I AM WRITING ABOUT THE BLACKBERRY PEARL 8100 THAT I HAD THROUGH TMOBILE.  I LOVED MY PHONE.  I WOULDN'T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT IT.  IT'S LIKE HAVING YOUR COMPUTER WITH YOU AT ALL TIME.  YOU CAN SURF THE WEB, EMAIL AND CHAT WITH YOUR FRIENDS ON THE GO.  THEN TO TOP IT OFF YOU CAN BACK UP ALL YOUR INFORMATION ON YOUR PERSONAL COMPUTER.  IT WAS EASY TO DOWNLOAD UPDATES, AND OTHER FEATURES TO YOUR PHONE.  THE BATTERY WAS PRETTY GOOD TO.  DIDN'T HAVE TO CHARGE MY PHONE EVERYDAY.  IT'S SMALL AND LIGHT WEIGHT.  IT FITS IN YOUR POCKET WITH NO PROBLEMS AT ALL.  JUST WATCH IT IF IT IS IN YOUR BACK POCKET, YOU DON'T WANT TO BE BUTT DIALING.  YOU  CAN TURN YOU PHONE OFF BUT IT YOU PRESS ANY KEY IT WILL TURN BACK AND AND KNOW TELLING WHO YOU WILL BE CALLING.  I ALSO LOVE THE VIDEO PLAYER THE 8100 HAD.  IT HAD VERY CLEAR PICTURE AND SOUNDS.  THE MUSIC PLAYER WAS LIKE YOU HAD A RADIO RIGHT IN THE ROOM WITH YOU.  THE EAR BUDS THAT CAME WITH THE PHONE HAD MAD BASS.  SO WHAT ARE YOU WAITING ON GO GET THE BLACKBERRY 1800 TODAY!

ALISARPEELE

Robersonville, NC

I bought this phone as my first Blackberry and used it without any data services. The phone did not have wi-fi either. My two main reasons for buying it were to make phone calls and to text. The first it did well, the second not so much because I never completely got used to the keyboard layout. The phone came with OS 4.2. I tried upgrading it to 4.5 which was quite different and caused quite a few headaches, forcing me to downgrade. The phone has a 1.3 MP camera, which was surprisingly good. It was also one of the first Blackberrys to have a media player, which was definitely very limited in that it did not support continuous playback, nor did it allow file searching. At this point, I would NOT recommend this phone to a friend, simply because there are much better Blackberry options out there, even for starters. As I said , this was my first Blackberry ever, and having since used newer, more advanced models, my rating is probably a bit biased. Durability The trackball has had to be replaced twice, and the end call key is very stiff.

rsveteran

Fremont, CA

the pearl is one of my favorite phones. i have had a many phones in the past, but this one is always my backup. the user interface and stylish look gives the phone a winning combination! the best part about this phone/blackberrys is the way all the text messages get threaded. if you're a text machine like myself, this comes in handy all the time. one negative aspect about the blackberry pearl is that it is out of date and has difficulty keeping up with the new techs out there these days. but if you're a old school guy who does not care about touch screens, wifi, email to phone, gps, just want to make phone calls, then this is the one for you. with the addition of brick breaker, this phone is superb for any old school tech/gamer.

Hennny

Chicago, IL

Although Blackberry has put out some great phones, including this one, I believe that it falls short of what it can do. The most annoying feature or application is  the media player. In reality, it does not organize the music very well. It leaves the user aggravated at the menus and the inability to play all the songs at times. But the phone offers great features like the camera and the essential alarm. The camera is great with the built in flash but one would hope that the camera could record video. Another great feature of the phone is the layout of the buttons. Yes the buttons are important. It allows for the ease of texting. I truly hate the roller ball function. It doesn't work all the time. I would be playing pong and the roller ball would spin but the curser didn't. This left me frustrated and makes getting high scores even more difficult. Another feature that could be bettered is the processing speed. The little gadget tends to lag at times, especially when playing movies. 

lazyjackass

Garden Grove, CA

I had this phone for almost two years before it bit the dust. It was quite a lovely phone, and was really great and easy to text on. The reason it died was my fault, so I don't blame the phone. After years of being dropped, it was super scratched and dinged. Finally a piece came loose and it just stopped placing calls and finally it stopped working altogether. So if you are clumsy like me, I would DEFINITELY recommend buying a nice case to protect. I think mine would have lasted a lot longer if I had. It has a great camera, took some nice quality facebook profile picture worthy shots. I loved the size and how it fits so easily into your hand or pocket. Another thing I really liked was the quietness of the keys! It allowed me to txt in class very discreetly (shhh....). Easy to navigate, user friendly, very cute, and if you get it in red you can be sure to stand out in style. A must have small blackberry!

krazipopsicles

Austin, TX

So i got the blackberry has a present and i was ecstatic about getting it, because i related the blackberry to sophistication. So for the first year i didnt really have much problem with it. It was into the second year, near my upgrade year when i started to have major problems with it. The phone would literally die on me randomly, just when i need it the most. The battery life was terrible, and even when u went to charge it while you;re talking to someone, it would still die on you. And i always thought like, cant you still talk on the phone and as long as the phone is charging, it wont die on you? but appraently not with this phone. From there, it started getting worse. The battery life got worse, the shutting off got worse,and eventually the trackball fell out. So i had no trackball to navigate around the phone. The battery would take forever to charge if it were to die on me. I just got so frustrated. The situation that did it for me was when one day, i was talking on the phone and the phone just shut off on me, WITH FULL BATTERY!! when i tried to put the charger in the phone, the phone came back on and it showed that my battery was empty. And usually wen my phone dies, if i chage it, the phone will be on and will just charge. Not this time. Even with the charger in,it would say that the battery was drained and then would just shut off. Currently i have the rumor 2 and this phone is great,except that it shuts off randomly here and there. But i would not suggest the blackberry,its not the greatest phone and its network causes alot of dropped calls.

naijagrl101

Randolph, MA

I love a blackberry, but I hate the size...so I was thrilled to death to get the BB quality in a smaller size.  I tried for so long to love this phone, but I just couldn't.  It lost signal constantly and turned itself off whenever it got in the mood, or so it seemed.  I called T-mobile several times to try to fix the problem, and they finally said they would send a replacement...until they noticed my warranty expired the day before.  So there I was, stuck with a phone I couldn't use for anything more than a calculator...which it did that nicely.

stefmcg

Alexandria, AL

Other than using my computer, it can safely be said that I'm not much of a tech geek.  For that matter, I don't even own a cell phone.  So, I was a complete novice when it came to trying out my daughter's **Blackberry Pearl 8100 Cell Phone**. I remember when my daughter first decided to get the Blackberry.  She was excited because it was considered trendy and equipped with the smartest technology available to cell phone users.  Unfortunately, the excitement turned to frustration and disappointment after owning the phone for a less than a year.  Turns out, this Blackberry Pearl smart phone isn't quite the "A" student she bargained for. My daughter turned on the Blackberry and showed me how the screen freezes during use.  In addition to periodic screen freezes in general, the email feature specifically was a problem.  Emails didn't display correctly and would also get stuck during use.  Other issues with the Blackberry Pearl are that the Caller ID display goes out occasionally, and the battery doesn't hold a charge very well.   It could be that this particular phone was just a bad apple in the bunch, however, I have a niece whose has the same model and has also experienced problems with screen freezes and the wonky Caller ID display.  Overall, the **Blackbery Pearl 8100 Cell Phone** is a sleek model with very attractive features that don't work so well half of the time.  After trying out my daughter's phone for a few days, I can honestly say that I won't be buying this model in the future.

LoveisJoy

Chicagoland, IL

I have had the BlackBerry Pearl for a while now, and it's a good phone to have if you need to have smart phone technology.  The size is small enough to be compact and still feel like a phone, but not so small that typing is difficult.   The keyboard uses SmartTap technology, meaning there are 2 letters per button, but it is easy to get used to.  It is also easy to type out messages and email without having to look at the keyboard, since the keys are easy to tell apart.  The phone itself works pretty well, with only minor disruptions in coverage.  I have never had anyone complain that the phone connection was bad from my end.  Additionally, the phone has good reception for other calls.  The speakerphone isn't great, but not something I use often anyway.  The only problem I have had with the phone is that the device itself is very fragile.  Buttons can get stuck easily and it's not a phone to buy if you drop your phone often.  But of all of the smart phones I have had, this one has performed the best. 

sonalid

Venice, CA

Blackberry is a great phone brought on the market by Research in Motion.  You can do anything from writing memos and surfing the internet to receiving emails.  Its been great for business use and home use.  Pearl is great because its small and looks like a phone and works like a computer.  I write memos on it, use the spreadsheets which comes as an app.  Keep plans and ofcourse make calls.  It is every easy to use and I really like the texting feauture because you are able to text and it looks like you are using the messenger.   The only donwside is the ball is the only tracking function.  You can not move around the screen without a ball I am not sure why Rimms didn't include the arrows, but its been working great so far so I can't complain about it.  You want to protect it though and avoid droping it because if you drop it it will break.  You can also take pictures with 2mb camera and you can listen to music.  The additional memory card is not included but you can buy it.

Alex19831111

Salt Lake City, UT