Blackberry Smartphone Reviews - Blackberry Pearl, Curve, & World Edition

I've wanted a really cool cell phone for a while now, especially as all my friends and family were getting their cool new phones. Well, I finally broke down and purchased the Blackberry Pearl.

When I went to the store for activation, as the Indians I spoke with via the phone couldn't figure out how to activate the phone, I fell in love with the look of the Blackberry Curve. I traded in my Pearl the next day.

I didn't do much research on the phones, but I wish I had, so for those of you who are doing the research, check out the following Blackberries- the Blackberry Pearl, Blackberry Curve, and the Blackberry World Edition.

Like I mentioned above, I had the Pearl for a few days. Let me tell you it was an adjustment from the regular flip phone I had previously. The keyboard was a pain to use and the buttons are really close together.

The Blackberry Pearl is the smallest of the Blackberry devices, which is what makes it popular. The Pearl measures at 4.2" x 1.9" x .6" and weighs 3.4 ounces.

The Pearl features the track ball in the center to make navigating the phone pretty simple. Just make sure that you don't give up within the first few minutes. Really do give yourself some time to get used to the phone before you give up.

The Blackberry Pearl is one of the first smartphones to be able to play audio and video. You can store a bunch of songs, videos, and images on your phone, especially if you have the added SD chip.

The VGA camera is 1.3 MP that takes average pictures. The quality is no better than a lot of flip phones that you find on the market. The best feature of the camera is that is does pretty well at automatically adjusting to the surrounding light.

You can access your email and the internet via your Blackberry Pearl. The browser was something to get adjusted to, but it pulls up pretty fast versus many of the other available phones.

And, don't forget that the Pearl is bluetooth accessible.

Between the Curve and the Pearl, I vote for the Blackberry Curve. The full QWERTY keyboard makes typing emails and text messages so much simpler. The Curve still features the trackball, browser, media desktop for your computer, camera, music, GPS maps, speakerphone, trackball, video capabilities, SD slot, 2.0 MP camera, and bluetooth capabilities.

The Blackberry Curve measures at 4.2" x 2.4" x 0.63" and weighs 4.0 ounces. The Curve is a little wider and thicker than the Pearl, but to me it seems more durable in my hand.

The camera is decent and takes great pictures. You can see pictures that I've uploaded from my Blackberry Curve here.

Some of the basic features and applications that are pre-installed with the Curve include Handmark's Pocket Express; Facebook; an instant messaging application that does AIM, Yahoo, Google Talk and BlackBerry Messaging; and a voice dialer.

The web browser is pretty impressive, and loads rather quickly, as well.

My favorite feature of the Blackberry 8330 is that you can get your email on your phone. You don't have to have a POP3 server, either. I can get my Yahoo and Gmail email right on my phone. Although, I cannot see past emails, I can see all new incoming emails and even reply to them.

The Blackberry Curve 8330 is a great phone. Although, it is pretty basic in terms of PDA mobile phones, it is a very solid phone.

The Blackberry 8830 World Edition is a pretty lightweight phone for its size. The World Edition 8830 measures at 4.49" x 2.6" x .55" and weighs 4.6 ounces.

This is a more business quality phone. The company that my father works with passes them out as business phones for managers and sales people.

The Blackberry World Edition 8830 has the full QWERTY keyboard, bluetooth accessibility, SD card slot, media player, GPS capabilities, trackball, voice dialing, speakerphone, GPS maps, and all the basics of a cell phone.

The one thing that the Blackberry World Edition doesn't have is the camera, which can be a big downfall, and is the main reason why my dad hates his.

You still have full web capabilities, email access, and all the basics for a PDA phone.

The talk time for the Blackberry 8830 World Edition is probably the least of all three blackberries at 3.6 hours.

The main thing that the World Edition 8830 is missing is fun and well the camera. You can still access the media player, but is that going to be enough to satisfy your needs?