The BlackBerry Pearl (8100)/(8110)/(8120)/(8130) 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.
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 8120 and 8130 have one of the world's finest USB sideloading performance. Their sideloading architecture upgrade from 8100 provides them with Hi-Speed USB and ultra fast connection to the microSD card, capable of transferring 1GB file in less than 70 seconds - over 16Mbyte/stransfer rate. As seen from the following EETimes article[2] - this beats the other phones in the market like 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".
The Wi-Fi enabled Pearl (8120) is available in the United States - being made available by AT&T, Cincinnati Bell Wireless, & T-Mobile (USA). The 8120 is available from the AT&T for $200 with a new or contract renewal, while T-Mobile offers the titanium colored version (which features UMA calling, not just web browsing like the AT&T model) for $150 with a new 2-year contract. It is also available in the United Kingdom and Australia
Most BlackBerry devices have a full keyboard. The Pearl uses a modified QWERTY layout on a 4-row, 5-column keypad, with a predictive input algorithm known as SureType. The unique phone is one of its kind in securing SureType technology. It is the only modern BlackBerry to support SureType, after the 7100 series.
The Pearl supports the full range of BlackBerry enterprise functionality.
Unlike previous BlackBerry devices, the Pearl includes a music player, camera, as well as other multimedia functions. It requires the purchase of a MicroSD memory card to support storage of multimedia files beyond the 64MB provided internally.
Most notably, the Pearl uses a translucent trackball instead of the traditional BlackBerry scroll wheel. This facilitates horizontal scrolling and is the origin of the Pearl's name. The back lit colour of the 8100 trackball is controlled by a series of LEDs; the 8130 trackball is lit only in white.[3]
The Pearl is currently available with Sprint, T-Mobile, AT&T Mobility, Cincinnati Bell Wireless, Verizon Wireless, Alltel, US Cellular, Centennial Wireless, MOSH Mobile, nTelos, Cellular One and Cellular South in the United States, Turkcell and Avea in Turkey, Claro in Brazil and Dominican Republic, Airtel, Vodafone & Reliance Communications in India, Vodacom and MTN in South Africa, Telcel in Mexico, Rogers Wireless, Telus, SaskTel, MTS and Bell Mobility in Canada, Telstra, Optus and Vodafone in Australia, KPN and Vodafone in the Netherlands, Grameen-Business Enterprise in Bangladesh, Vodafone in New Zealand, SingTel in Singapore, Mobilink in Pakistan and all networks in the UK.
Resource : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlackBerry_Pearl