The BlackBerry Pearl 3G - A Powerful Candybar Handset

While BlackBerry are the market leaders of the business smartphone market, their range of handsets tends to be quite similar in design, with a one-size-fits-all mentality, featuring a widescreen display and large Qwerty keyboard. This is fine for the businessman with a hefty briefcases or large suit pockets, but not particularly portable for the more casually dressed. To cater for a less corporate user, RIM released the BlackBerry Pearl, which transformed the regular BlackBerry experience into a more traditional candybar design.

The new BlackBerry Pearl 3G updates the handset, offering all the powerful email and messaging capabilities of the BlackBerry range in a regular candybar design with a familiar alphanumeric keypad, and adding 3G connectivity. The Pearl 3G uses RIM's own SureType predictive algorithm to allow owners to type text accurately and quickly, and features the merged inbox and standard BlackBerry encrypted push email account.

The Pearl 3G has the full range of smartphone connection methods, including Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, plus of course, 3G. Additionally it makes an excellent music phone thanks to a standard 3.5mm headphone jack and physical media buttons located on the top edge of the handset. The BlackBerry Pearl 3G also packs a 3.2 megapixel camera and LED flash capable of taking high-quality photos.

Owners of the BlackBerry Pearl 3G can access the dedicated BlackBerry store, where both paid and free games and applications are available for download. The Pearl 3G comes with several applications as standard including dedicated apps for Facebook and Twitter. The handset also features a GPS chip which allows users to get full use from Google Maps and other location-aware apps. Memory is 256MB as standard, but can be expanded using microSD cards.

The replacement of the traditional Qwerty keyboard is pretty noticeable as soon as you get down to entering emails or long text messages, but offering users the option of a regular form factor handset is still a good thing. It's a shame the screen couldn't be a bit bigger, but again, that's due to the limitations of candybar handsets in general than a specific failing of the Pearl 3G.

A more pressing issue is the outdated look and feel of the BlackBerry OS. The corporate marketplace may be more willing to overlook the lack of customization and basic, no frills menu layouts, but prospective buyers of the BlackBerry Pearl 3G may have more commercial tastes, and the current OS is far from being a match for the likes of Apples iOS or Android in terms of user experience.