BlackBerry Pearl 8130 Specs, Features & Reviews

I was leery of switching from Win Mo to a Blackberry but was soon won over by the sheer awesomeness of this phone. The keyboard takes a bit of getting used to but after the first day or two it comes with ease (I actually have a hard time using the QWERTY keyboard on my husbands Curve now).

As far as blackberries go this phone is on par with the curve or any other. Great size for sure, the best feature by far, a blackberry that doesnt feel like a boulder in your pocket. Yes the keypad takes a while to get used to, but once you do it really isnt bad. I loved my pearl and sold it as soon as the curve came out, for the full keyboard obviously, but regretted it since i got used to the keys, which are actually larger than the curves. Other than the keypad you can go read my review on the curve. They are pretty much operation wise the same phone. My main complaint about the pearl is the REDICULOUS video play back size. The screen is smaller to begin with and however the video formatting works it plays like 1/2 the screen size so you typically are looking at youtube or other videos on a postage stamp size screen. Realistically for the price you shouldn't complain. VZW online has them for free right now and it is really a great phone. No rebate just $0. For this quality of phone I don't see how anyone can argue with it. Final not wise: you do need a media card in the phone to record video or do custom ringtones, but come on people a 1gb card is like 5-10 dollars these days and if u dont have one you need to get one. Also if you dont clear out ur incoming emails and picture messages it does tend to get laggy, but these are pretty much givens. You should know you cant keep every email you ever recieved and I think the default setting actually delete old emails and messages if it gets low on space, and since the emails u get are copies of ur actual emails it really shouldnt be an issue. Just remember if you do not have a media card in the phone for additional storage space you really need to lock any messages of importance cause if u get low on space they could dissapear and u might have lost something u wanted. All in All it was a showstopper when they were Xhundred dollars the phone is free and its still great!!! $20 in the store if u cant wait for the mail lol

I would def. recommend this phone to the people who are intrested in buying it. It's a small phone, but it has SO many fun features-I can't stop playing with it! It does tend to freeze up here and there . . & it can be a little slow too, but you just be patient w. it. If anything else, I do tend to find myself charging the battery at the end of every day (no a big deal though.) If you get it and decide you don't like it, you do have a thirty day trial, so you can always return it too. I only got this phone b/c it was free with a two year contract .. I've rly been having my eye on the curve, but I hear it does all the same things . . so, I'm pretty sure I'll be sticking with the pearl for a while :) I love it!

I haven't many problems with this phone. I had to change phones once the track ball was not working correctly after owning in for 6 months of use. I upgraded the OS on the phone to 4.5 which solved the memory leak and erasing of data. the phone would erase logs to clear out memory. other then that it's a good phone.

The Pearl 8130 (I have Verizon) is my first smartphone. What attracted me to it was the reviews on how it handled email, the nice display, the fact that it was smaller than smartphones, and a desirable cost. All of the above are true. The pros:

-Handles email superbly. Manages my multiple personal accounts and my corporate imap account just fine. Absolutely no complaints.

Very nice display. Bright and colorful whether you're in the dark, in a flourescent bulb ridden office, or out in the sun at high noon

Small, sleek and sturdy

SureType keyboard walks a thin line between love and hate. The advantage is that it allows the phone to be smaller, and yet if you're good you could probably still type out an email or txt faster than on a full qwerty keyboard

Up to 8GB of memory with a microSD slot

All of those things are nice. But the longer I have the phone (had it about 5 months now), the more the cons become impossible to ignore

Cons:

Memory Leak. Definitely the worst of the cons. You want a blackberry so you can do email, messaging and have the utility of 3rd party apps. Well, good luck to you on keeping it all. Only 64mb of onboard RAM, most of which is used by the time it starts up. You also cant use an sd card for additional ram. I only have a few shortcut links and a weather app and I'm down to 10mbs. The worst part is, when it gets too low, it will without warning erase all txts and everything in your phone call log. Unbelievable. Tread carefully.

Too many apps will make it freeze

SureType keyboard can be horrendous at times, I often wish I had gotten a qwerty. Predicts the incorrect word A LOT, and is ungainly to edit wrong words

Trackball is either way too sensitive or too unresponsive for my tastes, and it just gets worse over time as dirt gets in there (pain to clean)

Drops calls a lot. I have Verizon, and I've lost calls with as many as 3 bars

My advice: Don't get a BB phone, if you do, make it a Curve. I am counting off the days til I can switch

Sprint's Blackberry Pearl is simply fantastic. Here are the reasons why.
Pros:
Excellent Reception, no single dropped call in the NY-Tri-state area, to MA, PA, and NJ. (not using roaming either)
Sprintspeed is no joke, the internet is ridiculously fast.
Streams youtube videos.
3rd Party apps make life so much easier.
Expandable micro-sd card slot up to 8GB.
Push e-mail, the most beautiful invention. I have 3 email accounts running simultaneously. I get my e-mails faster on my blackberry than my computer. Excellent for work.
Sure-type keyboard is excellent! Takes a while getting used to, but it predicts what you're typing. I type faster and more efficiently on the pearl than I did on the curve.
Auto-Sync data backup from phone to pc, always allows to back-up your phone just incase you lose or break the phone.
Media Manager is easy to use, can use own mp3s as ringtones.
Call quality is clear, loud, and matches perfectly with any blue-tooth i throw at it. (Blue Ant Z9)
Blackberry messenger is probably the most innovative app ever created.
Full address book, literally.
Long battery life, charge it every three days.

Cons:
Load too many apps at once, the phone freezes.
Slows down after a while.
Restarting takes forever.

I think of my phone as an older computer, I never leave more than one app running at a time to preserve memory and efficiency. If you keep that in mind, the phone will be very enjoyable.
With smart phone prices going down, now is the time to get one. RIM will always be the best.

Carrier: Verizon Wireless
Region: Denver, CO

PROS:
- Signal, even better than the venerable Motorola E815.
- Call Quality, as good as a land line.
- GPS, many complain about Verizon locking out the GPS, but the VZNavigator is excellent and well worth the $10/month.
- Plenty of excellent 3rd party applications are available at reasonable or no cost.
- Email is fast, reliable, and easy to setup.
- Browser works very well and reasonably fast for a mobile. Content is optimized for smaller mobile screens. Opera mini also works well with this phone
- Suretype works very well once you learn it. I can type much faster than with a Qwerty keypad. Small keypad may be a problem for larger hands.
- Camera takes excellent pictures for a mobile phone.
- Battery life is excellent considering the many capabilities of this phone.
- The phone features are very customizable, intuitive, and fun to learn.
- Small phone size is incredible considering the capabilities.
- Multimedia player is excellent and with the memory card capability and headphone jack, can be used as an Ipod replacement.
- Easy sync with Microsoft Outlook and easy backup using the desktop software.
- The Blackberry will automatically change notification profiles when inserted into a magnetic holster.
- Speakerphone clarity and volume is perfect.
- Bluetooth works flawlessly (using a Plantronics Voyager 510 and Toyota in-car Bluetooth)
- Many resources and forums for Blackberry phones available on the internet.

CONS:
- No flash player capability available yet for the browser. Hopefully the next OS upgrade will include this capability.
- HTML email capability is not included but can be purchased from a 3rd party. The next version of the OS addresses this.
- Can view but cannot edit MS Office documents. Again the next version of the OS will have this capability.

Overall this is an extremely capable all-in-one device that I would highly recommend, even if you will only be using it as a phone.

I got this phone a couple weeks ago and absolutely loved it, then was very sad to be told that all units of the 8130 have the following defect.

They will periodically erase your call log. Especially if the battery power is at or below 50%. The BB service tech assured me that this is an issue with all phones of this particular model. "If it's not doing it yet, it will."

It's still a cool phone, it looks great, feels great, sound quality is good, track ball works great, personalizing options are very entertaining, but if knowing who called you is important,,, you should be aware of this "feature" before you decide to make a purchase.

I got the pearl (VZW) to help manage my life with the calendar, contacts as well as SMS, MMS. The reviews I heard were 99% good. Well I am on my second 8130 and it's about to go back for a non BB device. It makes me sad!
What the casual perspective buyer like myself doesn't know is that there is a thing called "memory leak" that occurs on many BlackBerries (BB). There is very little onboard memory on the Pearl - 64 megs. 80% of which is taken up on pre-installed apps. When the free memory gets below a certain point it automatically and without warning deletes SMS, MMS, call logs, and even calendar appointments! You even miss SMS and calls altogether at a certain point.
My first Pearl kept freezing up. This was aside from losing memory and missing text messages. I get pages from my employer, etc so I can't miss messages due to poor engineering on the part of BB. The second phone doesn't freeze up but the memory leak is horrible. I start the day at 15meg and by 4 pm have to do a battery pull because the free space is down under 9 meg. I do receive lots of email but clean it out rapidly. The only additional programs installed is google sync, Viigo, and VZ Nav. None of which are used frequently. It also drops calls in barely marginal signal areas.

I did use the VZ Nav for about 3 hours Saturday and the memory usage was alarming. I even downloaded and installed the "update" off the ZVW software page but it didn't help.
Now, I like playing with technology and phones. But to keep watching the free memory status hourly and having to pull the battery at least once a day in order to keep from missing important messages is too steep a price to pay.
Either today or tomorrow it's going back for probably the Moto v9m. I really wanted a "smart phone" but the other smart phones offered by VZW are bricks.
All other features of the 8130 are pretty sweet and easy to use. Viewing email is a breeze and very useful. Battery life is awful. Heavy users plan on charging often.

Let me start by saying that I went from a Treo 755p (sprint) to this beautiful machine. I have always like the Blackberry options and now that Sprint has finally put MOST of the media options into it. Only thing its missing is picture mail and video mail. There are tricks to get it to work but you just need to send it to their Sprint picture mail email address. The email function of the phone is AMAZING and being able to watch TV and GPS function just adds to the perks. I do not miss my touch screen one bit and it is nice to finally have a flash and a phone that is half the size of the Treo. One option I do miss however is the chat style text options on the Treo. So here we go!!!!

Pros:
1) Camera with flash
2) Mp3s as ring tones
3) Pearl trackball
4) Small lightweight phone
5) beautiful screen with auto dim (saves battery)
6) Buffet of accessories for blackberry's
limitless memory card options
keypad (takes a minute to get used to but i like it)
7) 3.5 mm headphone jack
Stereo Bluetooth
8) Call quality is amazing. (Seriously this sounds better than any land line phone I have ever talked on.)
9) Options of browsers. (Opera is kick a$$)
10) Sleek thin phone that is a eye catcher.

Cons:

1) No text message threading.... (Treo spoiled me)
2) No picture mail or video mail.
3) No longer able to use the excuse of not getting someones email. This thing gets every email almost instantly. WOW!!!!