BlackBerry Pearl 8100

The RIM Blackberry Pearl 8100 is the latest addition to the Blackberry family. In contrast to other models in the series, the Pearl has been equipped with a host of multimedia capabilities in addition to the regular corporate tools. Its newest attractions are the 1.3-megapixel camera, an audio player and a video player. The camera can snap pictures in three resolutions and provides a few other options for editing the images. Although the camera cannot record video, users can still upload clips from their PC and watch them through the video player, which supports four formats. The audio player allows users to organize music and has a few options like shuffle, loop etc. Business-friendly features are mostly the same as other Blackberrys. These include email and support for POP3 or IMAP accounts, instant messages and a web browser. There’s also an application for viewing and editing Microsoft Office documents.

While the phone boasts a wide array of corporate features, it falls short of impressive in overall performance. Call quality isn’t up to the mark and CNET say that most calls sounded muffled and hollow. Other critics have noted instances of static during calls. Multimedia capabilities were not exactly great either. The inbuilt speakers seem to produce hisses at high volumes but the headphones compensate for this. Photos shot lack accuracy when it comes to color or sharpness, but they’re satisfactory for a camera phone. The phone does, however, have good battery life and well-executed business-friendly features to back it up. With all of this in mind, it should be said that the Pearl 8100 is a very impressive phone and is a sign of good things to come.