At this point in time, a BlackBerry is just about standard issue equipment for anyone who needs to be easy to reach. There are a number of other options, most notably Windows Mobile smartphones, but the BlackBerry remains the tool of choice for business users. The company did this by catering their products to business users- their phones are great with email, are easy to use, and are packed with productivity features. In order to make the products even more attractive to corporate types the company left out many of the things that might be a security risk, like a camera, as well as leisure features, like a media player.

The BlackBerry Pearl rocks a 2.25-inch TFT screen that displays 65,000 colors at a 240×260-pixel resolution. Like the rest of the company’s devices, it’s not a touch screen, but it offers a sharp, clear display with vibrant colors and is great for viewing e-mail, images, and Web sites. It also features light-sensing technology, so it will automatically adjust the screen and keyboard depending on your environment; true enough, it adjusted the display’s light so that we could still read it in direct sunlight. You can change the screen’s theme; backlight time; and font size, style, and family. A small LED above the screen illuminates different colors for different status messages: green for wireless, blue for Bluetooth, red for new messages, and amber for low battery. There’s also a mute button on top of the device.

It is easy to get too wrapped up in the good looks and the extras, but when it comes down to it, people are going to be interested in the Pearl because it is a BlackBerry. This means the same excellent email, personal information management, and internet browsing as on their 8700. The QWERTY keyboard is gone, but once you get over that the main functions of the phone are largely unchanged. The calendar, messenger, address book, and memo pad are all basically the same as we have seen in the previous models, which is a good thing considering how well these have been received by consumers. For more information on this check out my review of the 8700, but since nothing much was changed we won’t get more into it here.