Koyono Blog

Getting a new smart phone (Part 3)

When I started seeing ads for the BlackBerry Pearl, I was sold. The form factor is just way too cool. Admittedly, while it is not the ultimate solution, the Pearl is worthy of a two-year contract signed with T-Mobile.

To recap, this journey started in 2004 when I suddenly needed a smart phone with a good e-mail client that could also sync with a Mac. Being terribly picky about compactness and ease of use with the BlackCoat-T, the only phone that I liked and would work was the BlackBerry7100. For $29 I got PocketMac for AddressBook and iCal syncability. Though PocketMac was a little buggy, this scenario did the trick for 15 months until it broke down and I switched to legacy mobile technology – the SMT 5600.

Why the BlackBerry Pearl? Did I mention the form factor is way cool? This little beast balances the right amount of performance, utility and good looks. Although the marketing is cheezy (Small. Smart and Stylish. So you can live large.), it meets most of my likings. Here is a run down:

Pros:

Style:
It needs no repeating; this phone has sex appeal! Black face with chrome trimmings – I like. Sure beats the robo man and rather cheap plastic feel of other RIM BlackBerries. Interestingly, the size/weight ratio gives this phone a great feel.

Performance:
The phone switches between applications in a snap and offers a MicroSD slot for added memory. This is a quad band phone and can be used anywhere in the world. The Pearl packs a 1.3 mega pixel camera with flash offering good overall photo quality. The media player (MP3 and video) is pretty good and I can see using it (songs you burn from CDs into iTunes can be transferred and played on the Pearl). You can designate any song as your ring tone for cheap and easy personalization.

Utility:
RIM still offers the best push e-mail on the planet. The small form factor makes this little guy easy to pack. (It works great with the BlackCoat-T, especially if you use a Bluetooth headset). Navigation is a breeze with Pearl’s GUI and luminescent track ball. Crisp and bright, the GUI is very pleasing with which to interact. There are four basic theme layouts to choose from depending on how you use your phone (I like the T-Mobile Zen theme because it offers a generous screen image and only my top 5 apps). Pearl has a sensor that changes the screen’s brightness depending on the lighting, which is a nice feature when viewing the phone outdoors. Yes, it syncs with iCal, AddressBook, and e-mail via a free PocketMac download now distributed via BlackBerry. It’s free and you get what you pay for (more on this later). Pearl will mount on your Mac so you can easily transfer files (NOTE: My Pearl mounted only when I added a 1GB MicsoSD card). Can you use Pearl as a modem for your Mac? Indeed you can! Using the phone as a Bluetooth modem is really easy and very useful for those times when you can’t find a WiFi network. Click here for more information on how to set it up. Bonus – the phone has a sweet little Maps application that provides super easy to read directions and can sync with a GPS device. Lastly, the web browser works well with T-Mobile’s edge network. Google has a mobile login page so you can get important RSS feeds, check the local weather, and much more.

Cons:

Style:
While Pearl’s stark detailing is nice, there is a more minimal feel that could be brought to the form of the device. For me there are a few abrupt transitions on the sides and face that make the phone feel less refined. The metallic look is good, but it’s not real metal. I’m from Cleveland and metal as color only is sort of cheap.

Performance:
The keypad sounds disappeared randomly when inserting and disconnecting the headphones? PocketMac is really buggy. Be sure to get a copy of SuperDuper and do a full back up. You should do this anyway. I lost ALL contacts in my AddressBook upon the initial sync! Because we have a few backup systems running, one of which is SuperDuper, I was up and running in minutes. T-Mobile’s Edge network is not nearly as fast as Sprint’s 3G and web access has some latency. Quite honestly it’s not that bad, but faster is better.

Utility:
For me, I had to make sure the Mac overwrote the phone on first sync with PocketMac. After that, it worked pretty well for iCal but not address book. When I had my Pearl and Mac sync with each other, the phone added dozens of duplicate groups for no reason. Very weird. Oh, you might not want to install the Safari bookmark tool – it didn’t work for me and crashed my Mac .

(I can’t wait for Apple to add BlackBerry to iSync. This would solve everything!)

Overall, the BlackBerry Pearl works well, but is still a little buggy for those who want to sync it with their Mac (pretty much everyone). Although there will always be trade offs when getting a mobile device, I love my Pearl and it gets a lot of compliments. It’s by far the best mobile phone I have ever owned. And for $149 bucks, what’s not to love!

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