Cingular officially launches BlackBerry Pearl

Every day closer we get to Christmas is a day less Cingular has to push buyers to snag the sexy (yet still somehow boring and disappointing) BlackBerry Pearl. Expect to pay $400 for the phone out of contract -- way, way too much -- and as little as $200 with a two year and rebate. Frankly, for those with two Bens looking for a QWERTY device that plays media, we think you can do a lot better.

[Thanks, Rich]

[fnb @ Dec 3rd 2006 4:45PM]

Meh.

I'll stick with my far-more-useful and non-user-memory-managed Treo 680.

[Ryan Curtis @ Dec 3rd 2006 5:41PM]

I work for cingular. that pearl kills that blackjack. it is not even close. there is just a monumental difference between the way that those two phones feel.

[Eddy Alvarez @ Dec 3rd 2006 7:03PM]

yeah, i bought the Pearl on Dec. 1 from cingular at a cingular store down here in S. Florida. I was the first one they sold. Personally, i think the phone is fantastic. I didn't like the blackjack as much as liked the blackberry. also, this pearl has like a million hidden features oh! and the voicedialing isnt precorded! it uses real voice recognition! computer voice even reads the entries so i basically have voice dialing for my whole phone book. i'm really happy.

[jared @ Dec 3rd 2006 8:22PM]

if only the blackjack and iSync were friends,
or at least there were something like PocketMac for Samsung phones and osx.

[hecklerz @ Dec 4th 2006 6:01PM]

there is a plug-in for iSync now called pocketMac. Works great with my Pearl.

[Brad @ Dec 3rd 2006 9:29PM]

I also got the first Pearl sold in State College, Pa, and I love the hell out of it. Email is being a pain but that'll get sorted out tomorrow; most likely it's me being stupid rather than the phone. I've never seen the Tmob version in person, but when the Cingular version broke people were knocking the change in colors. I like the Cingular version, but to each his own I suppose.

[david @ Dec 3rd 2006 10:35PM]

Who the hell does their graphics??? What an awful gradient.

[Steve @ Dec 3rd 2006 11:04PM]

As someone who just bought a Pearl (and almost got a Blackjack two weeks before), the pearl has a variety of advantages:

1. Blackberry interface is so easy
2. The pearl is much more pocket friendly than blackjack (and way more so than Treo)
3. $10 / month more for Blackjack/Treo data for essentially the same data plan. Over 2 year contract that more than pays for phone.
4. Pearl has been out longer and already has a bunch of Mac-friendly tips figured out like bluetooth modem tethering.

[JF @ Dec 4th 2006 12:08AM]

Anyone know if they fixed that bug with the scroll ball shutting off the ringer in people's pockets?

[Chris @ Dec 4th 2006 12:47AM]

I'm still waiting for Cingular Premier to ship my order :(

[bradyo @ Dec 4th 2006 1:59AM]

The Pearl is nice, but it still suffers from the inadvertent hangup problem: If you pull the phone from your pocket or holster to answer a call and accidentally brush the "trackball", the call is rejected and sent on to voicemail. A better solution for those looking for a Blackberry that's teeny is the Samsung SGH-T719. It's a quadband clamshell, RAZR-sized, with Blackberry Connect. It gets Blackberry e-mail just like the Pearl, syncs contacts and calendar, too. I bought mine from T-Mobile, unlocked it for free with instructions found on the web, and got a Cingular SIM. I've used it all over the US and in 5 European countries. Fantastic.

[hecklerz @ Dec 4th 2006 6:03PM]

oops, misread the post. Sorry- don't know about isync and the blackjack

[Collin Wells @ Dec 11th 2006 11:46AM]

I just have to say that I had one of these phones up until Saturday 12/2/2006 when I lost it. Let me tell you that it was the best thing that ever happened, I hated it and now I have a wonderful HTC Excalibur "Dash" that I love. If you want a piece, go with the Pearl. If you want something awesome, I personally like the HTC. Just an opinion.

[glenn @ Jul 16th 2007 4:44AM]

I just bought a new blackberry pearl and was recently scrolling down google images and later discoverd that I had visited sites that I did not intend to visit. How can this happen? Is it possible that I pushed the ball too hard and can you have pop ups on this phone?