Nov 26 2008
With an overall performance of 87 % the BlackBerry Pearl 8120 is the first in RIM’s line of petite handsets to support Wi-Fi for speedy Web surfing and e-mail management.
It’s the first Pearl with Wi-Fi support, which speeds up Web surfing and e-mail access. The Pearl 8120 improves on its predecessors with outstanding software for multimedia management and a better camera that captures video and stills.
The 8120 makes its debut today–but only to AT&T Wireless corporate customers (via its enterprise channels and its Premier business portal). Pricing for these customers is $200 with a two-year contract, or $350 unlocked.
I spent a couple of days testing this svelte candy-bar-style handset and came away highly impressed. Voice calls sounded loud and clear, and recipients were able to hear me even while I was walking along a busy city street. In our lab tests of the phone’s talk-time battery life, the 8120 lasted 9 hours, 43 minutes–enough to earn a score of Superior.
Although the 8120 doesn’t support AT&T’s fastest data network (HSDPA), its 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi capability certainly compensated in many locations. And its quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support means you can use it for voice calls throughout most of the world, with data coming in at roughly dial-up speed in locations where Wi-Fi isn’t an option.
