no BB devices with a camera feature, ever. Hated the MOTO Q. And the $175 early termination fee for leaving VZ for T-Mobile Pearl was the best money I have ever spent. I have had the phone 2 days and it does everything. The phone is BRILLIANT! I was concerned about the typing after using traditional BB typing for so long...well, like I said the phone is brilliant, in only a couple of hours I have mastered it completely. It is a great organizer too, something the Q was not. Again, the greatest Wireless Email device Ever! The camera works great too.
 Wanted to love this phone but didn't... October 6, 2006
4 out of 11 found this review helpful
If you are looking for a sexy and cool phone then the BBP is one for you. I was splurging on my first PAID upgrade in 6 years and wanted something nice under $200.
I was really impressed with the looks of the phone. The ease of use of the BB mail set up was fantastic. Internet surfing using Edge was decent. Compared to WAP it was pleasant but given that phones in this price range are now equipped with WIFI it was not great.
Ease of use of the phone features was less impressive. First off the phone felt too small and I had a hard time hearing and being heard. The pearl ball was a nice feature but even after adjusting the pressure and speed, I could not get the ball to move a consistent pace. I also figured that with enough manhandling the ball would either fall off or become clogged with lint or some other disabling matter. The lack of video recording at this price point was also deal breaker.
In the end, I returned the phone and am now trying the SDA. I'm not sure I like this much better and may try the Dash when it comes out in a few weeks. I think ultimately I might be with the wrong carrier as some of the cooler phones with features I want seem to be with other mobile companies.
Bottom line, if you can get the phone for free or low cost, can live without WIFI and video recording, and are willing to risk the durability of the pearl track ball then go for it. If anything, your kids will be dying for your next upgrade and they get your BBP hand me down.
Has the potential to be great, but needs to have software bug fixed October 3, 2006
23 out of 23 found this review helpful
Have used the Pearl for almost 2 weeks now. It's my first Blackberry.
Pro:
1. Powerful functionality. Email and ability to sync with Outlook. Despite its cool factor, it's still a blackberry at heart, and does everything other blackberry do.
2. Size. It's small, light and thin. Occasionally I put it into my shirt pocket and almost couldn't tell it's there. I don't like have a phone on my belt, so this is the only blackberry for me.
3. SureType. Takes a little to get used to. But overall it's quite accurate. Not as fast as the full keyboard on my bf's 7xxx Blackberry, but I still managed to type without looking at the keyboard most of the time. As one reviewer mentioned, it's a phone first, then email. If you want email with phone capability, go for the 8700.
4. Excellent screen. Easy to read even under sunlight.
5. One hand operation. With the trackball, I can type email with only one hand, while I am walking. Could never do that with the 7xxx. And I always have trouble with the thumbwheel on 7xxx as the wheel would slide off to the next object on the screen just before click it.
6. Battery is pretty good for a phone this small and with such a big and bright color screen. I usually charge it every 2 days. (I average about 1-2 hours on the phone every day.)
7. T-Mobile service is better than I expected.(I wasn't expecting much.) Not very good at penetrating buildings, etc. But overall had decent coverage as long as you don't go to rural area much.
Con:
Lots of software bugs! Here a few things I noticed:
1. The phone will stop ringing for no apparent reason. When this happens, if I go to Options and switch to other ringtones, it won't make any sound at all. (Usually when you scroll through the list of ringtones, it will play each one as the cursor moves.) The only way to get it work again is to pull out the battery. I have had a lot of missed calls because of this. I would leave it on the table with nothing touching the keyboard or trackball and use another phone to call it. I can see the call coming in, but it won't ring. Annoying as hell. So far, I had to pull out the battery 3 times in 4 days.
2. When I call someone, I can only hear silence before they answer. No ringing. The problem is on and off.
3. I had people complaining that when they call me, there's 3-second delay in me hearing their voice. Again, it seems to be on and off.
4. Volume (earpiece & ringer) doesn't go as loud as my previous Sprint Sanyo phone. If you are at a noisy place, you better set it to maximum volume and longest vibration, and you are still likely to miss some calls.
5. Reception is decent enough, but not on par with Sanyo or Nokia which can carry on a conversation even when the signal is wobbling around 1 bar and 0 bar.
6. Voice quality not as good as my old Sprint Sanyo. Could be the network. There seems to be more static noise on the line. You can definitely tell it's a cell phone conversation most of the time. I am comapring it to my old Sanyo. Keep in mind that Sanyo has the best reception among Sprint phones, and Sprint's marketing of "Clear Connection" actually has certain truth to it. So the combination of the two sometimes had made the cell phone conversation feel like a landline connection.
7. Speaker phone: Again, the volume is just acceptable, not great. There's some distortion with the sound coming from the speaker (more than my old Sanyo), probably due to the size of the phone forcing them to using a smaller speaker. For this reason, I only use it if I am on hold or waiting for the other person to pick up the line. The distortion makes it uncomfortable to talk on the speaker phone for extended period of time. On the mic side, the person on the other end reported that they can hear me clearly with no problem. It's still a half-duplex speaker phone, which means you and the other party cannot talk at the same time like on an office speaker phone. If you interrupt while the other party is still talking, their voice will be cut off as soon as you start talking, and resumed as soon as you stop. The switch over is fast and instantaneous, better than my old Sanyo which I will have to wait about 2 seconds after I stop talking before I can hear the other party's voice again.
8. Menu could be sluggish from time to time, although happens quite rarely.
9. Shiny screen & covers get dirty easily.
Can't say much about the multimedia part. The video play seems to have excellent quality, not sluggish at all. Plays MP3, but you will still want to keep your iPod or whatever. Camera is just for emergency use only. It definitely won't replace your regular digital camera. I don't care much about the multimedia part as I don't see myself use it often. If you are interested in the multimedia part, you are reading the wrong review. Actually, you are looking at the wrong device. Multimedia is NOT Pearl's strong suite, despite its sleek form. Go for something else if MP3/video/camera is important to you.
Overall, I still like the Pearl. Will keep it, but I wish they will come up with a new firmware ASAP. Even with so many software bugs, it's still the best smart/PDA phone around, the kind that you will actually put in your pocket and take everywhere. My boss & a co-worker both have Motorola-Q. It locks up once a day. One of them eventually returned it for a regular phone.
My advice: wait for the next firmware to fix all these problems before you buy.
************** UPDATE: 10/31/06 ****************
Now I have used this phone for about a month and half now. The biggest complaint so far is the voice quality. Sometimes it got so bad that I had to hang up and call the other person back just so I can understand what they were saying.
The problem is two-folded:
First, T-mobile's network. There's a lot of static noise on the line, even when I get a full signal. Some areas it's better, some worse. For example, Philly is worst than NYC. I talked to a friend of mine who works as a network engineer for T-mobile and what I was told was that it's a typical "dirty frequency" problem which means the network frequency needs to be re-tuned.
Secondly, the phone itself. It will garble up the conversation if it had some program failed to close properly and taking up resources at the background. It seems that the phone doesn't have dedicated resource to handle voice calls. At one time, I switched to answer a call in the middle of using Google Map, which caused Google Map to hang and failed to close properly. In every conversation afterwards, I would hear the other person's voice for 1 second, then 2 second of silence with a lot of static noise, and continue repeating like that. I had to remove the battery to fix the problem.
As far as the ringer problem mentioned earlier, the store gave me a new handset, and it only happened once on the new handset. The same problem happened once on my bf's 1-month old Pearl as well.
Email push bas been relatively consistent except for a few delays. Outlook sync was excellent and smooth since day one.
Pearl Outshines All Others! WOW!! October 2, 2006
17 out of 19 found this review helpful
I have reviewed several phones on Amazon, beginning with Nextel phones and now Tmobile. Several weeks ago, I reviewed the 7105T and thought it was heaven. Now I have the Pearl and it is heaven in a smaller package! After owning about five different phones in the past year (including a larger Blackberry and Razor), this phone simply blows me away! Let me share the pros, and the few cons I have:
PROS
1. SIZE, SIZE, SIZE! This phone is SMALL, but very usable. I can't believe how small and LIGHT it is , compared to even a Razor! Whereas the 7105T and all the larger "brick"Blackberries could not fit comfortably in your pocket at all, this one can go in your shirt pocket or pants with no problem. Best of all, for it's size, it is usable. I was fearful key size would be a problem (I am a big guy with big fingers), but no problemo!
2. SCREEN COLOR-the color-very bright,BlackBerry 8100 Pearl sports a large 240 x 260 screen that supports over 65,000 colors- good contrast, and a much more user friendly screen than previous blackberries. Still has the blinking light for incoming calls or email (red if email or missed call), and it also has some new spiffy icons. You can arrange your top five on the main screen (mine is email, calendar, address book, phone log, and individual work account). What is nice is your emails show up in messages, but ALSO in their separate accounts!
3. THE PEARL TRACKBALL-GOODBYE TO THE OLD SCROLL WHEEL! This has to be the BEST improvement of all , I LOVE THE PEARL trackball! No more pushing in and out on the scroll wheel, and it only took me a day or less to get a hold of how to maneuever it. Don't listen to the reviewer who said it causes problems when in your pocket-SIMPLY LOCK THE SCREEN. Another nice feature, only ONE button to lock the screen (star) and star and green phone icon to unlock.
4. SURE TYPE. Face it , you either love it or hate it. I love typing emails and having the sure type know my words and what I am going to type. It is awesome, and truly saves time. The keys are smaller than the 7105T, but no problem . I would imagine if you sent 100 emails a day it might get tricky.
5. BLUETOOTH-Syncing a headset a cinch . No problems.
6. CALL QUALITY-EXCELLENT! I was worried with the size it would be hard to hear or hard for others to hear me. No problems here, sound loud and clear, SPEAKERPHONE works well also.
7. BROWSER-Fast, with EDGE, I don't do a lot of browsing with my phone, so this part of it I am not really qualified to comment on, other than Unless you are an internet junkie than the speed may not be as fast as you want.
8. CAMERA: This major update to the popular 7105t brings the BlackBerry experience to a whole new level.A 1.3-megapixel camera is housed in the back. The picture quality is very good.
9: CONTACTS: Syncs flawlessly with Outlook. Software updated and a breeze to install.
10: MEMORY/Ringtones/Voice Activation: The handheld's microSD memory card slot is located inside the device, behind the battery. Any of the phone's 32 included polyphonic ringtones can be used to create caller-specific ringers, so you can know who's calling without having to look at the handset. More ringtones are available from T-Mobile's t-zones mobile Web service. A new feature, speaker independent voice dialing, allows you to call contacts with the sound of your voice. No prior voice training is required; you can just say a contact's name to call them.
11: EMAIL/IM/MP3 10 e-mail accounts (personal and enterprise), come with a data plan. With BlackBerry push technology, you don't need to retrieve your e-mail. allowing you to be discreetly notified as new e-mail arrives. Support is also built-in for viewing e-mail attachments (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, WordPerfect, and PDF formats).
Supports AOL, YAHOO, MSN, and most major messenging services, as well as SMS. You can use this as a MP3 player, especially with memory expansion.
CONS:
1. Don't like the SD support in the microcard BEHIND the battery. Hard to get to. But not undoable.
2. With the Candy Bar style, I put a screen protector on immediatly, so the screen would not scratch. Also, the black sleek cover does get a lot of fingerprints on , but just wipe off with soft cloth.
3. Camera is good, but not super sharp clarity. If you are just taking pics of the kids, or goofing around with friends, it is adequate.
ALL IN ALL, THIS IS A GREAT PHONE IN A SMALL PACKAGE!
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