BlackBerry
Pearl 8120 and Curve 8320
Discontinued 19th October 2007
BlackBerry
Pearl 8120
The original BlackBerry
Pearl 8100 is a massively popular messaging device,
both for business customers and demanding consumers.
This latest version, the BlackBerry Pearl 8120 looks
similar on the outside, but it has some significant
improvements over the older 8100.
The most obvious addition to the Pearl platform is
the addition of WiFi, but the camera has also been improved
- it's now a 2 megapixel device with flash, capable
of capturing videos at a resolution of 240 x 180 or
176 x 144 pixels. The user interface has also been improved
cosmetically and in terms of organisation, with numerous
enhancements to system features.
As you would expect from a new BlackBerry
device, the Pearl 8120
has very good email support for both standard internet
protocols and "push email" solutions. There's
a multimedia player, web browser and a whole set of
personal information management tools. Most Mobile
Gazette readers will know what goes into a BlackBerry
device, so we won't repeat it all here.
The
display on the 8120 is the 240 x 260 pixel display that
has been around for a while now, and is widely regarded
as being one of the best screens on any mobile handset.
Underneath this is a quad-band GSM phone with GPRS and
EDGE data, but no 3G. WiFi 802.11b/g is supported.
It's a relatively light device at just 91 grams,
overall measurements are 107 x 60 x 14mm and the 8120's
maximum talktime is 4 hours with up to 15 days standby
time.
You're either going to love or hate the Pearl's SureType
keyboard. For those that want a proper QWERTY layout,
there's the BlackBerry
Curve 8320 instead.
The camera is still pretty unimpressive, and we suspect
that many corporate customers would be happier if it
was left out completely. And since the original Pearl
was launched, 3G and 3.5G data has become much more
popular - GPRS and EDGE data is just not as good for
web browsing, although it will be just fine for the
8120's Push Email client.
We
understand that the Italian TIM network will have the
8120 first, followed by other carriers from December
onwards. As an aside, it's also worth noting that there
is a CDMA variant of the Pearl with GPS available in
the US, called the Pearl 8130. It could well be that
we'll see GPS in a future GSM Pearl in the very near
future.
BlackBerry
Curve 8320
The BlackBerry
Curve maybe hasn't been as big a success as the Pearl,
but it's aimed at roughly the same market - the new
Curve 8320 also brings WiFi to an existing device, in
this case the Curve
8300.
In functional terms there is very little
difference between the Curve and the Pearl, except that
the Curve 8320
has a proper QWERTY keyboard and a larger 320 x 240
pixel display.
The BlackBerry
Curve 8320 is available
now, currently from T-Mobile USA only but we assume
that other carriers will follow soon.
BlackBerry
Pearl 8120 at a glance
|
Available:
|
Q4
2007
|
Network:
|
GSM
850/900/1800/1900
|
Data:
|
GPRS
+ EDGE + WiFi
|
Screen:
|
240x260
pixels, 65k colours
|
Camera:
|
2
megapixels
|
Size:
|
Compact
candy bar 107x50x15mm
/ 91 grams
|
Bluetooth:
|
Yes
|
Memory
card:
|
microSD
|
Infra-red:
|
No
|
Polyphonic:
|
Yes
|
Java:
|
Yes
|
Battery
life:
|
4
hours talk / 15 days standby
|
|
BlackBerry
Curve 8320 at a glance
|
Available:
|
Q4
2007
|
Network:
|
GSM
850/900/1800/1900
|
Data:
|
GPRS
+ EDGE + WiFi
|
Screen:
|
320x240
pixels, 65k colours
|
Camera:
|
2
megapixels
|
Size:
|
Compact
PDA style device 107
x 60 x 16mm / 111 grams
|
Bluetooth:
|
Yes
|
Memory
card:
|
microSD
|
Infra-red:
|
No
|
Polyphonic:
|
Yes
|
Java:
|
Yes
|
Battery
life:
|
4 hours talk / 17 days standby
|
|
|