BlackBerry Pearl 3G: a new form factor for BlackBerry

There is no doubt that BlackBerry is the market leader in business smartphones, its range of mobile phones tend to be quite similar in design, with a one size fits all mentality, with a large Qwerty keyboard and a wide screen. This is fine for the business user with handy briefcases or large suit pockets, but it’s not particularly portable for the more casual dresser. To meet this need, RIM designed the BlackBerry Pearl, which transformed the regular BlackBerry experience into a more portable candy bar form factor.

The new BlackBerry Pearl 3G updates the design, bringing all the useful email and messaging capabilities of the BlackBerry range in a traditional candybar design with a standard alphanumeric keyboard and adding 3G connectivity. The Pearl 3G uses RIM’s own SureType predictive algorithm to enable users to enter messages accurately and quickly, and comes with BlackBerry’s standard encrypted push email account and combined inbox features.

The Pearl 3G has the full range of smartphone connectivity options, including Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, plus, of course, 3G. It’s also a great music phone thanks to a regular 3.5mm headphone jack and physical media controls located on the top edge of the phone. The BlackBerry Pearl 3G also contains a 3.2 megapixel camera and an LED flash capable of producing high-quality snapshots.

BlackBerry Pearl 3G owners can access the dedicated BlackBerry Store, where free and paid apps and games can be downloaded. The Pearl 3G comes with several applications as standard, including dedicated ones for Facebook and Twitter. The phone also features a GPS chip that allows users to take advantage of Google Maps and other location-aware applications. Memory is 256 MB out of the box, but can be expanded with microSD cards.

The absence of the usual Qwerty keyboard soon becomes noticeable as soon as you start typing long emails or text messages, but allowing buyers to choose a normal form factor layout is still a good thing. It’s a shame the screen can’t be a bit bigger, but again, that’s more an issue with the limitations of candybar phones in general than a fault specific to the Pearl 3G.

A bigger concern is the outdated nature of the BlackBerry operating system. The business market may be more willing to overlook the lack of customization and plain, basic menu layouts, but prospective BlackBerry Pearl 3G buyers may have more business tastes, and the current operating system is far from competitive with the likes of Android or Apple iOS in terms of user experience.