The BlackBerry Pearl (8100 / 8110 / 8120 / 8130 / 8220) is a mobile phone developed by Research In Motion, and the first BlackBerry device with a camera and media player. It was originally released September 12th 2006. T-Mobile was the first US carrier to release the phone as a carrier device.

Specifications

• Dimensions (W x D x H): 2 in x 0.6 in x 4.2 in
• Weight: 3.2 oz
• Talk Time: Up to 210 Minutes (3.5 hours)
• Standby time: Up to 360 hours (15 days)

The Pearl comes with the following standard features:

• 1.33 (8100 & 8110 version) or 2.0 (8120/8130) megapixel camera with flash, self portrait mirror, and 5x digital zoom
• Media player with support for MP3, AAC, AMR, polyphonic MIDI and WAV sound formats
• Media player with support for MPEG-4 and H.263 video formats
• Bluetooth 2.0
• Wi-Fi Access (only for 8120 & 8220)
• UMA support (only for 8120 & 8220)
• High-Speed Westbridge USB (8110, 8120 and 8130)
• Address book and calendar
• HTML Web browser
• GPS assisted BlackBerry Maps (8130 and 8120)
• Push e-mail
• Voice Dialing
• Speakerphones
• SMS and MMS text messaging (However, MMS requires WAP service)
• Instant messaging
• Supports up to 8GB MicroSDHC with handheld code 4.5

The BlackBerry Pearl is aimed towards both business users and consumers. Its advertising campaign features several people including Mariska Hargitay and Douglas Coupland.

The BlackBerry Pearl provides Quad-Band network support on 850/900/1800/1900 MHz GSM/GPRS and EDGE networks to allow for international roaming between North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. The BlackBerry 8130 includes EV-DO high speed CDMA data capabilities and the BlackBerry 8120 is the first Pearl model to support Wi-Fi.

BlackBerry Pearl 8110, 8120 and 8130 have one of the world's finest USB sideloading performance.Fact: date=August 2008 Their sideloading architecture upgrade from 8100 provides them with Hi-Speed USB and ultra fast connection to the microSDHC card, capable of transferring 1GB file in less than 70 seconds - over 16Mbyte/s transfer rate. As seen in the following EETimes article - this transfer speed significantly surpasses that of the iPhone, Motorola RAZR or Sony Ericsson Walkman. Per the article, this is because 8120/8130 uses the Antioch chip from Cypress Semiconductor - a Westbridge peripheral controller enabling "direct connection between peripherals, creating ultra-fast transfers".

BlackBerry Pearl 8220

The BlackBerry Pearl 8220, formerly known as the BlackBerry KickStart, is RIM's first flip phone. It is thus often referred to as the "Pearl Flip" or "BlackBerry Flip".

The Pearl Flip is now available in the United States through T-Mobile, in the UK through O2, and in Canada through Rogers, Telus, and Bell Mobility. The phone has been known by many names, from the original codename BlackBerry "Kickstart" name to the current BlackBerry® Pearl™ 8220 Smartphone name. A CDMA version is expected for Verizon.