What We Liked About the BlackBerry Pearl 8220 Flip

After spending a weekend with the new Pearl, I have some strong first impressions, starting with the eye candy factor. The BlackBerry Pearl 8220 is a great looking device; there's no two ways about it. When closed, the sleek smartphone is only 3.9 inches long, 1.9 inches wide and 0.7 inches thick—easily small enough to fit comfortably in a shirt or pants pocket. Its external display is 128 x 160 pixels. When opened, the flip Pearl is roughly 7 inches long and a bit thinner. It weighs just 3.6 ounces. The device also features a larger internal screen than previous Pearls; at 240 x 320 pixels, the Pearl 8220 display is exactly the same size as the screen on the BlackBerry Curve 83xx, but it's rotated 90 degrees. When closed, the Pearl 8220 is shorter than its predecessor Pearls, but it's also slightly thicker. Still, somehow it seems sleeker. (Check out our Pearl 8130/8220 image gallery for comparison shots.)

RIM BlackBerry Pearl 8220 Flip (open)

The device, designed to sit steadily in the palm of your hand when opened and comfortably cradle your face when in use, delivers on both accounts. The Pearl 8220's volume and mute buttons are located high up on the right and left sides of the device, respectively, and they're easy to access while the phone's in use via thumb and middle finger. I found the volume levels to be average compared with existing BlackBerry devices, and call quality over both EDGE and Wi-Fi was good, but not great.

The new Pearl also has an LED coverage/message indicator like all its elder BlackBerry brethren; however the device's clever design has a circular LED positioned externally alongside two similarly-sized circles that are the camera lens and flash. All three sit just horizontally above the outer display when the device is closed.

One of the Pearl 8220's coolest and most innovative new features: The phone lets you display and preview new messages and status information on the external screen when it's closed. This does away with the need to constantly open the phone to check for messages. It also reduces unnecessary wear-and-tear on the flip hinge. The up/down volume buttons scroll through new messages when the Pearl is closed. And the programmable "convenience keys" on each side of the device work to light the external display when it fades so you can check the time or device status without ever having to open the Pearl. (Both buttons can be customized by the user to launch various applications when the device is open.)

Perhaps the most notable difference between the Pearl 8220 and the 81xx series—besides the flip form factor—is its OS: BlackBerry handheld OS v4.6.0.151. (Previous Pearls ran on various versions of BlackBerry OS v4.2 and 4.3, though updates to v4.5 are expected from U.S. carriers in the near future.) In fact, the new flip Pearl is the first U.S. BlackBerry to run on RIM's latest OS.

I could write an entire review based on the new features available in BlackBerry OS v4.6, but I'll only focus on the highlights here. First of all, you can now receive HTML e-mail, which means no more messy code scattered throughout messages. It also means that images within mail can now be displayed, though you must choose to manually download pictures for each message. (HTML e-mail is available in BlackBerry OS V4.5.)

BlackBerry OS v4.6 also lets you create new folders on your home icon screens for enhanced organization. For example, you can now choose to create separate folders for different kinds of applications, i.e., one for games, one for search and navigation apps, and another for social networking programs. This helps to reduce clutter on the icon screen and makes applications easier to locate.

Previous versions of the BlackBerry OS provided one central folder into which all messages—e-mail, SMS and MMS—were delivered, making it difficult to fish through piles of mail to find one specific text or multimedia message. BlackBerry OS 4.6 offers a separate SMS/MMS-dedicated mailbox.

The new BlackBerry OS for the Pearl 8220 has a cool new feature called Safe Mode, as well, which can be activated by holding the device's Escape key while it's rebooting. Safe Mode is meant to help identify and remove problem applications that may be negatively affecting the health of the device.

DataViz's Documents to Go ships with the Pearl 8220 so users can download and edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint files—there are also tricks to make the free standard edition of Docs to Go create new documents. And an entirely new set of games comes along with the Pearl 8220, including Word Mole, Texas Hold'Em King 2, Sudoku, Klondike and Trooper Typing.

RIM BlackBerry Pearl 8220 Flip with battery removed

Much improved clock/alarm features let you customize the external time display—digital, analog or flip-clock-style. With detailed alarm settings, you can disable the blinking LED coverage/message indicator during the evening and much more.

Instant messaging applications including BlackBerry Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk, ICQ and AIM, all come preinstalled. A better—though still lacking—media player lets you manage music and playlists on the handset and not through a desktop-based application. The device features an external microSD memory slot that can accommodate media cards up to 16GB, and it ships with the new BlackBerry Media Sync software, which means you can sync non-DRM-protected iTunes tracks with the BlackBerry.

Finally, the device also sports some great T-Mobile-specific features, starting with the carrier's MyFaves app, which works in conjunction with the T-Mobile Fave 5 program. Fave 5 lets T-Mobile customers place unlimited to calls to five specific numbers, in addition to their monthly allotment of minutes. The application also makes it easy to set custom notifications and alerts for calls and messages from users' Fave 5 contacts.

Pearl 8220 users can also utilize T-Mobile's HotSpot@Home plan, thanks to the device's Wi-Fi and UMA support. HotSpot@Home enables T-Mobile customers to place unlimited calls via their home Wi-Fi networks for just $10 a month on top of their current bills. I've been a T-Mobile customer for some time, and HotSpot@Home is my single favorite thing about the carrier. (For more on my experiences with HotSpot@Home and UMA, read "Pros and Cons of Dual-Mode Cellular/VoWi-Fi Mobile Phones.")

And the Pearl 8220 even has a lanyard hook for all you fans of silly smartphones accessories.

That's a lot to like. But on the flip side...

  ...The Cons >>