RIM BlackBerry Pearl 8100 Smartphone

Rumor has it that this maybe the last Palm device that uses its own O/S rather than Microsofts. Shame really for it is a really good unit.

I won't list all the hardware and spec's here. You can get those from the other reviewers. I'll concentrate on the use and real world applications of the unit.

I got this pda so that I could leech off the free wi-fi hot spots. In that regard, this pda performs really good. All you have to do is touch a small permanent icon that looks like a signal strength graph and the pda will instantly search for all the wi-fi signals it can get. It will then show you all of them, plus any others you acquired previously, along with their names, signal strength and whether they require a password or not (shown by an icon of a lock). All you need to do is select the wifi you want and it will connect. If it needs a password, it will ask you for one. That's it! Next touch the browser icon and you're off surfing. For a wifi B unit, I think it's pretty speedy. Each site updated within seconds. The included browser, not one of the majors like IE or Netscape, does a pretty respectable job. It has all the security you need. The fonts are a bit small and you can set them to be bigger but then you're forced to use the scroll bars more often. One of the included free softwares is VersaMail. This nifty little software will access your private email for downloading. It takes some initial configuration but once done, just touch the icon (when you're wifi connected) and it downloads a copy of your email. You can set it to download a portion of it or all the message. I setup my isp and a few other mail sites to forward everything to GMail (Googles excellent mail site) and thus I only connect to one place.

Not every site is optimized for pda viewing. Something that's not mentioned very often. Sites like Google and Yahoo do fine while Netscape is hit and miss. Jsut know that you're favorite site may look kinda clunky.

The pda uses SD cards which are cheap for the amount of memory you can get. I got a 2Gig one for $70 the other day. So I got one card for music, one for pictures and the other for work documents. Changing a card is simplicity itself. Just push down atop the unit were the card inserts and it pops out. Insert the next card you want, push down until it clicks and that's it. Card loaded and files ready to be accessed.

Traveling is where this I believe this unit shines. I go to an airport and hook up the wifi being broadcasted. (Some airports have free wifi while others you have to pay). I can surf while waiting for my plane or listen to my mp3 music or look at the photos I've loaded onto the sd card. (My camera uses the same type of card). Here's a nice touch The unit comes with free mp3 player software. I can either listen to the music (the screen turns off to conserve power after a selected 10 to 30 seconds) or I can surf or work while listening. I don't have to one or the other - I can do both!
The unit also does mpegs. I recommend headphones because the built in speaker, though functional, is tinny.

The screen is bright enough but it doesn't do well in bright sunlight. The buttons are minimal but functional. One nice thing about the unit is that you're not restricted to using a fixed portion of the screen to write on - you can select to use the entire screen. That's a lot of space to write on for a pda. It does not come with a microphone. Oh well.

Battery life is good, not great. Expect about 5 hours of mp3 listening and 2-3 hours of screen on work. Of course you can hook it up to its charger and go on forever.

This unit will do a lot of stuff and do it nicely. The OS is stable. I've found that most OS problems reside with the vendor software rather than with the units. There is a vast amount of free palm software out there, some of it very specialized. One software I found will program the unit to act as a remote control for your TV while another one makes your screen look like a mirror so you can do your makeup. Amazing what some people think of!