subject: Satiate The Appetite of Flip Phone Fanatics With Pearl 8220 [print this page] The BlackBerry Pearl was a breakout device for RIM. It was the first time the company took the more traditional form factor allowed by its SureType 20 key keypad and packaged it in a small, glossy, and consumer friendly device. In short, it was the break out device for RIM. The Pearl Flip is set to be that same kind of device. It takes all of the good features of the BlackBerry Pearl line and stuffs them into the folder form factor that the North American market loves so dearly. The new form factor also allows the Pearl Flip to offer something no other BlackBerry has in the past: a secondary display. It all looks fantastic.
Design
In its closed state, the smartphone measures 3.9 inches high by 1.9 inches wide by 0.7 inch deep and weighs 3.6 ounces. It's not the most compact flip phone we've seen, but you should be able to slip it into a pants pocket with no problem. The Pearl Flip fits comfortably in the palm of your hand. The phone is quite tall in its open state, but when on a call, it feels a bit weird since the drop hinge (see below) causes the bottom half of the phone to hit your cheek. On the positive side, the handset has a solid construction and is available in black or red.
On front, you get a 1.6-inch diagonal external nontouch display with a 65,536-color output and 128x160-pixel resolution. In addition to showing the standard information (battery life, network strength, time and date), it displays notifications for new messages, missed calls, caller ID, voice mails, and the like. You can even read previews of new e-mail from the external screen.
Features
The RIM BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 runs BlackBerry OS 4.6, providing new functionality and a fresh appearance to the device. On the surface level, the user interface features an updated look with flashier, modern icons. It may be superficial but it does a lot to add to the device. The Pearl Flip 8220 continues to offer the outstanding e-mail support that BlackBerry is known for in the smartphone world. It can sync with your company's BlackBerry Enterprise server, with support for Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Domino, or Novell GroupWise, to deliver corporate e-mail in real time.
Camera
The Pearl Flip comes with a 2-megapixel camera with flash, 5x zoom, and video recording. For still images, you have your choice of three picture sizes and three picture qualities. Once done, you can send your media via e-mail or multimedia message, set them as your background image, or upload it to Facebook. In addition to the flash, there are white balance settings and you can add a couple of color effects. In video mode, you only get three color effects and two video formats (normal and MMS).
Performance
General performance felt snappy. The smartphone was responsive in day-to-day use with minimal performance delays. We didn't experience any system crashes during our review period. Web browsing was admittedly a bit pokey using T-Mobile's EDGE network. The Pearl Flip definitely isn't the smartphone for heavy Web browsing, but it's suitable for casual browsing. The Pearl Flip also had no problem finding and connecting to our Wi-Fi network. Music playback sounded fairly decent through the phone's speaker; we would have liked a touch more bass, but songs didn't sound as tinny as some of the other smartphones we've tested. We watched several videos, including a couple from YouTube, and while images and sound were always synchronized, the picture was pretty pixelated.
The RIM BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 has a 900mAh lithium ion battery and has a rated talk time of 4 hours and up to 14 days of standby time.
Satiate The Appetite of Flip Phone Fanatics With Pearl 8220
