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BlackBerry Pearl 8100 Hands-On

John Biggs

I got to see the Pearl firsthand last night and I was pleased. This is probably the first BlackBerry that someone with some sense of fashion would consider using.

Rather than looking like a lump of blue putty with a keyboard, the pearl is an ultra-slim, ultra-light smartphone that happens to use RIMs email client. No QWERTY keyboard on this bad boy – just a SureType numeric keypad with a little squirrel ball a la the Sidekick 3.

We’re going to have a full hands-on next week, but until then rest assured that if you’ve never wanted a BlackBerry and feel you have to get one, the Pearl is definitely something to consider. It’s currently $199 at T-Mobile.

Here are some reviews from around the web:

BlackBerry Pearl [Laptop]
Blackberry Pearl 8100 Officially Shot Out Of A Cannon [Gizmodo]

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John Biggs
John Biggs is a writer, consultant, programmer, former East Coast Editor and current contributing writer for TechCrunch. He writes mainly about technology, cryptocurrency, security, gadgets, gear, wristwatches, and the internet. After spending his formative years as a programmer, he switched his profession and became a full-time entrepreneur andwriter. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Laptop, PC Upgrade, Surge, Gizmodo, Men’s Health, InSync, Linux Journal, Popular Science, Sync, and he has written a book called Black Hat: Misfits, Criminals, and Scammers in the Internet Age.
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