So far happy with my pearl

I purchased my Blackberry Pearl a couple months ago. After having the same Audiovox flip phone for 4-5 years, I decided it was finally time to upgrade. After a friend's recommendation, I decided to go with the Blackberry Pearl. I liked the smaller size of the Pearl compared to the other Blackberry's. After using it for a little bit and a little help from Blackberry discussion forums, it wasn't too difficult to figure out.

Being my first phone with bluetooth, I discovered it was easy to use as well. The browser is nice to have, because you have access to weather, news, phonebook, email, pretty much anything at the touch of a button. I did find that the browser cache and cookies need to be cleared often to save the phone memory. I found this out the hard way because initially the phone would not keep my call logs. The camera is nice to have, it's not the best quality and doesn't take pictures great pictures if the subject is in motion. The QWERTY style 'keyboard' is much better and easier to use for me than the standard phones.

The phone is very customizable, you can customize the 2 shortcut keys on the each side of the Pearl.Whether it's a shortcut to the phonebook, camera, browser, you can change them to what you want them to be. You can customize you home screen and place your favorite applications, as well as changing the background wallpaper.

The stored available memory on the phone is limited, I quickly filled it up with ringtones, however, this problem can be solved by purchasing a MicroSD card. The video camera on the phone will not work unless you have a MicroSD card.

You do want to protect your Pearl, it's not a cheap piece of equipment to buy. I noticed right off that the LCD screen will scratch easily so I purchased an inexpensive screen protector. Also I recommend a case for it as well. The battery cover is a little flimsy and is easily scratched as well. Battery life is about what you can expect on most phones and handhelds.