BlackBerry Pearl-8120 Titanium Review - Usability & Performance

Usability & Performance

I tested the Pearl 8120 on T-Mobile’s GSM network in the San Francisco Bay Area, and also used the device for UMA calling on the WiFi networks at my house, in my office, and in a few hotspot locations.  Pearl’s performance on voice calls was generally excellent, with only minimal complaints of background hiss from the people I talked to.  The UMA functionality boosted call quality - particularly in locations like my house where T-Mobile reception is less than full strength - and only drained Pearl’s battery slightly more than GSM-only calling.  UMA calling worked using a T-Mobile supplied router as well as over other brands of routers, which is a big step forward from the first T-Mobile UMA phones, which didn’t much like non-T-Mob routers.

The integrated speakerphone worked pretty well, and the Pearl worked quite nicely with both the included stereo headset and my own Etymotic hf2 set, yielding stereo audio with quality just a hair below that of an Apple iPod.  I was able to easily pair Pearl with a variety of mono and stereo Bluetooth headsets, and both range and audio quality were very good over Bluetooth. 

Beyond UMA calling, Pearl’s strong points are its messaging capabilities.  Push email is amazing - I spent a little too much time sending myself Emails just to watch them appear on the Pearl before they showed up in my computer’s Email program.  T-Mobile’s EDGE network is plenty fast enough for sending and receiving Emails but I did notice major lag during IM sessions when no WiFi network was available.  As with the original Pearl, I found typing on the SureType keyboard a bit frustrating, though I was better able to manage it this time around.  The system itself works quite well, using a combination of single and double taps on keys and a good predictive text system to mimic a QWERTY experience with fewer buttons. 

My problem with using Pearl for heavy Emailing and messaging was that the whole thing, device and keyboard, simply proved too small for two-thumb typing — at least for my hands.  I couldn’t really find a way to comfortably hold the device and navigate the keys with both thumbs at the same time, and wanted the keys themselves to be just a bit bigger. I think someone with smaller hands and/or thumbs than me wouldn’t have this trouble, which may explain why most Pearl owners I know are women.  It’s a good system if it works for you — if you’re considering buying a Pearl, definitely go spend some time typing on it before you place your order.

BlackBerry’s OS is functional, if not always the prettiest consumer experience.  It’s menus and fonts are dated and the OS itself wasn’t as responsive as the fastest Nokia and Apple smartphones I’ve tried.  The Web browser is decent, but also feels pretty long in the tooth compared to the current state of the art.  Pearl’s trackball is the best navigation device this side of a touchscreen (even better for some tasks), however, and the BlackBerry menu key made it easy to drill down to advanced features and options.  As such, using Pearl for everything from voice calling to texting to Web browsing was pretty straightforward.  It’s just that the device doesn’t offer the kind of fun, aesthetically pleasing experience that an iPhone or Sony Ericsson phone does.  Corporate users likely won’t care since BB’s Email service is so good, but Pearl is aimed at consumers who typically like eye candy.  Then again, Pearl’s so small and cute, plenty of consumers will get over the non-Apple-like experience of navigating the 8210’s menus.

Pearl’s music player worked quite well, sorting songs according to artist, album, and playlist, and displaying album art during playback.  I was able to listen to music while performing other tasks, which is a nice feature, and video playback was generally smooth, though Pearl’s 240 x 260 display isn’t idea for watching movies.  Pearl’s 2MP camera took surprisingly good still photos, and the flash was quite useful in low light situations.  But the camera’s video capture mode yielded lackluster results.  Music, photos and video clips were easily transferred to and from a computer by way of the included USB cable or using a microSD card, popping it out of the phone and into a memory card reader.  I was able to manage Pearl’s media without problems using both PC and Mac computers.

 

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