BlackBerry Pearl lacks hardcore business appeal

Keypad and pearl trackball

Just below the LCD screen, the Pearl has a new trackball and Menu and Escape buttons. These controls replace the right-side trackwheel and Escape key that many BlackBerry users are accustomed to.

Too small for my thumbs

The Pearl's SureType keyboard features a traditional QWERTY layout, but two letters are assigned to a single key. The keys are small and make text entry very difficult for my thumbs. I found it nearly impossible to simultaneously use two thumbs, as I would with a Palm Treo.

SureType and cumbersome keyboard make text entry difficult

As you begin to enter the letters of a word, SureType provides a list of possible letter combinations or words based on context. The premise sounds good and the technology works for common words, but try to enter a proper name or anything with an apostrophe and SureType falls apart. I found SureType more a hazard than a benefit.

The white box is blocking the full address of the POP3 e-mail account I used to test the phone. I'll talk more about my e-mail tests later in the gallery.

LCD Screen

The BlackBerry Pearl has a 2.25-inch TFT screen that displays 65,000 colors at a resolution of 240x260-pixels. The screen provides a sharp, clear display with bright colors.

Here, I've created a contact for myself and add my own photo--taken with the Pear's camera.

Back

The Pearl's camera lens, flash, and a small self-portrait mirror are located on the back.

Right side

The volume controls and a customizable shortcut key are located on the Pearl's right side. By default, the shortcut key was configured to activate the camera.

Left side

The Pearl's left side sports a 2.5mm headset jack, a mini USB port, and another shortcut key. By default, this key was configured to activate the phone's voice dialing feature.

Top

A mute button is located on top of the Pearl.

Bottom

Camera and flash

The Pearl has a 1.3-megapixel camera with a flash and 5X zoom. Unfortunately, you can't record video and the camera options are limited. You can however, choose from three picture sizes (1,280x1,024, 640x480, and 320x240) and three quality settings (normal, fine, and superfine).

Back - battery cover

Depress the thin silver latch near the Pearl's base to remove the battery cover.

Back - battery cover removed

BlackBerry rates the Pearl for 3.5 hours of talk time and up to 15 days of standby time.

Battery removed

With the battery removed, you can access the unit's SIM card and Micro SD flash memory card.

SIM card

Micro SD Flash memory card

Removing the Micro SD card is a delicate, but not a difficult, operation.

SanDisk Micro SD flash memory card

Our test unit included a SanDisk 1.0GB Micro SD card. You can see just how small the card is against my thumbnail.

Don't drop the Micro SD card

I actually dropped the card when removing it from the phone. If lost, the card's tiny size could make it difficult to find.

Applications

The Pearl's Home screen displays five application icons across the bottom. Using the trackball, you can scroll to the icons and start the application. You can also configure which applications are displayed on the Home screen.

Keypad Lock

Before tossing the Pearl into your purse or pocket, you should lock the keypad or place the unit in standby mode. My unit once called the last-dialed number while the phone was in my pocket. Mark Kaelin, my colleague and fellow editor, was treated to a conversation between me and my daughter will I placed her in the car seat.

Voice dialing

I was surprised by how well the Pearl's voice dialing feature worked. You press the voice dialing shortcut key on the phone's left side, say "dial", and then the number. The phone sill normally provide you a choice of numbers if it's not absolutely sure and you answer "yes" to dial the appropriate number.

Voice dialing error

Although the voice dialing system works well, it's not foolproof.

Menu

Pressing the phone's Menu button from the Home screen let's you customize the phone's many settings and features.

Bluethtooth

The Pearl supports bluetooth.

Instant Messaging (IM)

The Pearl can use BlackBerry's own messaging service, BlackBerry Messenger, or four other popular IM services.

POP3 E-mail setup confirmation

The Pearl support up to 10 separate POP3 and IMAP4 e-mail accounts. Businesses who want to integrate the Pearl with Microsoft Exchange will need to use BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

As we don't use BlackBerry Enterprise Server, I setup a POP3 account to test the system. The setup of simple and straightforward. I received this message shortly after configuring the e-mail account.

As in previous photos, I have blocked out the full address of the POP3 e-mail account I used to test the Pearl.

Calendar - Daily view

The Pearl's calendar supports daily, weekly and monthly views.

Calendar - Weekly view

Calendar - Monthly view

Web browsing

The Pearl's Web browser contains several preloaded favorites. You can also enter a URL.

TechRepublic

Here is TechRepublic's main page on the Pearl.

TechRepublic gallery

This is a TechRepublic gallery of Firefox 2.0.

TechRepublic gallery thumbnails

Even the Firefox 2.0 gallery's small thumbnails were crisp and clear on the Pearl.

CNN

Google

Messages

The Pearl's Messages applications serves as a central location for all messages (SMS text, MMS, e-mail, etc.).

Compose message

Pressing the Menu button from within the Messages application, will let you compose a variety of new messages and perform other message-related task.

Indicator light

A small LED above the LCD screen lights up different colors for different status messages: blue for Bluetooth, green for wireless, red for new messages (seen here), and amber for low battery.

You have a message

The Home screen also shows a new message notification.

E-mail

You can quickly access an e-mail account from the phone's e-mail application.

E-mail - Inbox

The inbox shows your latest e-mails, sorted by date and time.

E-mail sample Word document - attachment missing

To test the Pearl's e-mail capability, I sent an e-mail containing a Word document to the test POP3 account. The message came through in seconds, but I had forgotten to attach the Word document. Doh!

E-mail - Reply

I should probably let myself know I forgot the Word document. Pressing the Menu button from within and e-mail message, bring up the menu shown here. From this menu, I can reply to the message.

E-mail - New reply message

I can now enter text into this blank reply message.

E-mail - Text entry

When I begin typing, SureType provides a list of possible letter combinations or words. As before, I found SureType cumbersome and annoying for anything but common words. Here, I'm trying to enter the letter I, but the U and the I are located on the same key. Seems logical that I would press the key twice to enter the second letter, but that's not how the system works. You press the key once then have to use the trackball to select the correct letter--very annoying.

E-mail - Complete reply

Finally, my reply is ready to send.

E-mail - Reply indication

Here, my Inbox shows that I replied to the message.

E-mail - New message with attachment

A new message has arrived. This one has the attached Word document--denoted by the file and paperclip icon. I must have gotten my message.

E-mail with Word attachment

I'm not sure why the e-mail shows two attachments as it only has one.

Opening the Word attachment

Pressing the trackball or the Menu button allows me to open the attachment.

Word attachment

Before actually opening the attachment, the Pearl lets you look at a table of contents. I didn't really like this feature. Perhaps it would be useful for very long documents.

Word viewer - Receiving more data

Once you choose to open the attachment, the data is sent to the phone.

Sample Microsoft Word document with text and a diagram

Here's a screenshot of the document in Word. It has a heading, body text, and a diagram.

Word viewer

The heading and body text display correctly, but the diagram is totally lost.

E-mail with Excel attachment

I also tested the Pearl's ability to display Excel spreadsheets.

Excel attachment

Again, I'll open the full attachment.

Sample Microsoft Excel spreadsheet

Here's a screenshot of the spreadsheet in Excel. I created a quick example with formated cells and formulas.

Excel viewer - Normal view

The Excel spreadsheet displays correctly, although the numbers are difficult to read as the columns are shrunk to fit the Pearl's screen.

Excel viewer - Menu options

Pressing the Menu button from within the Excel viewer, brings up a variety of options.

Excel viewer - Edit cell

By clicking the trackball, you can edit individual cells.

Excel viewer - Expand columns

You can expand the columns to fit the contents.

Excel viewer - Expand all columns

You can expand a single column or all columns in a spreadsheet.

Excel viewer - All columns expanded

Here, I have expanded all the columns in the spreadsheet. It is now possible to read the numbers, but the spreadsheet now extends beyond the screen's edge. You can use the trackball to scroll the sheet.

E-mail with PowerPoint attachment

Lastly, I tested the Pearl's ability to display PowerPoint presentations.

PowerPoint viewer - Attachment

Again, I'll open the full attachment.

Sample Microsoft PowerPoint presentation

The sample presentation uses one of CNET's standard PowerPoint templates and contains 3 slides--a title slide and two charts.

Sample Microsoft PowerPoint presentation - Chart

Here is a screenshot of the first chart slide.

PowerPoint viewer - Whole document

The Pearl's PowerPoint viewer automatically displays all a presentation's slides stacked in a single view, which you can scroll through.

PowerPoint viewer - First slide

Using the trackball, you can select any one of the slides and open it in the full screen.

PowerPoint viewer - Chart

Looking at the first chart, the colors, and overall structures are visible, but the axis headings and scales are nearly impossible to read.

PowerPoint viewer - Chart 2

With less information, the second chart is slightly better than the first.

PowerPoint viewer - Options

You can view each slide one-at-a-time or in a slide show.

PowerPoint viewer - Zoom

If you can't read a particular slide, the Pearl provides a Zoom feature to enlarge the slide.

PowerPoint viewer - Zoom Slider

When active, the Zoom feature places a slider bar on to the left of the screen. Using the trackball, you can zoom in and out on a slide.

PowerPoint viewer - Zoomed in

Unfortunately, even when I zoomed in on the first chart, I couldn't clearly read the headings.

PowerPoint viewer - Enhance

The Pearl's PowerPoint viewer also has an Enhance feature. I assumed this would try to improve the image's quality and tried it.

PowerPoint viewer - Enhance receiving more data

When activated, I assume the Enhance feature pulls more data into the phone.

PowerPoint viewer - Enhance not working

Unfortunately, the enhance feature displayed merely a blank screen.

Camera

Lastly, I tested the unit's camera. Here's a picture of the TechRepublic parking lot from my office.

Camera

Here's the same view, but I took a picture of a shrub to demonstrate the Pearl's 5x zoom.

Camera zoom

If you can hold you hand very, very still, the 5x zoom does an OK job.

The camera is adequate for quick snapshots, but it won't replace a digital camera.