The original BlackBerry was described to me as the ultimate utility phone by one of my business associates. I could just never get over the size of the thing. When my contract with T-Mobile came up, I decided it was time for me to upgrade to either the Shadow or the recently launched BlackBerry Pearl 8120 (a RIM handset that wasn’t the size of a laptop) . I actually chose the Shadow simply because I liked the idea of a slider phone, as I keep it in my pocket and hate trying to remember to lock the keys in order to prevent accidental dial-outs (by the way, that was the wrong choice; that, however, is another story). The Pearl I’ve had for while now, however, does have all the features of the Shadow I like, as well as all the capabilities of a Blackberry.

I learnt that the reason it’s called the Pearl is because of the pearl-like scroll ball in the center of the phone. I didn’t know this and found it to be interesting. The “pearl” is a little sensitive and different to get used to. Like I said before, I have a Shadow, so I was already used to the keyboard style; before the Shadow I took some getting used to in the first place though. The screen is also really nice and works in all sorts of lighting situations.

The camera (with flash) is decent, but the Shadow (without flash) is a little better. Also, like the Shadow, the Pearl has one-touch camera activation and a micro SD card slot (which I’m a big fan of: no handset should be without). The battery life is AMAZING, especially for such a hard working device. I don’t know if that can be beat. And with all that, it’s even a little slimmer than the Shadow.

The bottom line is that it’s still a BlackBerry, which I was happy about. The email capabilities have a reputation of excellence and frankly live up to it; web browsing is good too. Media sharing, like sending pics and videos, is smooth and straightforward. Text messaging is as intuitive as emailing, but mostly because I was already used to the Shadow. I love the fact that it’s so slim. It’s really the best of both worlds as far as phones and RIM devices go. I also like the fact that I could plug in a TON of information about each phone contact.

Sometimes I forget that all these new devices are actually still good ol’ phones, but while we’re on the subject; I’ve been with T-Mobile for six years now and it’s largely due to the fact that their phone service has always been consistent and second to none. While I was trying out the Pearl I came across the first handset I owned - a Nokia - and it was both a nostalgic and eye opening moment. To be honest, I don’t know how we managed.

The BlackBerry Pearl 8120 is available now from T-Mobile

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