Camera

Activating the PEBL's integrated 0.3-megapixel camera, the internal display becomes the viewfinder with the lower portion showing available memory and user options. Unfortunately falling short the market standard, the PEBL's camera is outdated compared to high-end camera phones now progressing past 1.3- to 2.0-megapixels.

Only capable of capturing images up to 480 x 640 px (High) in resolution, other picture sizes include 240 x 320 px (Medium) and 120 x 160 px (Small). The PEBL uses the JPG file format for approximate file sizes of 50 KB, 16K, and 3 KB respectively.

Controlling functions with the directional keypad, up and down key presses adjust the 4x digital Zoom, while left and right movements alter Brightness levels. Other bundled functions include Effects, Contrast Adjustments, and Self-Timer.

Capturing up to 30 seconds of video at 15 frames per second, the PEBL supports 3GP (MPEG-4, H.263, and AMR Audio) formats for video recording and playing back at Sub-QCIF (128 x 96 px) and Full QCIF (176 x 144 px) resolutions.

For printable photos, 1.3-megapixels are a required minimum, far from the PEBL's 0.3-megapixel lens. Rather gritty and blurry, the camera is more of a novelty item than a digital camera replacement. Working well to capture Picture IDs or phone wallpapers, anything much more will be low-quality.

Basic Features

Released for T-Mobile, the quad-band (850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz) PEBL is compatible with GSM networks worldwide, provided the phone unlocked.

If purchased from T-Mobile, the PEBL will be locked to the network by default, a common carrier practice to prevent customers from taking discounted phones (purchased in conjunction with a plan) to other carriers. In order to use it on other networks, users will need to request an unlock code. Current policies allow good-standing customers to request unlock codes after 90 days of service.

Rating the PEBL's 820 mAh Li-Ion battery at 4.0 hours and 180 hours of talk and standby times respectively, these are under optimal conditions. Manufacturers and carriers often list talk and standby times with disclaimers about variable performance, and refer to the times they publish as maximum times. Actual talk and standby times are lower.

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