Blackberry Pearl

I’m thinking of buying a new phone that I will use for business and personal and I'm currently swaying towards the Blackberry Pearl, but I'm not sure about the half QWERTY keypad. Could any of you that use the Pearl tell me what the benefits and drawbacks of using half QWERTY are please?

benefits? not many. Half keyboard only means smaller phone. thats it.
drawbacks? you cant type as fast. predictive text is often wrong and gets annoying.

overall the pearl is a nice phone. has most of the capabilities of a curve, well not really, but the most essential to get the work done.
if you want more input other than just opinions on the keypad, let me know and i'll be glad to tell you.

welcome to CPF by the way.

yea if you want something with a keyboard I would definitely get a full one like the curve or another blackberry and not the half one.

Great little phone the Pearl. Got one for personal use mainly, as i like GPRS/EDGE internet, email, mp3 etc, and i LOVE how it takes those lil SD cards. i bought a couple off ebay so basically got all my music with me now which is cool.

There is a nice blackberry page up at the mo too, mini-quiz game then a page showing off the latest pearls, might be worth a look if you are thinking about a Pearl, or just fancy wasting some time at work playing the game lol. linkage: http://www.princeorpretender.com/

i think it's a great phone!!

Well, i have a Blackberry Pearl and it's great for all my personal usages.

I haven't really used a full QWERTY keyboard so i don't know the differences. But i have to tell you, once you get the hang of it, the half keyboard is great. I type pretty fast on my little pearl.

And the SureType feature is great. I don't know if it's just me, but it kinda "learns" what i type. So that means that the more often i type lets say the F-bomb, it will end up spelling out that instead of "duck". So yea.

I can go a whole essay to tell you the good things about the BB Pearl, but i wouldn't be able to tell you the differences of it between one of the regular ones.

I just purchased the 8120 Pearl, overall the OS is really nice and the SureType works really well. I personally like the half keyboard. Why? Because I'm using my thumbs to type, not my all 10 of my fingers like a normal keyboard. Everyone has their preference tho. Ask one of your friends who has the curve and another who has the pearl to try it out. You will find which ever is to your liking, then buy it. The benefits of a smaller phone is it's more comfortable when talking on it. Remember, that even tho it's a smart phone, it's still a phone. I really don't see many negatives to it, the new predictive text learns well on words that you commonly use.

I went from an 8830 to a Pearl and I love it. The smaller size works so much better for me and I missed my camera more than I thought I would.

I agree, it took some getting used to but now I am pretty fast with the itty bitty key board. The more I type on it the more it gets the "guessed" words right.

yea I think typing is just a matter of a bit of time learning. In the end the speed shouldn't be a huge different.

I would decide based on the form factor / size. Personally I'd rather it be smaller in my pocket =p

I have used both types of phone and have found the the pearl is easier to text after you get used to it. I found myself messing up more with a full keyboard and spent more time retyping than texting. I all comes down to preference. I suggest going to a retailer and trying both.

Pearl is a nice handset provided by RIM. However it has Half QWERTY keyboard that is nothing just a smaller keyboard that means carrying Pearl is littlebit easy. Dont be confuse, Its a nice phone.

i had the pearl 8130 and i liked the suretype but most people told me the curve was better so i got a 8330 its OK it has more memory but the keys are smaller and i could type faster on the pearl than the curve so if you have a pearl and like it then keep it.

So do people generally agree that the Curve better than the Pearl? I'm looking for my first Blackberry (for work) and I'm not sure where to start. Would people suggest waiting for the Blackbery Bold, Thunder or another option (I have Verizon) as opposed to just getting a Curve? I've also heard they'll be releasing a Blackberry flip phone around the holidays. Any help would be appreciated.

Best thing for you to do is make a visit to a Verizon store and pick up the phones and decide what feels best to you. Curve sized phone or Pearl sized phone. The decide on your budget, meaning how much you are willing to spend for a phone with or without a contract. No sense waiting on a phone that is going to cost you $X dollars out of pocket, if you are only willing to go for a free phone from your carrier. Not saying you are, but you get the idea.

If you don't like the size of the curve, you are not going to like the size of the Bold, if you don't like flip phones, your not going to see much to change your mind in a Blackberry flip. So seeing the phones in person and getting them in your hot little paws, is going to be YOUR best bet for helping you decide on what works best for YOU.