I know that the BlackBerry Pearl is the greatest thing to happen in the smartphone industry since the thing right before it that was the greatest thing to happen in the smartphone industry, however, I am kind of in a grumpy mood so I am going to list 5 things that suck about the BlackBerry Pearl.
- No digital video capture — Seeing how it took forever for RIM to even come out with a CameraBerry one might think that when they finally did, they would have offered features, I don’t know, maybe like every other cameraphone of similar price have.
- No cross promotion with Pirates of the Caribbean 2 — The name of the frigging ship was the Black Pearl. The name of the smartphone is BlackBerry Pearl. It doesn’t take a marketing genius to figure that one out.
Verizon doesn’t carry it — I know that the rest of the world uses GSM but most BlackBerry sales happen right here in the U.S. and Canada. Last time I checked there are more CDMA users, in the U.S. at least, than there are GSM users.
Low-rez digital camera with a crappy flash — I just bought a 2.0 megapixel digital camera for $14.95 for crying out loud. Why in the world is the resolution so low on the Pearl? Also, if you are going to use one of those new LED flashes to save on the battery life great. It does, however need to be a bit brighter than a birthday cake candle.
Memory card is behind the battery — Do you think that government facilities that say you cannot have flash memory of any kind in the building make an exception for miniSD cards that are cleverly hidden behind a battery? If you want to stick it behind the battery cover, fine… Just don’t make me have to reboot my device because I want to swap it out.
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You’ll love upcoming BlackBerry models then. Wait and watch…
Anon, how long do we have to wait? The Dash already has video capture etc. and is starting to look more enticing…..
Geez, Call whine-1-1 and get this guy a wahmbulance.
This phone pimps hard, and makes it look easy.
E.O.S.
I am a BB user and have been for years. The Pearl is not perfect, nor is any other device for that matter. However, if I could improve on the Pearl it would be the folowing: scrollwheel, louder speaker, full QWERTY, and external memory slot with quick external access rather than behind battery. Just my opinion.
Robb: I like your point about the Pirates film tie-in. However, I have a feeling that RIM would have had to have paid a boatload of money to make that deal happen.
Also, ironically, the film did do cross promotion with Verizon. If RIM had released the Pearl on Verizon, then you may have gotten your Pirates wish.
In fact, perhaps the tie-in with Verizon was itself a barrier to any BB Pearl promotion, since obviously the Pearl came out on a competitor network. So that again leads one back to producing a version for Verizon.
Does the preal use a MiniSD card or the MicroSD?
i also use the bb pearl im kinda new to this model and only way i found to install applications is to use the loader which reinstalls the entire os in the process. the pearl uses microSD its about the size of your pinky fingers, fingernail. also if anybody has any information on how to install applications without reinstalling the entire OS i would like to know, beside of course subscribing to the 40$ bb unlimited plan. call me cheap but i have highspeed internet at home and wow its as much as the bb internet. i cant wait for fiberoptic to reach me.
First, there are more GSM users in the states than CDMA. (Cingy and T-Mo combined equal over 85million, Sprint and Verizon just approaching 80). Second note, Cingy has more BB users than other carriers.
I agree with the flash not being worth the diode it uses. And the no video capture thing is a bit of a pain in the hind parts.
I am having trouble with why the microSD card behind the battery gives everyone a bunch of bees in their bonnet? With 2GB cards available, how often are you really going to be changing cards? New music or movies? Guess its time to carry a dedicated device for such things. (Also, are you really going to carry around a pocket full of MicroSD cards?)
The reason that the BlackBerry just recently started to sport camera/video options is because it’s not meant to be that “pimp hard” multimedia gizmo like the iPhone. It’s for business people and if you’ve ever worked in the corporate world, you can’t exactly take a photo capturing device everywhere you go. Wouldn’t you hate to not be able to check your e-mail or see your missed calls for 8 to 12 hours out of the day? Good luck getting the “Black Pearl” in these choppy waters. While I salute RIM for creating a small phone for the rest of us who think BlackBerry is just “so cool” because the Hollywood stars and Wall Street goons use it, I doubt anyone using the Pearl has room to complain. If you don’t like it, sell it on eBay, wiggle out of your contracts and go buy an iPhone.
well, i have a white BB pearl, and im 13. i hate it… they really suck. my friends have shadows, and sidekicks and the RAZR2’s are even better than these things. i’m not making some kinda sob story 4 u all either. i just hate that i paid 150 bucks 4 something as bad as this. it’s pretty, and that’s about it. i cant text worth anything on this phone (which is mainly what i bought it 4). i’ve had it 4 about 6 months, and am thinking about getting a sidekick with my birthday money. and keeping this 4 a backup phone. when somebody calls me, it always has this little hourglass, and it rolls around and around, and sometimes it waits until the 3rd or 4th ring 2 even sho the caller… and it takes about 30 seconds 2 load a pic. is this normal? please help!
I have a Pearl, and it is terrible! (Actually, it’d have to work better just to qualify as terrible…) It constantly locks up, freezes, tells me I am out of memory and then suddenlt shows tons of free memory. I will never purchase another Pearl.