BlackBerry 8100 Review
I have never used blackberry before this one. I was looking for a cellphone with multimedia capabilities and with which I can check my email. BB Pearl fit that profile very well. I did read some reviews before getting it. Most of the reviews were very positive with one concern that was raised in some reviews that voice quality was not as good as reviewers expected. It was a concern to me but I thought that I could always return it if I noticed voice problems.
Here are some of my impressions from three weeks of use:
* Voice quality is excellent (I am in twin cities on t-mobile network). I haven’t taken it outside the metro area or to another city yet. So, I don’t know if that would effect voice quality
* I agree with couple of other reviewers that speaker phone is not the best quality. I only expect to use it on rare occasions.
* Phone paired easily with my samsung and motorola blue tooth headsets. I also have a stereo overhead bluetooth headset and when I paired the stereo bluetooth headset it worked great. It is amazing how clear other side sounds with a good quality stereo bluetooth headset.
* The back cover of the BB pearl seems to be made of flimsy plastic and I am afraid that if I removed cover too many times it might break and I will have to buy a replacement cover. When you open the back cover, you will see the battery. Underneath the battery are two slots. One for sim card and one for the micro sd card. You have to lift the latch and then insert the cards and close it. I am concerned that if I am not careful these latches to secure the cards may break. Seems to me a bit over engineering on BB’s part. Because I was concerned about the durability of the outer back cover, I bought 1 GB micro sd card with plenty of storage, so that I don’t have to open the back cover often to replace the micro sd card. You can transfer data to micro sd card either thru the supplied usb cable or thru bluetooth.
* Mp3 music: I transferred mp3 music files to micro sd and the player played without any problems. There are two issues to be aware of. One, the jack on the phone is 2.5 mm. Most stereo headphones are 3.5 mm. So, if you want to listen to stereo music on your favorite headset, you would need a small 2.5mm to 3.5mm converter. I bought mine from target for few dollars. The second issue is that I was unable to listen to music in stereo using my bluetooth stereo headphones (though I was able to listen to phone conversation in stereo using the same bluetooth headset). I don’t know at this point why it was. I called t-mobile BB tech support but they were not able to give me a satisfactory answer.
* During the first week, I got number of “java null pointer exception” error messages during conducting different operations. The errors have decreased but I still got one couple of days ago. I am thinking these are software bugs, that t-mobile/BB need to fix.
* I am very happy with the email. It arrives instantaneously and I see a red blinking light when there is an email message in my mail box. Setting up email thru BB internet server was a breeze
* While email is great on BB. Web browsing leaves much to be desired for. Part of the problem is that t-mobile’s network is slow (in the process of being upgraded), and then navigation on the BB browser is not easy. Perhaps, I will get used to it, but for right now I don’t enjoy it much.
* Key pad is bit crowded. After three weeks of use, I still mistype a key once in a while, because the keys are so close to each other. I can’t imagine using it for typing long messages. Just short quick notes. Perhaps, if you have more nimble fingers it may work better for you.
* Screen is very vibrant and clear. You would not be disappointed. I have had no problem reading messages, emails.
* Camera is ok quality. I would not throw my regular camera. I expect to only use it rarely
* Navigation ball is excellent and you would definitely like it to move “cursor” from application to application. I did notice one day that I could not move up the screen with the navigation ball. I turned off BB and started it again and the problem went away.
* As I said this is my first BB and before buying it I heard that you could read (not edit) microsoft documents plus pdfs. The gottacha here is that you can do that only if the documents are part of email attachments. So, for instance, you cannot upload a MS word document on your micro sd card and view it. I am disappointed with this limitation.
* The extra battery for BB pearl is being sold for approx $50. I consider it a highway robbery by RIM (maker of BB) to sell a $5 battery for that much. I am disgusted by this level of greed.
* I have noticed that after about a month of it’s release still it’s difficult to find accessories specifically for BB pearl like a leather cover. I liked the leather cover advertised at the official BB shop at shopblackberry.com but it’s not going to be available until mid november. Meanwhile, beware of web sites which are re-marketing their existing products as made for BB pearl to make a buck.
Overall, I am very happy with the BB Pearl. Many of my complaints are minor to me and do not materially effect my decision to buy this BB. I hope my two cents will help you in making a better decision if this phone is for you or not. Goodluck
- Similar Posts:
