Thu, March 13, 2008 — PC World — Research in Motion's latest BlackBerry Pearl handset, the 8120, sets a new cell-phone standard for delivering business-class e-mail and great multimedia in a small, sleek package.

It's the first Pearl with Wi-Fi support, which speeds up Web surfing and e-mail access. It's also the first with memory expandability via a MicroSD slot. The Pearl 8120 improves on its predecessors with outstanding software for multimedia management and a better camera that captures video and stills.

The 8120 makes its debut Thursday--but only to AT&T Wireless corporate customers (via its enterprise channels and its Premier business portal). Pricing for these customers is US$200 with a two-year contract, or $350 unlocked.

I spent a couple of days testing this svelte candy-bar-style handset and came away highly impressed. Voice calls sounded loud and clear, and recipients were able to hear me even while I was walking along a busy city street. We have not yet lab-tested the phone's battery life. Check back for test results--and a PC World Test Center rating--when those tests are complete.

Although the 8120 doesn't support AT&T's fastest data network (HSDPA), its 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi capability certainly compensated in many locations. And its quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support means you can use it for voice calls throughout most of the world, with data coming in at roughly dial-up speed in locations where Wi-Fi isn't an option.

An Elegant Phone

Like earlier Pearls, the 8120 is petite and elegant, yet solidly crafted. It weighs in at a featherweight 3.2 ounces, and measures 4.2 inches in length, a hair less than 2 inches wide, and slightly more than half an inch thick. The glossy black casing looks classy.

The Pearl uses RIM's unique SureType keyboard, which lays out letters in QWERTY position but places two letters each on most of its 20 keys. The keypad is laid out in five columns of four keys each. The keys in the three central columns, which also contain the numerals, as on a traditional phone keypad, are colored silver; they're flanked by a single column of black keys on each side.

But unlike most non-QWERTY keypads, the Pearl doesn't make you choose between the two letters on a key (by double-tapping for the second) when typing most words: You simply type as though the letter you want were on its own key, and the device's SureType software almost always figures out what word you had in mind by the time you press the space key.