|
Ahhh it's a Pearl for sure. The new Blackberry 8120 looks more like a traditional mobile than the other BlackBerry's in order to appeal to that crucial consumer audience, but RIM promises it's still definitely a BlackBerry at heart.
The shape and size might not have changed much from its brothers 8100 and 8110, but the new 91 gram Pearl offers plenty of variation.... The Pearl 8120 is a sleek and slick candy bar style phone that fits easily into most pockets.
Pearl 8120 measures in at just 107 by 50 by 14mm and weighs a mere 91 grams, making it one of the lightest PDAs on today's market. The BlackBerry Pearl rocks a 2.25-inch TFT screen that displays 65,000 colors at a 240x260-pixel resolution.
The display is pretty bright and readable in sunlight as well. It also comes with a light sensor that adjusts the brightness of the device based on ambient lighting conditions.
Below the display is the 'pearl' trackball mechanism and dial pad / keyboard. Blackberry has reduced its full QWERTY keypad to less than half its size, sharing two letters per key using SureType predictive technology, which allows you to choose letters as you go.
The Pearl 8120 is a Quad Band Technology (GSM 850, GSM 900, GSM 1800 & GSM 1900)mobile.
The most noteworthy addition to the RIM BlackBerry Pearl 8120 is, obviously, Wi-Fi. The smartphone supports 802.11b/g networks--enterprise, home, public hot spots--and has a setup wizard to help configure your device. The Pearl can automatically scan for networks or you can manually input the SSID and security login.
Email has always been at the core of the Blackberry functionality and with this phone it is no different with support for a large number of Web clients as well as application formats from the likes of ACT!, Novell and Microsoft Outlook. You will still need to be hooked up to either a BlackBerry service or BlackBerry Enterprise Server to use the popular “push” email function -- to instantly receive messages from services external to your phone. The Pearl does allow for instant messaging, though, with applications from Yahoo, Google and BlackBerry already installed. It also has the standard BlackBerry organisational tools such as the task list and can synchronise easily with the desktop.
The Pearl comes with a good-sized powerful speaker on the rear . It does support MP3 and MIDI sound, and the video player (there is no recorder on this PDA) will also support MPEG4, but expect some lag with this. Even though this phone does not have Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0 should be sufficient for most needs.
The Pearl doesn’t include an FM radio, which isn’t a necessity in a business device. Pearl now supports MP3 ringtones. A new voice recorder feature is also built into the Pearl 8120. In addition to Wi-Fi, you also get Bluetooth 2.0. Supported profiles include those for mono and stereo Bluetooth wireless headsets, hands-free kits, and serial port.
The BlackBerry Pearl 8120 is equipped with an upgraded 2-megapixel lens (from 1.3 megapixels), complete with video recording capabilities. For still images, there's a 5x zoom and flash, as well as three picture sizes and three quality options. You also get white-balance settings and several color effects you can add to the photo. Meanwhile, video options are bit more limited with just two video formats (normal or multimedia message), three color effects, and a video light.The Pearl can play back videos in 3GP, AVI and even MOV formats provided the video is MPEG-4 / H.263.
The Pearl has around 64MB of phone memory and also provides a MicroSD/TransFlash memory card slot for expansion.
Other software enhancements include RIM's Maps application (although there is no GPS built-in), Spell Check to bring it in line with the Curve's functionality here, and a pointer arrow in the browser so you can select and click on links easier.The card slot isn’t hot-swap.
The Pearl has 360 Hours Standby and 4 hours of talktime.
The BlackBerry Pearl is an effort to make headway into the mainstream consumer market, and the addition of Wi-Fi, the upgrade in digital camera quality and adding of flash and video capabilities make this more consumer than ever.
If you're not ready for the full-on QWERTY keyboard BlackBerry, but want a good solid device rather than a glorified iPod this is as good as an experience as you'll get.
|
Features: