Spotlight Customer Reviews
Customer Rating: 
Summary: eh not the phone for me
Comment: Ill admit, I was never interested in blackberrys until I saw the blackberry pearl. I've always been more of a sidekick fan (which I still am by the way) but I first decided to go with the blackberry pearl over a sidekick because A) I got it for free off of a website with a new T-mobile contract and b) I loved the way it looked. It really is a nice looking phone. Sleek and shiny and smaller than any of the other blackberrys. But in my opinion, that's one of the only good things about it.
After only having the phone for a few months, I decided to upgrade to a sidekick. (Yes in this review I will be comparing it to the sidekick a lot which may annoy some of you, but I know a lot of people who can't decide between a blackberry and a sidekick)
First of all, I didn't like the suretype keyboard. As many people say, it takes some getting used to, and even though it didn't take me too long to get the hang of it, it just wasn't very convenient for an avid texter such as myself (which is what I love about the sidekick, the fact that it has an awesome keyboard for texting) another thing that I didn't like about the keyboard is the buttons, which are made of a flimsy material (in my opinion) and after only a short time of use, the letters started fading.
I also didn't like the internet service, which was very slow in my opinion (I know a lot of people say that sidekicks also have a slow web browser but I'm satisified with the speed of the browser on mine) and in fact, I think the phone was just slow in general (I.E. Turning it on takes a while)
The email service is okay, which I know is the main thing a lot of people like to use blackberrys for. I'm not a big email person myself, so I don't really have an opinion on it. There's also a blackberry instant messaging service (along with AIM and MSN I believe) which you can use to IM other blackberry users but I didn't really get much use out of it since I didn't know anyone else with a blackberry at the time, so to me it was pretty pointless.
And as far as the MP3 player, I also can't give my opinion on that because I have an ipod so I never used it.
Now, some good things about the Pearl:
It has a nice, crystal clear screen which is great (but I prefer the screen on the sidekick because its bigger) and it also has a great camera that takes some nice pictures (this is the one thing I prefer about the blackberry over the sidekick because the sidekick doesn't have too good of a camera)
Okay so really, when it comes down to it, I never had any major problems with the pearl, it was just those minor things I didn't like about it, and the fact that I didn't feel it was the phone for me. So I'm not dissing all blackberrys and im not saying that you shouldn't buy one (in fact, I'm actually thinking of getting a blackberry curve) I'm just saying that I didn't see anything special about the pearl itself, and think that a sidekick is the better choice if you love texting as I do. (I'd reccommend the curve to you also because I love how it has more of a keyboard than the pearl but seeing as how I've never owned one myself, I won't be giving any advice on it)
Customer Rating: Summary: Good - but could be better
Comment: I like this bb. It has a LOT of features - truly amazing. It surfs the net quickly, the email service is best in class, and the phone is good. The speaker phone is very good, the camera takes passable photos, the video camera is ok, and the mp3 player is good.
The unit is small and light. The net service is (again) very quick - and many main stream websites offer BB icon/shortcut downloads that speed things up even more. The wifi service is also very good, much quicker than I thought it would be and (to my surprise) I use it alot more than I thought I would
Downsides - the keyboard is not a full qwerty keyboard and typing a long email is tedious. The battery life is limited and the documentation that comes with this is bad. I learn about the features of this unit from other bb users - not from the cd or manual.
Customer Rating: Summary: Don't buy into the hype. This "smartphone" is a dumb buy.
Comment: If you have not yet bought a Pearl, then don't. I've had this almost two years and I can't wait till my contract is up so I can chuck this POS into a recycling box!
Why?
#1 Poor durability (and I'm easy on phones). I had this phone for a month when the button that holds the batter cover on popped off. It's a piece of plastic with a tiny spring the size of a toenail clipping. Somehow this was my fault and this sort of defect didn't fall under the manufacturer's warranty. AT&T, the Company I bought it from, would do nothing. OEM (The manufacturer) offered to repair it for $90 dollars! AT&T offered to SELL me a new phone for $199 (when I got it free with a 2 year contract). Both Companies' best suggestion was to buy a silicon cover for the phone to hold the batter back on. Also, the chrome like paint on the phone wore off within 6 months of using it. C'mon people!
#2 This phone interferes (makes that buzzing sound) REALLY loudly with any audio device. More than any other phone I've owned. So if you want the convenience of using your USB cable to charge it on your laptop or pc, mute your speakers, or you'll be sorry. Also GREATLY interferes with car stereos, TV speakers, PA systems, and etc.
#3 I am equally disappointed that bluetooth headphones are not any option for this phone because the Pearl doesn't use the new technology that most, if not all, of the stereo headphones do. The headphones available for this phone are junk, and there is no good off brand alternative either. I've tried every adapter electronics store sell.
#4 Make sure your cellular carrier has a REASONABLE data plan for blackberry. AT&T only has the "blackberry data plan" that costs a minimum of $39.00 in addition to your minute plan. You cannot use the blackberry feature without this plan. This doesn't include using your blackberry as a wireless modem, that costs extra and you are limited on how much date you can use. (Don't go over unless you're prepared to take out a second mortgage.)Not useful as a personal organizer unless your willing to spend over $100 a month for a cellphone bill.
Seriously, this has been a thorn in my side, rather than a helper (which is why I bought a Blackberry).
The few benefits of this phone:
It's trendy, it comes with a fancy name, you can download lots of software for it on the internet, it's customizable, and plays MP3's (if you can find a stereo headset to work well with it).
Customer Rating: Summary: Burned by T-Mobile, dishonest lying company!!!
Comment: This is not a review for the phone which is probably great. This is a rant about T-Mobile. T-Mobile had lied to me when I was going to the Carribean with my Black Berry. The Representative had told me that I would be charged according to the data used and instead signed me up for BB International Roaming, which is $19.99. The service had never worked, I wasn't able to recieve or send email, but this is not what this is about. Four months later I had opened a bill, which I usually don't do since the bill is paid automatically every month, and discovered that I am being charged $19.99 for the past 4 months. Manager at T-Mobile insisted that there's nothing that they can do regardless of the fact that I am being charged for the service that never been used. The Manager (Walter) did not even attempt to accomodate me in any way, no partial credit offer, not even for one month, not even free text messages for next month.
T-Mobile is out there to take advantage of you. They take no responsibility for lying to their customers and charging them for services not provided.
Avoid T-Mobile
Customer Rating: Summary: Petrock 8120
Comment: Oh. Now I get it. (This is my first BlackBerry.) It's a phone that gets email. Now I'm cool because I have one.
No, I'm really pretty disappointed. Here's why:
1. Slow. Everything is slow, from turning the thing on, to moving through menus, to downloading on the internet, to turning it off again. Slow. S...l...o...w.
2. Mediocre (a nice word to spare the gentle reader from my honest impression) web browser. Along with being, you guessed it, slow, the browser crashes and resets at a mere whiff of javascript. There is zero support for any kind of embeded multimedia. The GUI is choppy and disorganized.
3. Almost no useful third-party applications. No games. Very little interest among crazy "enchancement" developers. What applications there are, all are costly and of dubious quality.
4. Not to beat a dead horse, but really, you can't do anything media oriented with this phone. What's the point of a 3G phone if you can't listen to music or watch videos?
5. No HTML support in emails. Nada.
6. Puny battery. If you intend on actually using this phone for the things it was designed, plan on charging once every 12-16 hours. Yea, about 12-16, not 48, 36, or even 24. Convenient, huh?
7. Only places "wi-fi" calls when in a T-Mobile sanctioned hotspot and wi-fi is turned on. Honestly, what is the point.
What does this phone do well?
1. "Push" email. RIM has put all their eggs (and all the eggs of their excited investors) into this basket. And it works and works well. Hooray. I can now get a longer text messages than I used to. From an email address! Thank goodness for technology.
2. Phone. Did they forget to tell you that a Blackberry also works as a cell phone? Yup. It also does this quite well. Makes AND receives calls. Sound quality is quite nice. Really.
Skip this device and look at Samsung or Apple's offerings. RIM investors, follow this rat from the sinking ship.
