From the moment I have entered this telecom field always amused to have a blackberry and finally I own a blackberry pearl 8100 it feels great to have a phone like this. Whats so great ? then read further...
As I said I always liked blackberry but the only dislike which kept me away is the big size and look of the phone so I have found a perfect balance for looks and features in blackberry pearl!!.
It might take a day or two to get used to the keypad but once you get used to it its the best handheld you can have. Data services doesnt work on normal GPRS service you need to subscribe for special blackberry packages whihc starts from 249-> 1069 depending on the service provider.
Initial setup is easy since you have a special icon which guides you through the process which includes, mail, font, theme etc.
You have 3 themes available in the handset and 2 operator themes I find dimension zen as the best theme. Contact sync is little complicated but the easiest way to do this is to sync your existing contact to outlook and fill them with all the work email addresses(this in case if your exchange server doesnt hold complete information). You can very well retrieve attachments, word, excel, ppt, pdf but however cannot edit in this version.
You cannot directly pair and transfer files instantly through bluetooth that means you need to pair the device first and then go the content type like wallpaper, ringtone and then you have an option which says receive through bluetooth to receive the file, if you do not follow this process you will get a standard error "file sending failed".
Once you connect through the data service you can log on to blackberry home site and downloads loads of useful applications free of cost! We have gtalk, facebook, messanger services and GPS related services from net4all.
The headset clarity is extremely good, you have 64 mb inbuilt memory and you can extend upto maximum with memory card I have 1gb. You set phone lock in the holster which is a good feature which locks automatically once inside the holster.
Email exchange server is extremely fast and keeps checking for update all the time. This is a niche and a break through from the normal blackberry shape.
This has 1.3 mega pixel camera which is good enough to capture things you might like to.
However there are some cons to everything, the browser doesnt support opening up most of full sites like orkut, everytime you click on full site view it shows an error. But this supports most of the streaming sites to listen or watch online.
Well for those who would require technical specifications please refer to https://na.blackberry.com/eng/devices/device-detail.jsp?navId=H0, C101, P203#tab_tab_features
Well I have to conclude this device is affordable, stylish and lastly its blackberry go for it!!