RIM BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 Review

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by Franz Bicar

Reasearch In Motion have been doing really well this year. Even with the release of the iPhone 3G, RIM is undoubtedly still number one when it comes to corporate users. This year, RIM launched its first touch-screen BlackBerry, the RIM BlackBerry Storm. Along with this release, RIM also debuted its first clamshell handset, the RIM BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220. The Flip may not be as popular as the Bold or the Storm, but it can definitely hold its own. Plus, its an attractive phone for users more attracted to clamshell designs.

The Flip’s design is not really that flashy. Compared to Samsung or Motorola’s clamshell handsets, the Flip is wanting. But unlike these devices, the Flip is functional. The beauty, as they say, is skin deep. The Flip 8220 features an updated operating system and interface, document editing, Wi-Fi, strong e-mail support, and a 2-megapixel camera. It’s not for the power business users, but if you’re looking for your first smartphone or just want to keep tabs on your e-mail and have a penchant for flips phones, the Pearl Flip is a good option.

When closed, the phone measures around 3.9 inches high by 1.9 inches wide by 0.7 inch deep and weighs 3.6 ounces. It’s not as compact as other phones out there in the market, but it can easily be carried and slips right into your pocket without any hitch.

On front, you have a 1.6-inch diagonal external non-touch display with a 65,536-color output and 128×160-pixel resolution. In addition to showing the standard information, like battery life, network strength, time and date, it displays notifications for new messages, missed calls, caller ID, voice mails, and such. You can even read previews of new e-mail from the external screen. Furthermore, when using the media player, you can also see track information but you can’t perform any functions, other than adjusting the volume. Above the display, you’ll find the camera lens and flash.

Next, we go to one of the most important part of the phone, the keyboard. The Pearl Flip has similar its keyboard and navigation controls with the BlackBerry Pearl. You have Talk and End keys below the display, a BlackBerry menu shortcut, a back button, and trackball navigator. You also have RIM’s SureType keyboard.

The internal display measures a spacious 2.25 inches diagonally and shows off 65,536 colors at a 240×320-pixel resolution. Text and images look incredibly vibrant, and the new BlackBerry interface really pops with its updated and snazzy icons. You can, of course, customize the home screen with different background images and themes, as well as adjust the font size and type and backlight time.

On the left spine, there’s a mute button, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a micro USB port, and a customizable convenience key. Meanwhile, on the right side, you have a volume rocker, a microSD expansion slot, and another user-programmable shortcut key.

Let’s take a look at the Flip 8220’s main features. The Flip runs BlackBerry OS 4.6, providing new functionality and a fresh appearance to the device. The user interface features an updated look with flashier, modern icons. The Pearl Flip 8220 continues to offer the outstanding e-mail support that BlackBerry is known for in the smartphone world. It can sync with your company’s BlackBerry Enterprise server, with support for Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Domino, or Novell GroupWise, to deliver corporate e-mail in real time.

With BlackBerry Internet Service, you can also access up to 10 personal/business POP3 or IMAP4 e-mail accounts. For faster communication, the Pearl Flip also comes preloaded with six instant-messaging clients: BlackBerry Messenger, AOL, Google Talk, ICQ, Yahoo, and Windows Live.

In addition to an attachment viewer that opens popular file formats, such as Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Corel WordPerfect, PDF, JPEG, GIF, and more, the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 also comes preloaded with DataViz Documents To Go, so you can now edit Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files as well. Other PIM applications on the smartphone include a Calendar, a task list, a memo pad, a voice recorder, a calculator, and more.

Voice features on the Pearl Flip include quad-band world roaming, a speakerphone, voice-activated dialing, conference calling, speed dial, and text and multimedia messaging. The address book is limited only by the available memory with room in each entry for multiple phone numbers, e-mail addresses, work and home addresses, job title, and more.

The downside for the Flip is same as other Pearl models. It doesn’t have both Wi-Fi and GPS. You either get one, or the other. For the Flip, you get Wi-Fi (802.11b/g with UMA support). Second, the smartphone is not 3G-capable and Wi-Fi provides a better alternative to surfing the Web on EDGE. The Pearl Flip 8220 features a full HTML Web browser and supports streaming video, including YouTube clips.

The Flip doesn’t only shine as a smartphone but also as a multimedia device. There are plenty of other entertainment options on the Pearl Flip. The built-in media player can play various music and video formats, including MP3, WMA, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-NB, and MIDI music files, and MPEG4, WMV, and H.263 video clips. There’s a search function, playlist creation, shuffle and repeat, and you get a full-screen mode for video playback.

The Pearl Flip comes with a 2-megapixel camera with flash, 5x zoom, and video recording. For still images, you have your choice of three picture sizes and three picture qualities. Once done, you can send your media via e-mail or multimedia message, set them as your background image, or upload it to Facebook. In addition to the flash, there are white balance settings and you can add a couple of color effects. In video mode, you only get three color effects and two video formats.

The RIM BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 has a 900mAh lithium ion battery and has a rated talk time of 4 hours and up to 14 days of standby time.

Sources:
http://gizmodo.com
http://www.laptopmag.com