BlackBerry Pearl 8100

I was sold my Blackberry Pearl 8100 as a solution to all my business requirements. Well, it's OK, but it is not quite as good as the 'phone shop salesman told me it would be. Well, whatever is?!

The phone is small, smaller than most email capable phones, which is where a problem can come in. Got big, chunky grown-up fingers? Then the small pad on the Blackberry Pearl 8100 might not be the best option for you to go for!

I would never again buy a Blackberry 'phone which does not have a full qwerty keyboard. Life is just too short to fiddle around with the keyboard on this particular model of Blackberry! And if you are dealing with emails, trying to read them, then the screen on this phone is not really big enough. And though web surfing is possible, the same problem is evident.

However, I have to say that I was surprised by the quality if the camera. From time-to-time I am out and about and need (as part of my job) to be able to take photographs. The Blackberry Pearl 8100 can take photographs that are of sufficiently good quality to include in a newspaper or a magazine. Obviously, not as good as a friend's phone with its 12 mega pixel camera, but good enough.

The USB link with the 8100 is very useful and I can download images to the server at work with no problem at all.

However, a year down the line (and not with very heavy usage, it must be pointed out) the tracker ball is a bit sticky and the talktime is very poor, the phone has to be charged every day, sometimes twice.

If you need proper, full access to the Blackberry service, you might need to consider buying one of his bigger brothers, instead.