The Mighty Pearl

This weekend I upgraded / replaced my old Blackberry with the newest creation – the BlackBerry Pearl.  First off, I replaced my other phone after the microphone died and it couldn’t help itself from hour glassing for 2-3 hours at a time (usually when I was lost out in the backwoods of Illinois.  So, I didn’t replace my phone because I didn’t like the old design, but was forced to due to natural selection.

My first thoughts are as follows:
The Bad New First….

• The back piece is too thin.  Every time I hold the phone to type the back depresses more than it should, and makes me a bit nervous on its ability to sustain violent blows from its new user.
• The buttons are a bit software, and slightly smaller.  This makes typing a bit of a challenge, but I hope it is just a learning curve given the new device.
• 3 crashes in 4 days.  Not too inconvenient given that it comes back within a minute, but still something we need addressed.

The Good Stuff…

• Fast – Wonderfully fast compared to the old BlackBerrys
• The roller ball is quite responsive and allows for some nice navigation.
• The push / pull services are excellent (note these may have always existed, but I was not introduced until recently)

My latest add-ons are:

• Google Maps (Live Traffic feeds, Satellite, wonderful)
• Google Chat
• Push Weather services (multiple locations)
• [Know of any others, please pass them along!!]

• The bluetooth functionality is great – super easy file transfer with my new MB.
• The ability to setup the phone as a bluetooth-modem to the MB is AWESOME.

Overall a good experience.  I will update this post with any new experiences….

James