The BlackBerry Pearl 3G is a big first for the cats at Research In Motion: it’s the first push emailer from the company with a traditional 14 button keyboard, rather than the QWERTY pad RIM’s famous for. Is it a step down from the existing Pearl keyboard, or a useful tool for firing off emails like text messages? Find out as we put it to the test in this part of our BlackBerry Pearl 3G review.
BlackBerry Pearl 3G: Everything you need to know. Click here!
Read the rest of our BlackBerry Pearl 3G review:
BlackBerry Pearl 3G review
BlackBerry Pearl 3G review: Build and media skills
BlackBerry Pearl 3G review: What’s new
BlackBerry Pearl 3G review: The ultimate Messenger phone?
BlackBerry Pearl 3G review: Live Q&A!
If you’re used to a 0-9 keyboard, on that Nokia or Sony Ericsson you’ve had for years, say, you’ll be right at home with the build of the keypad on the BlackBerry Pearl 3G. Even the biggest of paws won’t struggle to hit each well defined key (Enter and delete buttons have also been squeezed in), and we like the moulded plastic curves of each: it’s different to the smushy feel of the 9700 keys, or bouncy clackiness of a Curve QWERTY, but just as welcome.
You can tap out messages on the BlackBerry Pearl 3G in just the same way too, popping a key to cycle through letters in the same you were probably doing back in the nineties. While that’s fine for the odd “Where r u?” text, as you can imagine, and not a problem for BlackBerry Messenger chats with mates either, responding to all those lengthier emails instantly delivered to your homescreen isn’t quite so instant.
To get round this, RIM’s added its own predictive text software, SureType, to second guess the words you’re writing as you type, rather than the traditional T9 software you might be accustomed to. Anyone who’s used a BlackBerry Pearl or Pearl Flip will know how it works: pop a few characters in, and it’ll deliver a drop down menu of suggestions that changes in realtime (including names from your address book), and you can activate anyone by rolling down the trackpad and pressing it to confirm.
On its own, SureType isn’t spectacular at working out what you’re writing: do people really say “foot” more than “don’t”, and “ado” more than “Ben”? But SureType on the BlackBerry Pearl 3G is very efficient at working out new words – you just need to go back through a word and spell it once, and it’ll learn it for next time, with no need for fiddling in menus. As such, it’s a system that only gets quicker the more you use it: for typing with proper spelling and punctuation, and at length, the BlackBerry Pearl 3G is unquestionably the fastest 14 key candybar we’ve ever tested, even if it can’t come close to matching a QWERTY keyboard BlackBerry.
Unfortunately, RIM’s limited just how fast you can get in day to day use typing on the BlackBerry Pearl 3G with slightly awkward integration. It doesn’t automatically turn off for text forms and URL bars while you’re web browsing, which is disappointing, as this is the one obvious place where predictive text really isn’t helpful. Toggling SureType on and off also requires a good few presses of the hash key, rather than one, and the icon showing which mode you’re in is often obscured by the symbol letting you know data is being downloaded.
What’s more annoying though is RIM’s decision to deny Europe the BlackBerry Pearl 3G model with a 20 key layout, as seen on the original Pearl, reserving it for North America. We happen to think this “two letters to a key” layout makes for a great bridge between your older candybar phone and the world of powerful new smartphones, but by removing even the choice, RIM’s all but ruled out the possibility of any current Pearl owners upgrading for the juicy 3G connectivity: once you’ve tasted those faster typing speeds, you won’t want to go back.
If you’re planning on buying a BlackBerry Pearl 3G, you’ll have to be well versed in 0-9 keyboards: anyone who has used a phone with a physical QWERTY keyboard or a capacitive touchscreen won’t want to switch back. But you’ll still be getting all the software features of a powerful BlackBerry Bold 9700, so if you fit that bill, you’re in for a treat.
Read the rest of our BlackBerry Pearl 3G review:
BlackBerry Pearl 3G review
BlackBerry Pearl 3G review: Build and media skills
BlackBerry Pearl 3G review: What’s new
BlackBerry Pearl 3G review: The ultimate Messenger phone?
BlackBerry Pearl 3G review: Live Q&A!
