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Your Price: Free! with service Release Date: Q3 2006 Released For: AT&T T-Mobile Released for Cingular and T-Mobile, the RIM BlackBerry Pearl comes complete with robust multimedia capabilities while continuing to provide the BlackBerry experience that users have come to love. The BlackBerry Pearl offers a newly enhanced version of RIM's SureType QWERTY keypad technology that makes typing messages and dialing phone numbers quick and easy. Featuring a 1.3-megapixel camera with built-in flash and 5x digital zoom, users can snap a picture and instantly share it with friends and family by email, MMS or BlackBerry Messenger. The BlackBerry Pearl also comes with a media player and stereo headset jack so users can enjoy their favorite music and videos on the go.

• Phone, email, text messaging (SMS and MMS), browser, instant messaging and organizer applications in a single smartphone
• 1.3-megapixel camera with built-in flash and 5x digital zoom
• Media player with audio and video playback in a variety of formats
• BlackBerry Maps to help users find their way
• Speakerphone and Voice Activated Dialing
• Pearl-like trackball navigation system
• Innovative SureType keyboard technology
• Bluetooth headset, hands-free and serial port profiles supported
• High resolution LCD screen with light sensing technology
• Polyphonic, MP3 and MIDI ringtones
• 64 MB of memory and expandable memory via microSD card
• Quad-band support for worldwide GSM/GPRS and EDGE networks

Technical Specifications
Network:	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
Form Factor:	PDA
Dimensions:	107 x 50 x 15 mm
Weight:	90 g
Antenna:	Internal
Navigation:	Trackball / QWERTY Keypad
Battery Type:	900 mAh Li-Ion
Talk Time:	3.50
Standby Time:	360
Memory:	64.0 MB
Expandable Memory:	microSD / TransFlash
Imaging
Main Screen:	65000 colors (STN) 240 x 260 px
External Screen:
Camera:	1.3 MP / Flash / 5X Zoom
Audio
MP3 Player:	MP3 / AAC / AAC+ / eAAC+
FM Radio:
Speakerphone:
Push-To-Talk:	Cingular-Only
Multimedia
Wallpapers:	240 x 260 px
Screen Savers:	240 x 260 px
Ring Tones:	MP3
Themes:
Games:	J2ME
Streaming Multimedia:	MPEG-4 / H.263
Messaging
SMS:
EMS:
MMS:
Email:	Microsoft Exchange / Lotus Domino
Chat:	AOL / ICQ / MSN / Yahoo!
Predictive Text:	SureType
Applications
Phonebook Capacity:
Calendar:
To-Do List:
WAP:	BlackBerry Browser
Voice Commands:
Calculator:
Connectivity
Bluetooth:	2.0
Infrared Port:
High-Speed Data:	GPRS (Class 10) / EDGE
Wi-Fi:
GPS:
PC Sync:	USB
More Information
Website:	RIM BlackBerry Pearl (8100) Website
Discussion:	Smartphone / PDA Forum

* Compare with other phones side-by-side, or Search by features. We always try to make sure our specs are accurate and complete; however there may be times when information is not known. If you come across any missing details or mistakes, please contact us so we can help other consumers.

LG enV2 (VX9100)	Samsung BlackJack II (I617)	Palm Centro	Samsung T339	RIM BlackBerry Curve (8330)
Verizon Wireless	AT&T	AT&T / Sprint / Verizon Wireless	T-Mobile	Sprint / Verizon Wireless
$49.99	Free!	Free!	Free!	Free!

RIM BlackBerry Pearl (8100)

I bought the phone in early October and it worked wonderfully for the first two months. In December I woke up one morning to find all of my text messages and emails deleted. My call log was also empty. I tried to send out other text messages and they would sit in the outbox for a couple minutes then delete themselves. After about half an hour error messages started to pop up everytime I got a text message or a call. It said 'SIM card full! Please delete some SMS text messages', the problem was that there were NONE left! I went into an AT&T store and explained the problem and they said there was nothing they could do, that I had to call blackberry. So I went home and tried calling blackberry, who said I needed to go through my service provider. I called AT&T the next day and spent almost 2 hours on the phone with them. After speaking with 7 different people they realized there was nothing they could do and decided to send me a new phone. Meanwhile every 6 days or so everything would be deleted again. Well I finally got my new phone, had it about a week and there are already problems. It keeps freezing on me. Text messages get 'stuck'. I cant send them, they cant come in. I was unable to email or MMS pictures for a day, an error message kept saying there was no message service enabled. I am calling AT&T again today, maybe I will get another phone. Hate the pearl.

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9 out of 9 people found this review helpful

Blackberry Pearl 8100

I am on my 3rd and final Pearl. It is my first phone with Blackberry, and I am trying to decide if I want to give another one of their phones a chance, or go back to a "regular" phone that is more durable.

My first Pearl I had maybe 5 or 6 months and I started having trouble with the trackball. First, I cleaned it with a Q-tip and it would fix the problem for a while. Then it just stopped working completely. The girl at T-Mobile was really nice and helpful and I had a new Pearl within the week.

My second Pearl-its ruin was my fault. After having this phone only a week, it got water damage while I was working and it died. Warranty does not cover water damage, so basically I was told I had to pay full price for a new phone. So I went looking on eBay.

My third and current Pearl I got on eBay about $100 cheaper than I would have had to pay at T-Mobile. It worked fine for about 8 months. Then-trackball problems. First it wouldn't let me select anything with the trackball. I can use the bottom right enter key to select some things, but it really is annoying to not be able to select with the trackball. Then my phone started acting really crazy. It randomly sends picture messages and emails to people without me pushing any buttons! I sent the phone off to a company that does repairs on Blackberries, and it was better for a little while. A month after getting repaired, the trackball wouldnt select anymore, and now I can barely scroll. T-Mobile wont help me because I bought the phone on eBay and not from their store.

So now I am debating whether or not to try and see if there is a more durable Blackberry out there, or just get another brand. A guy at T-Mobile told me he has never heard anything like this about the Pearl. He is either lying or has never talked about the Pearl with anybody, because everybody I know has had problems with their trackball!

Also, I read on here that some people have problems with their Pearl deleting the messages and call log. Mine does that every now and then too and it is frustrating!

I would not recommend this phone to anybody! It is the most frustrating piece of technology that I have ever owned!

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4 out of 4 people found this review helpful

I think it's a great phone.

I got phone on Januaery 7, and I have loved it every since I first laid eyes on it . This is my first Blackberry so I cannot compare it to any other models because only thing that I have ever had was Motorola.

I'll admit that the first few days on it was a little ruff because I had to get use to the keys and hwo to use the keys for texting. But after a while of playing with it I have learned a lot about it.

One of my key concerns was that my battery was not holding a very good charge. So if anyone else is having this problem, I have learned that you have to wait until the phone is near dead a few times then charge it with the phone off. After about three days of doing that my battery was at the point that I wanted it to be.

Another thing that was hard was using the Bluetooth. I called T-Mobile Customer Service and they could not tell me how to transfer file from a Motorola to the Pearl so I had to play around with it until I got it together. For anyone having this problem, before you can receive the file you have to go to the media then to the menu and select receive using Bluetooth that way you can get it. If anyone was having problems with the passkey it's 0000.

Other than that I think it is a pretty unique phone, but it could be because this is my first BlackBerry and I did not know what to expect.

One downfall that I had was that the Pearl does not have video recorder just a video playback.

But on the up hand, the Pearl has help me out because being a JR in college and the mother of two the calendar keeps me all together. I am even putting my husbands work schedule in it to make sure we do not get confused about were he is suppose to go everyday.

The camera taks very nice picture, this is my opinion coming from the Motorola Pebl.

I like the fact that it has the expandable memory because I still had my memory chip from my Motorola 360 and it had some very important pictures on it.

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54 out of 58 people found this review helpful

Blackberry 8100

I have had it since Last Wednesday.

Although the trackball feature is really cool, I have already had problems with it.

The biggest issue is that somehow the audio gets turned off and no way to turn it back without having to pull the battery out for about 15 secs then replacing it. This has happened 3 times already to me.

My customer service had no idea WHAT caused it to turn off. You couldnt hear the phone ring nor be able to give a voice command. It was weird and frustrating especially when you are driving.

I have had a motorola before which you used your own voice for each entry and then the phone would recognize the number and dial. The blackberry has their own digitized voice (sucks) and has issues recognizing my husbands work number since its a Japanese firm.

Also in transferring over the phone book from the old phone, it didnt all get there. Many numbers came up as "no number" when you asked the voice command to dial it. It worked ok manually selecting it.

So the work around there was to delete the entry and start all over again with a new entry.

MP3's. OK I did not get the upgraded memory yet, but when I tried to add ONE MP3, it told me that it was too large. It was 3.3mg. Supposedly I have 64mg memory. So go figure this out.

I think the learning curve on this for a first time blackberry user is pretty high. I can build my own PC, but I have trouble figuring out the simplest things on this!

The default for the screen to stay lit is 30 secs. Well when learning this thing and setting things up you sure need more than 30 secs at times to read the built in instructions!!!. I had to call Customer service to figure out how to increase the time. Again it was not in the instructions that came with the phone.

Maybe its in the CD disk that came with it........but shouldnt this be an easier phone to set up?

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64 out of 80 people found this review helpful

Blackberry Pearl 8100

I see a lot of negative reviews of the Blackberry Peal 8100 and just wanted to say it's worked great for me. The Cigular store turned it on and showed me a quick demo of the features so I knew and they knew it worked. Maybe the T-Mobile guys should think about that before handing a phone to a customer then blaming them when it doesn't work.
Anyway, I too have been using cell phones since the brick, used to install them in people's trunks (I go way back) and really like this phone. Most of what I like is the intuitive features. It seems Blackberry spent a lot of time asking customers what they want.
My only requirements for my cell phone is for the phone to work, with good reception, and not drop calls. So far I give the phone a 9 out of 10!

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16 out of 20 people found this review helpful

Love to hate the 8100

My moving from Verizon to the T-Mobile 8100 Pearl was to take advantage of the features this phone offers. They are endless. Problem is the phone is not ready for prime time.

My third replacement phone in 6 weeks is coming UPS ground at MY cost of $9.00. How many change outs will have to happen until they get the bugs out of the hardware/software.

First the Desktop Software crashes. Microsoft cites it as a known problem and recommends users contact RIM.

My first phone would boot up with error messages that displayed exception errors and require rebooting the phone. The second phone lost all sound and the voice dialing just stopped working. (Did I talk using words with too many syllables?) and just locked up. All of this int the first two weeks.

Then the manager of the T-Mobile store warned me that if the 2nd replacement phone also had problems, he would not honor the two week grace period and exchange the phone for a new phone. I would have to accept a "reconditioned phone." Love to hate the phone.

Now this does not begin to cover the 5 to 6 hours spent on the phone with T-Mobile and RIM support trouble shooting and downloading fresh versions of the software, removing the battery and doing a hard reset. Love to hate the phone.

The third phone was a winner until last week when I decided to try the Map feature for my trip to Chicago. Ooops. Nothing but diagonal lines. The first rep blew it off. The second rep (after 30-minutes on the phone) decided that I had a hardware problem and under the warranty the phone would be replaced. Then in Chicago I wanted to send a picture from the Museum of Science and Industry to my son, but the phone refused to cooperate locking up and displaying nothing but the hour glass endlessly rotating. So now that does not work either.

And the honesty from T-Mobile, "We do not have reports of others having those problems." Yea right - it is my magnetic personality causing the problems presented and confirmed at the T-Mobile Store. Love to hate the phone.

I am an experienced cell user going back to the brick days wondering if a time warp has taken me to the Windows ME days.

Trouble is I like the phone and the features - which may be out of reach - without warning.

Is there a fix coming or is it time to find a new phone?

Art

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50 out of 64 people found this review helpful

BE READY FOR MULTIPLE RETURNS AND ABUNDANCE OF ISSUES

first off, this was my first smartphone ever and i think after this soured experience im ready for any phone that will dial a number.

1st exchange:
my phone would not take a charge from either the car charger or the wall charger for the battery. so they sent me a battery *on warranty* and the phone still would not charge. result? they decided to send me another phone.

2nd exchange:
i kept trying to use my oem headset *yes the antique wire version that plugs into the side of the phone* callers could not hear me but i could hear them. they told me to reinstall the software. right.

like im a programmer. someone laugh with me.

as a result, the phone still would not let callers hear you EVEN with the software reinstall. tmobile's stance? send the phone back.

3rd exchange:
im waiting on this phone. god knows what issues itll have, its refurbished. along with every other phone they exchange it for.

issues? yes. many. be ready to expect that if you purchase one of these phones. they dont have all the kinks worked out. its complete disorganization at tmobile with how they refer to every issue that comes up and.to make matters even worse, they make you feel like a problem child when you call because they say, "this doesnt seem to be in the list of issues."

be forewarned.

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14 out of 18 people found this review helpful

RIM BlackBerry Pearl (8100)

Hi everybody. I just received my pearl 3 days ago. Once I activated it, I started to play around with the phone. One thing I noticed immediately was that when I select an email from my inbox and hit the menu button, it selects 'reply' right off the bat. There are many other options in the menu such as reply, forward, delete, etc. Its as if the enter key is permanently pushed in. I am not quick enough with the buttons to try to select anything other than 'reply'. If I am just replying to the email/text then I am fine but if I want to forward the email/text to a co-worker, well then I am just out of luck. Anyone else experience this?

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7 out of 9 people found this review helpful

RIM BlackBerry Pearl (8100)

I bought mine about three weeks ago, and going on my soon to be third phone. My first 8100 lost the ringer, speakerphone - pretty much I mean I lost any "Sounds" in general. I simply brought the phone back to CompUSA and they happily exchanged it for another new phone. I left the store, and made a test call successfully to the ole homestead and I left the parking lot. As soon as I got home, I went to go into the menu to change the settings to my personal liking and when I tried to access the menu it simply flashed the menu and it instantly disappeared..hhm...I then tried to delete a missed call notification and again the menu for that flashed on screen and then instantly disappeard. I panicked. I tried to access my phone numbers and that flashed briefly and then disappeared. If I can't access my phone book, then I am in deep trouble. I realize that I can't access my phone book, I can't access the menu to change the ringer style, can't get to the camera features - nothing. My child was sick and I couldn't remember the Drs name or his phone number, I couldn't get my wifes Drs name and number either and they both were sick with Bronchitus. I then decided to go ahead and upgrade the software on the phone, did that with no problems but that didn't fix the menu flash-disappearance issue. I have pulled the battery and let that sit for 20 minutes as well, but still no luck. Damn I hate being a tester for phone companies.

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24 out of 34 people found this review helpful

<blackberry>

Bought this phone about week ago really nice design, I love IT metallic on sides very slick phone, its got huge bright screen, keyboard its all right you have to give some time to get used to, its got mp3, u can watch videos but its little problem hard find right format… its got 1.3m(flash) camera which is work fine bad thing u cant record video clips.. Bluetooth 2.0 all so on board.. menu really easy to use.. track ball is nice…. expandable memory microsd under battery ……I mean overall its nice phone.. the only thing I don’t understand speakerphone turns off you cant hear ring tone when some one calling you u cant hear mp3 when you listen player only you can you fix that if you pull battery out. I mean I try everything I when trough setting maybe you have to switch something nothing works.. I bought back to tmibile they have no idea what can cause that am confused.. …

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24 out of 36 people found this review helpful

Blackberry 8100 - Pearl

Bought the Pearl 8100 a week back and was really got struck to work on the options which was too fuzzy as the same was not like our regular Nokia / Motorola models. there was a serious problem in the camera where that image is so blurred and was fed up to buy such a costly mobile with this problem.then tried to adjust the lens on my own as it was similar to a normal camera with the zoom options.i was successful in getting a clear image.but it was really risky to do so.also found really hard to send datas by Bluetooth.then located the way.One more drawback was it doesnt have a video recorder which is really pathetic.But other options.PTT are really fantastic.a nice Hi Fi mobile to use with .really helpful for people like me in the marketing field t check mails

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4 out of 6 people found this review helpful

Bad experience with BlackBerry

The Blackberry Pearl 8100.POS. Turned itself off whenever it felt like, changed the date & time whenever it wanted to. I would wake up late to work bc my time would go an hour ahead or behind. It was always tomorrow on my phone & It had the right date when I went to options.It just didn't show up that way on my homescreen. Wouldn't show my missed/dialed calls.on random days it would delete all my text msgs, sometimes I'd get a text and I'd have to go through all of them to find the new one kickin it on a random day the week before. Freeze to where I had to take the battery out & then it still wouldn't work. They said I had 2 weeks to try the phone out and on the 15th day.it started doing this! And T-Mobile wouldn't do anything about it! I complained 3 times! They said, " Uh hmm uh it's your phone.you need a new one" me." No, sh*t".them, " You need to buy a new one!" I'm not happy with their service at all. If I had enough money to get out of the contract & go to somethin else.I would. I'm now using the Motorola V360. So far, no problems!

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8 out of 15 people found this review helpful