The BlackBerry Pearl is a

smartphone A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...

developed by

Research In Motion BlackBerry Limited, formerly Research In Motion (RIM), is a Canadian software company specializing in secure communications and the Internet of Things (IoT). Founded in 1984, it developed the BlackBerry brand of interactive pagers, smartpho ...

(RIM). The Pearl (8100) was launched on September 12, 2006, marking the first

BlackBerry BlackBerry is a discontinued brand of handheld devices and related mobile services, originally developed and maintained by the Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM, later known as BlackBerry Limited) until 2016. The first BlackBerry device ...

device with a camera, media player and other multimedia features, significantly expanding the traditionally enterprise brand's market to mainstream consumers. Running version 4.5 of

BlackBerry OS BlackBerry OS is a discontinued proprietary mobile operating system developed by Canadian company Research In Motion (now BlackBerry Limited) for its BlackBerry line of smartphone handheld devices. The operating system provides multitasking ...

, the Pearl supported the full range of BlackBerry enterprise functionality. Updated versions were released as Pearl 8110, 8120 and 8130. Unlike previous BlackBerrys, the Pearl swapped the wide body and full

QWERTY QWERTY ( ) is a keyboard layout for Latin-script alphabets. The name comes from the order of the first six Computer keyboard keys#Types, keys on the top letter row of the keyboard: . The QWERTY design is based on a layout included in the Sh ...

keyboard for a narrower,

candybar A candy bar is a type of portable candy that is in the shape of a bar. The most common type of candy bar is the chocolate bar, including both bars made of solid chocolate and combination candy bars, which are candy bars that combine chocolate wi ...

style, and a hybrid keypad keyboard layout on a 4-row, 5-column keypad, with a proprietary predictive input algorithm called SureType. Most notably, the Pearl uses a translucent

trackball A trackball is a pointing device consisting of a ball held by a socket containing sensors to detect a rotation of the ball about two axes—like an upside-down ball mouse (computing), mouse with an exposed protruding ball. Users roll the ball t ...

(the "Pearl"), which facilitates horizontal and vertical scrolling, instead of the traditional BlackBerry

scroll wheel A scroll wheel is a wheel used for scrolling. The term usually refers to such wheels found on computer mouse, computer mice (where they can also be called a mouse wheel). It is often made of hard plastic with a rubbery surface, centred around a ...

. The backlit color of the 8100 trackball is controlled by a series of LEDs and may be changed by software loaded on the phone; the 8110, 8120 and 8130 models trackball is lit only in white. The color customization capabilities also extend to the

notification LED A Notification LED is a small RGB color model, RGB or monochrome LED light usually present on the front-facing screen Screen bezel, bezel (display side) of smartphones and feature phones whose purpose is to blink or pulse to notify the phone user ...

in the top right corner of the device. This LED can be programmed to blink different colors depending on which contact has called, texted or emailed. The BlackBerry Pearl was a large sales success for RIM. In 2008, a Pearl

flip phone Clamshell design is a form factor commonly used in the design of electronic devices and other manufactured objects. It is inspired by the morphology of the clam. The form factor has been applied to handheld game consoles, mobile phones (where ...

, the 8200 series, was released, while in 2010 the successor to the original Pearl, the 3G Pearl 9100 series, was released.

Features and versions

The BlackBerry Pearl has quad-band network support on 850/900/1800/1900 MHz

GSM The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a family of standards to describe the protocols for second-generation (2G) digital cellular networks, as used by mobile devices such as mobile phones and Mobile broadband modem, mobile broadba ...

GPRS General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), also called 2.5G, is a mobile data standard on the 2G cellular communication network's Global System for Mobile Communications, global system for mobile communications (GSM). Networks and mobile devices wit ...

and

EDGE Edge or EDGE may refer to: Technology Computing * Edge computing, a network load-balancing system * Edge device, an entry point to a computer network * Adobe Edge, a graphical development application * Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed by ...

networks to allow for international roaming between North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. The semi QWERTY keyboard layout previously appeared on the BlackBerry 7130. It is made up of two letters per key across five vertical rows, helping to significantly reduce the keyboard and devicce size compared to normal handsets with full keyboards. The Pearl's media player has support for

MP3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany under the lead of Karlheinz Brandenburg. It was designed to greatly reduce the amount ...

, AAC/M4A, AMR, WMA, polyphonic

MIDI Musical Instrument Digital Interface (; MIDI) is an American-Japanese technical standard that describes a communication protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, ...

, and

WAV Waveform Audio File Format (WAVE, or WAV due to its filename extension; pronounced or ) is an audio file format standard for storing an audio bitstream on personal computers. The format was developed and published for the first time in 1991 ...

sound formats, as well as

MPEG-4 MPEG-4 is a group of international standards for the compression of digital audio and visual data, multimedia systems, and file storage formats. It was originally introduced in late 1998 as a group of audio and video coding formats and related ...

, Xvid,

DivX DIVX (Digital Video Express) is a discontinued digital video format. Created in part by Circuit City, it was an unsuccessful attempt to create an alternative to video rental in the United States. The format's poor reception from consumers resu ...

WMV Windows Media Video (WMV) is a series of video codecs and their corresponding video coding formats developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Windows Media framework. WMV consists of three distinct codecs: the original video compression technolog ...

and

H.263 H.263 is a video compression standard originally designed as a low-bit-rate compressed format for videotelephony. It was standardized by the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) in a project ending in 1995/1996. It is a member of the H.26x fa ...

video formats. It also has a 1.33 (8100) or 2.0 (8110/8120/8130)

megapixel In digital imaging, a pixel (abbreviated px), pel, or picture element is the smallest addressable element in a Raster graphics, raster image, or the smallest addressable element in a dot matrix display device. In most digital display devices, p ...

camera with flash, self-portrait mirror, and 5x

digital zoom Digital zoom is a method of decreasing the precise angle of view of a digital photograph or video image. It is accomplished by cropping an image down to an area with the same aspect ratio as the original, and scaling the image up to the dimens ...

In October 2007, RIM introduced updated versions of the 8100: the Pearl 8120 with support for

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for Wireless LAN, local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by ...

, improved 2 megapixel camera and other improvements, and the Pearl 8130 which is the

CDMA Code-division multiple access (CDMA) is a channel access method used by various radio communication technologies. CDMA is an example of multiple access, where several transmitters can send information simultaneously over a single communicatio ...

network variant and includes

EV-DO Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO, EVDO, etc.) is a telecommunications standard for the wireless transmission of data through radio signals, typically for broadband Internet access. EV-DO is an evolution of the CDMA2000 ( IS-2000) standard which ...

high speed data capabilities as well as

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based hyperbolic navigation system owned by the United States Space Force and operated by Mission Delta 31. It is one of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) that provide geol ...

capability assisting BlackBerry Maps. In May 2008, the Pearl 8110 was introduced with GPS but without Wi-Fi. BlackBerry Pearl 8110, 8120 and 8130 use the Antioch chip from

Cypress Semiconductor Cypress Semiconductor Corporation was an American semiconductor design and manufacturing company. It offered NOR flash memories, F-RAM and SRAM Traveo microcontrollers, PSoCs, PMICs, capacitive touch-sensing controllers, Wireless BLE Bluet ...

, a Westbridge peripheral controller enabling "direct connection between peripherals, creating ultra-fast transfers". This upgrade from 8100 provides faster USB sideloading than older phones, and fast connection to the

microSDHC Secure Digital (SD) is a proprietary hardware, proprietary, non-volatile memory, non-volatile, flash memory card format developed by the SD Association (SDA). Owing to their compact size, SD cards have been widely adopted in a variety of port ...

card, capable of transferring 1 GB file in less than 70 seconds - over 16Mbyte/s transfer rate. This speed significantly surpasses that of the earlier

iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...

Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois. It was founded by brothers Paul and Joseph Galvin in 1928 and had been named Motorola since 1947. Many of Motorola's products had been ...

RAZR The Motorola Razr (pronounced like "razor"), currently stylized ''motorola razr'', is a brand of mobile phones manufactured by Motorola Mobility (previously Motorola, now a division of Lenovo), currently consisting of foldable clamshell sma ...

Sony Ericsson Sony Mobile Communications Inc., originally Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB, was a Multinational corporation, multinational consumer electronics and telecommunications company, best known for its Mobile phones, mobile phone products. The ...

Walkman is a brand of Personal stereo, portable audio players manufactured by Sony since 1979. It was originally introduced as a portable Compact Cassette, cassette player and later expanded to include a range of portable audio products. Since 2011, ...

Release and reception

The BlackBerry Pearl is aimed towards both business users and consumers. Its advertising campaign features several people including

Mariska Hargitay Mariska Magdolna Hargitay Mariska says her own first name and the name of her father; the interviewer, James Lipton, also says her full name near the start of the show. (; born January 23, 1964) is an American actress, producer, and philanthrop ...

and

Douglas Coupland Douglas Coupland (born 30 December 1961) is a Canadian novelist, designer and visual artist. His first novel, the 1991 international bestseller '' Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture'', popularized the terms Generation X and McJob. He ...

Carriers

The Pearl was previously available with

Entel PCS Empresa Nacional de Telecomunicaciones S.A. (doing business as Entel-Chile S.A.) is the largest Chilean telecommunications company. The company is known for the high Torre Entel (Entel Tower) that rises above central Santiago and constitutes on ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

, Cellcom,

Sprint Sprint may refer to: Aerospace * Spring WS202 Sprint, a Canadian aircraft design *Sprint (missile), an anti-ballistic missile Automobiles *Alfa Romeo Sprint, automobile produced by Alfa Romeo between 1976 and 1989 *Chevrolet Sprint, a rebadged v ...

T-Mobile T-Mobile is the brand of telecommunications by Deutsche Telekom Deutsche Telekom AG (, ; often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a partially state-owned German telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn and the largest telec ...

AT&T Mobility AT&T Mobility, LLC, also known as AT&T Wireless and Trade name, marketed as simply AT&T, is an American telecommunications company. Formed in April 2000 as Cingular Wireless LLC, It is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T, AT&T Inc. and provide ...

, Cincinnati Bell Wireless,

Verizon Wireless Verizon is an American wireless network operator that previously operated as a separate division of Verizon Communications under the name Verizon Wireless. In a 2019 reorganization, Verizon moved the wireless products and services into the div ...

Alltel Alltel was a landline, wireless service provider, wireless and general Telephone company, telecommunications services provider, primarily based in the United States. Before its wireless division was acquired by Verizon Wireless and AT&T, Alltel pr ...

US Cellular United States Cellular Corporation (doing business as UScellular and formerly known as U.S. Cellular) is an American mobile network operator. Its stock is publicly traded, but Telephone and Data Systems Inc. owns a controlling stake (83% econo ...

, Centennial Wireless, MOSH Mobile,

nTelos nTelos, Inc. was a wireless telecommunications company and PCS provider based in Waynesboro, Virginia. As of 2013, nTelos' service area covered 5.3 million people making it the 9th largest provider of mobile broadband in the United States. On ...

Cellular One Cellular One is the trademarked brand name that licenses services (radio frequencies for telecommunications) used by several cellular service providers in the United States. The brand was sold to Trilogy Partners by AT&T in 2008 shortly after AT ...

Cellular South C Spire, formerly known as Cellular South, Inc., is an American privately owned telecommunications and technology company headquartered in Ridgeland, Mississippi. The company consists of three business divisions – Wireless, Home Fiber, and B ...

and BlueGrass Cellular in the United States; TIM,

Vodafone Vodafone Group Public Limited Company () is a British Multinational company, multinational telecommunications company. Its registered office and global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It predominantly operates Service (economic ...

and

Wind Wind is the natural movement of atmosphere of Earth, air or other gases relative to a planetary surface, planet's surface. Winds occur on a range of scales, from thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heatin ...

in Italy;

Turkcell Turkcell İletişim Hizmetleri A.Ş. (''lit. Turkcell Communication Services'') (, ) is the leading mobile phone operator of Turkey, based in Istanbul. The company has 39.3 million subscribers as of September 2021. In 2015, the company's number ...

and Avea in

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

; Claro, Vivo in Brazil, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico;

Airtel Bharti Airtel Limited is an Indian multinational telecommunications company based in New Delhi. It operates in 18 countries across South Asia and Africa, as well as the Channel Islands. Currently, Airtel provides 5G, 4G and LTE Advanced ...

and

Reliance Communications Reliance Communications Limited (RCOM) was an Indian mobile network provider headquartered in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra that offered voice and 2G and 3G and 4G data services. In February 2019, the company filed for bankruptcy as it was unabl ...

in India;

Iusacell AT&T Mexico, S.A.U. (formerly known as Iusacell and Nextel Mexico), also known as AT&T Mexico Wireless and AT&T Mexico Mobility, is a Mexican mobile telephone operator and subsidiary of AT&T. AT&T Mexico is headquartered in Mexico City. Its mobil ...

Telcel RADIOMÓVIL DIPSA, S.A. DE C.V., doing business as Telcel, is a Mexican wireless telecommunications company, owned by América Móvil, founded in 1984 and based in Mexico City. Telcel holds concessions to operate a wireless network in all nine g ...

and

Movistar Movistar () is a major telecommunications provider owned by Telefónica, operating in Spain and Hispanic American countries. It is the largest provider of landline, broadband, Mobile telephony, mobile services, and pay television (Movistar Plus+ ...

in Mexico;

Rogers Wireless Rogers Wireless Inc. is a Canadian mobile network operator headquartered in Toronto, providing service nationally throughout Canada. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Rogers Communications. The company had revenues of just under $15.1 billion in ...

Telus Telus may refer to: * Telus Corporation, a Canadian publicly traded holding company ** Telus Communications, a telecommunications company ** Telus Digital, a technology company ** Telus Health, a health technology provider ** Telus Mobility T ...

SaskTel Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corporation, operating as SaskTel, is a Telecommunications in Canada, Canadian Crown corporations of Canada, crown-owned telecommunications firm based in the province of Saskatchewan. Owned by the provinci ...

, MTS,

TBayTel Tbaytel, formerly the Thunder Bay Telephone Company, is a municipally-owned telecommunications company operating in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, and the surrounding area. Tbaytel's services include data, voice, wireless, internet, digital TV and ...

Bell Mobility Bell Mobility Inc. is a Canadian mobile network operator, wireless network operator and the division of Bell Canada which offers wireless services across Canada. It operates networks using LTE (telecommunication), LTE and Evolved HSPA, HSPA+ on ...

Wind Mobile Freedom Mobile (formerly Wind Mobile) is a Canadian wireless telecommunications provider owned by Québecor. As of November 30, 2022 it is the fourth-largest wireless carrier in the country with 2,290,497 subscribers and a 6% market share, prim ...

, and

Virgin Mobile Canada Virgin Plus is a Canadian provider of Postpaid mobile phone, postpaid and Prepaid mobile phone, prepaid wireless voice, text and data communications services throughout Canada. They also offer home Internet and TV services in select areas of On ...

in Canada;

Telstra Telstra Group Limited is an Australian telecommunications company that builds and operates telecommunications networks and markets related products and services. It is a member of the S&P/ASX 20 stock index, and is Australia's largest telecomm ...

Optus Singtel Optus Pty Limited is an Australian Telecommunications in Australia, telecommunications company headquartered in Macquarie Park, a suburb in the Northern Sydney region of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is a wholly owned subsidiar ...

and

in Australia;

Indosat PT Indosat Tbk, trade name, trading as Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, abbreviated as IOH, is an Indonesian telecommunications provider which is owned by Ooredoo Hutchison Asia, a joint venture between Ooredoo and Hutchison Asia Telecom Group (a part ...

in Indonesia;

KPN Koninklijke KPN N.V. (Royal KPN N.V. in English), trading as KPN is a Dutch List of telephone operating companies, telecommunications company. KPN originated from a government-run postal, telegraph and telephone service and is based in Rotterda ...

and

in the Netherlands;

Globe Telecom Globe Telecom, Inc., commonly shortened as Globe, is a major provider of telecommunications services in the Philippines. The company operates one of the largest mobile, fixed-line and broadband networks in the Philippines. As of November 2023, ...

in the Philippines;

Grameenphone Grameenphone LTD, widely abbreviated as ( d/b/a) GP, is a telecommunications service provider in Bangladesh. As of December 2023, its subscribers span over 82.20 million. It is a joint venture between Telenor and Grameen Telecom. Where Telen ...

in Bangladesh;

in New Zealand;

Singtel Singapore Telecommunications Limited, trading as Singtel, is a Singaporean telecommunications conglomerate, the country's principal fixed-line operator and one of the four major mobile network operators operating in the country. Overview T ...

in Singapore; Mobilink in Pakistan and all networks in the UK; MTN,

Globacom Overview , GLO has over 60.7 million subscribers, making it the second largest network operator in Nigeria. In 2011, GLO became the first telecommunications company to build an $800 million high-capacity fibre-optic cable known as Glo-1, a ...

and Zain in Nigeria.

Tigo Millicom International Cellular SA is a Luxembourgish fixed line and mobile telecommunications services provider operating in Latin America operating under the Tigo brand. Its main shareholder is Xavier Niel, a French billionaire who owns 40% of ...

, Comcel in

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

;

Digicel Digicel is a Jamaican-based Caribbean mobile phone network and home entertainment provider operating in 25 markets worldwide. Digicel has operated in several countries, including Guyana, Fiji, Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago, Samoa, St. Lucia, Surinam ...

, Claro and Cable & Wireless in Panama

Pearl Flip and Pearl 3G

Pearl Flip (8200 series)

The BlackBerry Pearl 8220, codenamed during development as the "KickStart", is RIM's first

and announced on September 10, 2008. It is thus often referred to as the "Pearl Flip" or "BlackBerry Flip". The Pearl Flip is very similar to the original Pearl and uses the same predictive text input that the Pearl uses. It has a 2.0-megapixel camera and video recording. It has a 240x320 pixels, 2.6 inch display as well as a 128x160, 1.6 in external display. A

version was available for Verizon and Alltel known as the 8230.

Pearl 3G (9100 series)

The BlackBerry Pearl 9100/9105, often referred to as "BlackBerry Pearl 3G", was announced on April 26, 2010. As the successor to the original Pearl, this new handset has 3G (

HSDPA High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) is an amalgamation of two mobile protocols—High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) and High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA)—that extends and improves the performance of existing 3G mobile telecommunic ...

) network capability, has an optical trackpad instead of the "Pearl" trackball, and comes with a 360 x 400, 2.25" TFT display. The Pearl 3G features a hybrid QWERTY keyboard for the US market (the 9100 model) or a traditional alphanumeric keypad for some other regions (9105 model). It also utilises the SureType facility for

predictive text Predictive text is an input technology used where one key or button represents many letters, such as on the physical numeric keypads of mobile phones and in accessibility technologies. Each key press results in a ''prediction'' rather than r ...

with the option to use the traditional typing method.

References

External links

High resolution pictures of BlackBerry Pearl 8220 Flip at BestBoyZ.de

BlackBerry Pearl
(official site)
BlackBerry Specifications

Consumer-focused review of the BlackBerry Pearl
by ''

PC Magazine ''PC Magazine'' (shortened as ''PCMag'') is an American computer magazine published by Ziff Davis. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009. Publication of online editions started in late 1994 and continues . Overview ''PC Mag ...

''
Under the Hood: BlackBerry wins handset data-rate bakeoff
* Featured in PCWorld.ca's round-up o

An official RIM interactive demo of the BlackBerry Pearl 8110

An official RIM interactive demo of the BlackBerry Pearl 8120

An official RIM interactive demo of the original BlackBerry Pearl 8100
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blackberry Pearl Mobile phones with an integrated hardware keyboard

Pearl A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle (mollusc), mantle) of a living Exoskeleton, shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pear ...