RIM BlackBerry Pearl

By Ron Brill

itting the tail end of a bad year on a high note, Research In Motion (RIM) gets right down to business by going after an entirely new demographic with their latest must-have device: The Pearl. RIM, whose BlackBerry service is the obligatory business sector tool, is aiming their new BlackBerry Pearl straight at the hearts of regular, non-suit consumers.

However, the innovative little multimedia smartphone is still - underneath its sexy-cool exterior - a BlackBerry at heart. And while the new device is actually classified as a smartphone and not a cellular-wireless handheld, it's still a big deal for Research In Motion as it is the company's first unit that supports playing music and displaying video.

This slick model is based in the mold of RIM's 7100 series, but smaller and thinner - measuring a mere 4.2" x 1.97" x .57" and weighing only 3.1 ounces. The Pearl has a bright 240-by-260 screen and also features playback of MP3 and AAC music files. It has a stereo headset jack and it is Bluetooth 2.0 compatible.

Thinner than a closed RAZR, the BlackBerry Pearl manages to include a 1.3-megapixel camera, a media player and a slot for a MicroSD memory card to store songs into the wireless email device.

To reduce the size of the Pearl to make it more like the size of an average cell phone, something had to go; that would be the keypad. The device uses a customized QWERTY keyboard with two letters on each key, while the SureType technology assists the user at inputting text. Previously seen on the BlackBerry 7100 series, this is intended to be more user-friendly without sacrificing any of the business features that made it popular in the first place - like e-mail and mapping. But those keys are really small.

While the BlackBerry Pearl's new trackball allows for some cunning menu and icon navigation, RIM users accustomed to the BlackBerry jog dial will have problems navigating the text-heavy menus. Maintaining the BlackBerry’s smooth navigation experience, devoted 'menu' and 'escape' keys are featured on either side of the trackball, along with context sensitive menus. Unfortunately, the trackball isn't recessed; it sticks out of the phone unprotected. So if you have a Pearl in your pocket, the trackball can easily be toggled, inadvertently causing changes in the settings (i.e. incoming or outgoing calls).

Aside from that, the BlackBerry Pearl is a joy. It unites solid push e-mail, a brilliant screen, a relatively average-quality camera, and a taste of media functionality in a very slick and tiny package. As long as you can cope with that tiny keypad, it's a proficient alternative to its BlackBerry brethren. -R.B.