By James Alan Miller
Nowadays, for a cell phone or smartphone to appeal to the widest possible audience in the consumer market, it is almost mandatory that a handset is offered in an assortment of colors.
Research In Motion (RIM) appears to have taken this truism to heart. This week, the company - along with carrier-partner T-Mobile - introduced a pearly white BlackBerry Pearl, which had previously only been available in black. Okay, black and white technically aren't exactly colors; the former being the complete absorption of light and the latter representing the scattering of all visible light waves.
Nonetheless, this is an important move for RIM, a company that usually caters to a more buttoned-up crowed. Of which choice of hue is the least of their concerns with a smartphone.
And with last week's introduction of Apple's eagerly-anticipated iPhone, which now looms as a dark cloud above handsets from other vendors competing in this area, RIM has quickly shown it is ready to shake things up a bit to compete for consumers.
It also doesn't hurt that the BlackBerry Pearl is shipping now, and the public must wait until June for a little iPhone satisfaction. Or that the iPhone - in its 8 GB incarnation - will cost 4x as much ($599) as the BlackBerry Pearl.
That's right, in addition to adding a white BlackBerry Pearl to its product lineup, T-Mobile is now offering RIM's first smartphone for consumers for $150 with a 2-year contract. It had previously gone for $200.
The BlackBerry Pearl, unlike the iPhone, when it ships (exclusively from Cingular for at least a couple of years), is available from two mobile operators in the U.S. now. In addition to T-Mobile, Cingular sells the smartphone. Cingular started selling the Pearl a couple of months after T-Mobile: there’s been no announcement about it carrying the white edition yet, however.
Other than then a different 'color,' the white BlackBerry Pearl is hardware-wise, the same as the original.
The BlackBerry Pearl is built in the mold of RIM's BlackBerry 7100 series—but is much smaller and sleeker—which means it is more smartphone-like than models like the 8700 series, for example.
As result, the device nixes the traditional BlackBerry QWERTY thumb-keyboard for a keypad/keyboard combo that merges numbers and text onto each button, while RIM's SureType technology helps users accurately input text.
The device measures 4.2 x 2.0 x 0.57 inches (107 x 50 x 14. millimeters) and weighs a mere 3.1 ounces (89 grams).
Pearl's 1.3 megapixel camera comes with built-in flash and 5x digital zoom. You can display images and video (MPEG-4 and H.263) on the new BlackBerry's 240 x 260 pixel color screen, which isn't touch, just like all other RIM handhelds.
To navigate the smartphone you use a trackball - the Pearl in the handset - which, along with the display and keypad/keyboard, adjusts lighting to provide an optimized view in outdoor, indoor and dark environments.
In terms of audio, Pearl will playback MP3 and AAC music files. There's a stereo headset jack.
And Bluetooth 2.0 support means you'll be able to wirelessly connect to wireless headsets and stereo headphones as well.
A microSD slot is there to expand upon Pearl's 64 MB of memory.
The quad-band GSM/GPRS world-smartphone is also EDGE-enabled, a 2.5 G cellular technology supported by Cingular and T-Mobile as well as most other GSM carriers. EDGE means you'll be able to send those multimedia messages, browse the Web, access e-mail and other content services at average speeds of 135 kilobits per second.
As with all BlackBerrys, Pearl supports RIM's push e-mail and data access solutions. It also bundles the AOL, Yahoo!, MSN and ICQ instant messaging clients.
The T-Mobile edition supports the carrier's MyFave feature, which delivers one-teach graphical access to five phone numbers for calling, texting, IM, and e-mail.
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