BlackBerry Pearl Flip

The Pearl Flip 8220 (Free with new/renewal contract), BlackBerry's first clamshell smartphone, splashed on the market in the fall of 2008, exclusively for T-Mobile and is now available on Verizon and Alltel as well. (It should make its way to AT&T in late 2009.) With its appealing combination of form and functionality, it has generated a polarized response from reviewers and consumers. Nearly everyone is impressed with this smartphone's sleek, compact design; its multitude of messaging options; impressive multimedia features; beefed-up processing power; and expandable memory compared with the candy-bar Pearl. But for many, this smartphone's buggy software and slow-rendering browser dull its luster. "Promising yet disappointing" says Sascha Segan of PCMag.com, who finds the Pearl Flip "littered" with bugs and a browser that "shouldn't have left RIM's labs." He calls the newer Verizon version "last year's model" particularly compared to the "blockbuster" that is the BlackBerry Tour. Reviewers are unanimous that the Flip's browser can't keep pace with that of the BlackBerry Bold or Nokia E71, let alone the iPhone's superior Safari browser. Users at CNET and Amazon.com have come to the same conclusion, describing the Pearl Flip as a "mixed bag" that is "appealing but buggishly slow."

Still, the Pearl Flip offers a lot in a small device. It's nearly as compact as the candy-bar Pearl and weighs only two-tenths of an ounce more but packs double the memory -- 128 MB of memory expandable up to 16 GB via a microSD slot -- to boost the 312 MHz processor. The high-resolution 240-by-320-pixel display is crisp, and the phone supports video streaming, including YouTube. The 2-megapixel camera also captures video. On the business front, the Pearl Flip has push email, corporate access, text and picture messaging, HTML email and instant messaging. DataViz Documents to Go can view, edit, save and share Office documents, and the roomier SureType keyboard (compared with the Pearl) and recessed "pearl" trackball make for easier navigation.

The Pearl Flip is Bluetooth and Wi-Fi enabled. With T-Mobile's HotSpot @Home service, users can make unlimited calls over Wi-Fi for an extra $10 a month. However, the Flip does not have GPS like other Pearl models or T-Mobile's Sony Ericsson TM 506 flip phone (Discontinued). Another drawback is the lack of 3G compatibility, which diminishes the already marginal web browser; the Pearl Flip uses T-Mobile's slower EDGE network. According to David Pogue of The New York Times, "waiting for the web is agonizing." It's one of the trade-offs of the Pearl Flip and the Pearl series phones in general, which aren't meant to replace heavy-duty yet pricier smartphones like the BlackBerry Curve, the BlackBerry Storm or the Apple iPhone 3G. Nonetheless, Bonnie Cha of CNET says the Pearl will "satiate the appetite of flip phone fanatics," and Segan says it will be a "winner" once manufacturer Research in Motion works out the bugs.