Plemix

A flip phone from BlackBerry? Research in Motion surprises us again with another innovation – the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220. It has many new things: flip design, Instant Messaging software, bigger Suretype Keyboard and more…but are they enough for the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 to eat into the flip phone markets? Let’s find out now.

The package is not very impressive, only the phone, battery, charger, handsfree, data cable and a pile of user’s guide are included. Since the phone is a fingerprint-magnetic beauty, I suppose RIM would at least include a cloth (or a case!).

As you can see, the front cover is dominated by the huge 1.6” external screen, which can display a digital clock (as shown) or new SMS.

When the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 is flipped open, it is very long – which is one of the advantages of having a flip phone. The speaker is close to the ear while the microphone sits next to the lips, the design guarantees that you can hear and be heard clearly.

The trackball is horrible. The erratic response gives the feeling that the technology is still in its embryonic form. I had to be very careful with my thumb because rolling it too hard causes it to recognize 2 inputs. When I applied insufficient force, the trackball would physically roll, but the input would not be recognized. This is not to say that the trackball is unusable, you just have to be very careful with it – not a good thing if you are in a hurry.

Many long-term BlackBerry users have complained about the SureType keyboard, which groups 2 letters in one key as opposed to the 1-letter-1-key physical QWERTY keyboard found on other BlackBerries. I do not think that these complaints are very well justified since we are looking at a 50mm wide model, which is terribly deficient of space! The SureType keyboard is soft with a deep enough drive, predictive input works well and the only possible complaint is the slight delay before the predicted word menu show up.

A standard 3.5mm earphone jack! Obviously RIM understands the pain of carrying and installing an adapter for listening to 5 minutes of music. Strangely enough, the earphone jack and the data port lack a protective cover.

microSD can be removed without turning off the phone – good for swapping the card containing the next Lord of the Rings movie (secretly in a meeting)

The flash and message indicator sit next to the 2MP camera. The camera is far from spectacular with faded colors and soft sharpness.

The OS in the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 may look slightly different from the ones you have seen before. This is partly due to the orientation of the screen (240 x 320 versus 320 x 240 on other BlackBerry devices) and partly due to the new features added. The menu is nicely organized and you can access most of the features without looking at the manual. For instance, “Manage Connections” allows you to handle GSM and Wi-Fi settings in one stop.

The BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 could have become the best flip phones today with its gorgeous design, SureType keyboard and the powerful business software suite but for the following glitches: 1) poor Trackball 2) mediocre camera 3) lack of 3G support.

BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 Video Review