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Blackberry Pearls of Wisdom
by Matthew Ferrara

What happens when a technology company listens to its customers? Sometimes, just sometimes, they release a product that astounds: rich in features, easy to use and best of all - works as advertised. Products that have done this are really few and far between: the IBM Thinkpad and Apple's iPod come to mind. And finally - without a moment to spare - such a magical device has come to the world of email-enabled cell phones: The Blackberry Pearl.

It truly is a wonder of engineering: It's small enough - far smaller than Motorola's Q and thin by half when compared to a Treo - to fit unobtrusively in one's pocket. More than half of the device is dedicated to its screen - brightly and clearly displaying emails, appointments and web pages. The keyboard is a masterpiece of design - reducing the keys by half using Blackberry's SureType technology that looks up words as you type. In the center of the device is a clever navigation device - a trackball which rolls smoothly, clicks choices with little pressure and works for both right - and left-handed people.

So cleverly designed is the Blackberry Pearl that one wonders if the engineers didn't read our minds. On each side of the device is a convenience button: click the left one and you can dial-by-voice without scrolling through your address book. I reprogrammed this button - without looking in the manual - to turn on/off the Bluetooth features for my headset with one single click. The right-side button activates the 1 megapixel camera - featuring a decent zoom, a flash and a no-nonsense saving approach that makes finding past photos fun. In the upper right of the device are thumb-ready volume controls which eliminate menus for managing sound. The speakerphone is one click of a button clearly marked with a speaker-symbol; and sound quality is good enough to eliminate your headset in the car. And on the top - oh, how remarkably smart - is a mute button, which instantaneously puts the Pearl in silent standby mode. Looks like peace and quiet in restaurants is one-click away!

But wait: there's more! Putting the Pearl in vibrate mode is as easy as holding the # symbol for a couple of seconds; click again and you're back to normal ringtones. Speaking of ringtones, the Pearl comes with a small but adequate library of normal ringtones and peaceful message alert sounds: no screeches, no gongs and definitely no military marches. Navigating the Pearl with the trackball took about two minutes to master. There is only one main menu under which every application is conveniently listed: sub-menus are mostly one level down: user choices are displayed on the screen all at once. Users scroll with the trackball, set their choices, click the trackball once more and press save.

Setup took me exactly 27 minutes, twenty of which were waiting for my email host to setup the Blackberry features on my email account. To activate my email account on the Pearl, I entered only two pieces of information: my email address and a special password my host provided. Within seconds - as I watched in awe - my messages, calendar, address book, tasks and notes all transferred to the little device wirelessly: Blackberry Pearl doesn't need a cradle or USB cord to synchronize!

Blackberry Pearls are only available by T-Mobile. As a mostly disgruntled Motorola Q user which never finds a Verizon signal at home or in my office, I hesitated at getting yet another cell phone, only to be disappointed at coverage or internet access speeds. With trepidation, I approached the store in Salem, NH and skeptically started the purchase. It should be noted that the store clerks were actually friendly: they acknowledged me when I entered the store and spoke in plain language when I asked them to describe the phone's features, signal coverage and international roaming costs. Compared to my last visit to the Verizon store where I was soundly ignored for more than twenty minutes, it was a far superior experience, although I didn't want to get my hopes up. Within three-quarters of an hour, I had my new phone, new number, a bag of accessories - they even installed the expanded memory stick for me - and was back in my office for the real test: Would it have a signal? My office is an old textile mill, essentially a thick brick box built at the turn of the last century. Except for extreme springtime floods, nothing gets through those stone walls. With little expectations for surprise, I turned on the Pearl and waited:

And there it was: the holy grail of modern cellular technology: four bars of signal! Strong enough to walk around the building, synchronize email and get text messages without dead spots. No smashing my face against the windows, no strange poses trying to catch the waves. For fun, I ran a few tests: laying the Blackberry Pearl next to my Motorola Q, which had no bars, I used my office phone to call both, getting voice mail on my Q, but a pleasant ring on the Pearl. Finally - a small device with an antenna that really works.

It has been one month now since I bought the Pearl: I've used it around the office, my home in Andover (no dead spots there either) and on the road. It paired-up with my car's wireless speakers in under a minute. It surfed the web at impatience-satisfying speeds at Starbucks. And did I mention? I have gone three days now, received about 100 emails, surfed Google, periodically used Bluetooth headsets and even played a few games - all without the need to recharge the battery.

The Blackberry Pearl is a marvel of technology. It is smartly built, because somebody at Blackberry obviously listened to consumers. Its design simplifies every action. Its setup was a breeze. It's the expression of what every business cell phone user has asked for in a cell phone: small design, strong signal, straightforward typing interface and dignified ringers. Even its "gadgets" like camera, instant messaging and web browser are designed to stay out of the way of what most users need everyday. It lives up to everything expected of it: no surprises between glossy ads and reality. Without a doubt, Blackberry Pearl lacks nothing except the user frustration generally associated with new techno gadgets. Bravo!