Uncrating the Blackberry Pearl 8100
This happened sooner than I thought 
The Blackberry Pearl’s release in ZA is still on its way. I have the unit for a quick look. I’ve never considered any of the Blackberry devices as anything but a corporate productivity tool. Read: no fun. The Pearl 8100 changes that with great styling and some great features.
The Pearl 8100 is supplied in a Vodafone-branded box. Simple and to the point:
Not too many surprises in the box. There’s a setup CD, quick start guide and starter guide. The Pearl 8100, battery, power adapter, USB connector and stereo earphones complete the content.
The first thing that struck me was the weight of the unit: it’s feather-light! Not necessarily flimsy, even though a lot of plastic has been used in its construction. Silver finishes to the side panels go well with the overall black colour of the phone. The trackball in the centre of the device is used to select items or to scroll through them. For the rest, anyone used to a mobile phone will be comfortable with the Pearl.
Billed as a smartphone, the Pearl 8100 is fully-featured and includes
- a camera with flash
- quad-band GPRS
- Bluetooth connectivity
- Mini-SD card slot, with a 128MB card included
- messaging, Blackberry-style
- media player supporting a wide variety of formats
The 8100 is incredibly thin, measuring just over 1cm in height. The right-hand side incorporates the earphone socket, USB cable connector and voice-dial button.
The left-hand side features the camera activation button and volume control. A lanyard may be looped through the opening provided.
A 128MB Mini-SD card is provided, thoughtfully already installed in the battery bay, just above the slot for the SIM card. One disadvantage of such a configuration is the need to remove the battery when the card has to be exchanged. I prefer an externally available slot for storage cards. The battery is inserted by sliding it onto the contact pins, then pushing it down and allowing it to engage. The device starts automatically if the battery has been charged. The rear cover contains the camera lens, flash and mirror for self-portraits.
A setup assistant is initialized to provide the necessary settings. Then, the rather bland Vodafone theme says hello:
Join me tomorrow, as we explore some of the aspects of the Pearl 8100 in more detail.
I am currently in the UK visting our office here and some of the guys here got the new Pearl. I have been using Blackberry since they came to SA and I love it. The Pearl will win a lot of customers as it is a good looking handset with all the features that people will like.
Do you have any idea when it will be released in SA? You can pick them up new for round about 250 pounds at some of the shop here.
Based on the information I’ve been given, the Pearl is set for release in South Africa in about 7 weeks or so.
Where can i purchase one of these phones (blackberry peral 8100) in South Africa.
As yet, the Pearl 8100 is not released in South Africa. The expected date is around June. You’ll need to be patient for a bit longer
I have a two from USA selling for R2800.00
odyssey2020sa@gmail.com
Any takers?
This has become the most outstanding blogs Ive read through in the extremely extensive time. The amount of information in heres stunning, like you practically wrote the book in the topic. Your weblog is fantastic for any individual who wishes to recognize this topic far even more. Fantastic things; please continue to keep it up!
The most difficult thing is to find a blog with unique and fresh content but i think you offer something different. Bravo!!!!