Is BlackBerry's Pearl a Little Gem or Rough Diamond?

The sleek black and chrome Pearl gets a camera and memory card, but can you really put a QWERTY keyboard on something as thin and light as a Motorola RAZR?

While I have been a long term BB user, now using the 8700, I am a little bewildered by the comment that the "BlackBerry email handling system which we believe no other smartphone can match and that includes Microsoft's Windows Mobile 5 with an Exchange server". I cannot afford nor does my company warrant a dedicated enterprise BB server. As a result, I must use the internet client, which restricts me to receiving and sending e-mail. I have been using a Microsoft Mobile 5 with SP2 on my Exchange Server and find the direct push technology superior to the BB internet solution; no comparison.

As to the Pearl, it must have come from a rotten oyster. The "QWERTY" keyboard is a joke and the "multimedia" functions are so dated that it would be more warranted on a 3 year old phone. Here is another example of a still (soon to be once) great product getting caught with their pants down in a useless lawsuit rather than fighting the competition which is soon to surpass on all fronts. The Nokia E61, HP6945, MotoQ and many others are now front runners; and these are just the beginning, while RIM is far behind the curve.

Just my opinion.

Wow...that's all I can think of to say right now regarding Priaptor's post. Have you even used the Pearl? I had the Motorola Q and I went to T-mobile and played with the Pearl...Let's just say that I'm now a VERY happy T-mobile account holder and I'd never look back.

I never once thought about a blackberry before the Pearl...it did what it was designed to do...Bridge the gap between consumers and business professionals.

Also, while the email does go into your main messages folder, when you set up new email accounts, new icons are created for just those accounts...Personally, I love the Push system that BB uses.

Finally, while I was a bit worried about going from true QWERTY to suretype, this has posed NO problem whatsoever. The suretype system on the pearl is very intelligent and unless you have mammoth hands, should pose no problem for you.

P.S. The trackball is heavenly!

I Priaptor's the opinion. In addition to this take, the other major problems are the lack of Java enablility and normally the Pearl is only available on the T-Mobil network. I having constant problems with "dropped calls" in and around Houston, TX, where as, ironically T-Mobile claims that it has the lowest dropped calls - Bah Humbug!!!, I ask they have given us the blogne where is the bread!!. Another problem is that whenever I am on a conference call or I pick up a call waiting line and want to drop that particular line afer my conversation, it is a nightmare to switch over the previous caller. The icing on the cake being that I end up loosing both the ringer and vibration on my Pearl in key areas of the Greater Houston, TX MSA.

I have spent countless hours with T-Mobile and their Techies but to no avail. I would never recommend anyone to get the Blackberry with T-Mobile, and I mean any type, since I had similar problems with my previous model (7230) which incidentaly was a more functional unit, albeit without the bells and whistles that the Pearl is offering.

No doubt the Pearl has a built in camera, either it is my unit or in all the units, the image on the phone is awsome, but the actual result is far from what you see on the screen!

Thanks, I appreciate the suggestion. I will definitely look into it.