BlackBerry Pearl 9100 revealed, has lost its gemstone but not its luster
![](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/nwvKfzC4mHOCCj31NsBiRA--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTcwNTtoPTY0Mw--/https://s.yimg.com/uu/api/res/1.2/H_kbryV3v03SBJCccAhioA--~B/aD00MTY7dz00NTY7YXBwaWQ9eXRhY2h5b24-/https://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2009/11/blackberry-9100-20091120-456.jpg)
The BlackBerry Pearl 8100 was, and still is, a lovely little phone, QWERTYfied, pocketable, and rocking that little milky trackball that gave it its name. There's finally a true successor coming down the pipeline (the flippy 8230 not really counting) though it ditches the iconic pearl for a now-standard (and hopefully more reliable) touchpad. There's a similarly swoopy SureType keyboard and the overall dimensions look very much the same, meaning this should fill the tiny BlackBerry void once again -- whenever it ships.
Update: But of course the original 8100 also had SureType, not QWERTY.
[Thanks, Alex T]