RIM Blackberry Pearl Flip 8220
The message machine to be seen with?
Review It might seem slightly perverse for RIM to produce a clamshell Blackberry when almost every other phone maker's attitude seems to be ‘been there, done that’ while they focus on sliders and candybars. But there is method in the madness.
RIM’s intention with the Pearl range has been to broaden the appeal of the Blackberry beyond its corporate beginnings and to make it just as much about all the other things that people buy phones for – style, fun, a camera, a music player, web browsing and, of course, email, still the Blackberry’s USP.
RIM's Blackberry Pearl Flip 8220: stylish and sophisticated
Adding a clamshell variation into a market that’s not exactly awash with them at the moment could well prove a window of opportunity for the brand, especially when it’s as stylish and technically sophisticated as this one.
Looks-wise, the 8220 has a more sober appearance than its brightly coloured predecessors in the Pearl range - which are "aimed at girls and hairdressers", as one WAG had it. It looks serious with its glossy black front, but not necessarily in a boring business way. Put it this way, James Bond wouldn’t blow his cool by ostentatiously displaying one of these in his next movie.
The outer screen measures 27 x 34mm with a 128 x 160 resolution - the main, interior one is 240 x 320 - and is barely noticeable with the phone in repose. When you receive a call, however, it flicks into life, revealing an analogue clock with date as well as caller, battery, message and signal info. You can also activate it by pressing one of the two programmable ‘convenience keys’ on each side.
COMMENTS
Your words of power need recharging
Writing "stylish and sophisticated" under a picture of a bizarre, ugly lump does not make it stylish or sophisticated. Look at it, it's awful. That first photo is supposed to show it in its best light. Imagine how bad it looks in normal use away from the unnatural all-white Matrix Construct where Apple ads are shot. The case has the unalluring sheen of cheap brittle plastic, the screen is myopic, and the keypad looks like an insult. Overall, the design takes its cues from the early 90s, a time better known as "Hammer time", which does it no favours. It is a dull, bland and unadventurous phone, and simply calling it stylish won't ever make it so. Only the yuppies of yesteryear would find anything appealing about it, but perhaps in aiming for now-middle-aged ex yuppies, it will succeed wildly.
Blackberry bug?
Do Blackberries still have the bug where you cannot do IMAP or POP3 directly, but have to use a special Blackberry server to do all your e-mail over?
@Bad Beaver
Same reason people buy iPhones. Because chosing something you like often takes priority over "What is best".
Why?
Why would one still buy a Blackberry, especially such a bland, cheap looking one, when so many nice mobiles offer you to use BB push AND pop/imap according to your preference?
gps?
Regarding the GPS piece of the review... the 500m reference and Google Maps leads me to believe it was using the "my location" feature to identify your location based on the connected cell tower.
Could you confirm whether you were actually looking at the GPS location? I have noticed that when using Google Maps on a GPS enabled blackberry that you actually need to authorize use of the GPS to use it.
