Pearl -- Engadget Mobile

BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8230 now available through Verizon

by Chris Ziegler, posted Jun 19th 2009 @ 1:18PM

Seemingly as though it wasn't just totally pulling the claim of June 19 availability out of thin air back at the announcement, Verizon has gone ahead and started offering the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8230 online today. It's no Tour by any stretch, but the consumer-friendly phone comes in at a palatable $79.99 after discounts on contract and offers a 2 megapixel camera, 3.5mm headphone jack, EV-DO Rev. 0, and the 20-key layout made famous by the original Pearl -- if you're into that sort of thing. And hey, it looks pretty good in silver, doesn't it?

[Via Boy Genius Report]

Verizon Pearl Flip dummy in the wild, release this month?

by Chris Ziegler, posted Jun 3rd 2009 @ 6:02PM

This thing's been all over Canada for a while now, but the CDMA version of the BlackBerry 8230 hasn't managed to find its way out of Alltel's clutches in the States. Of course, we've been waiting on Verizon to do its thing for a while -- and it looks like we might finally see a release in the next few weeks A poster over on CrackBerry's forums notes that dummy units are now arriving in stores, and goes on to say that the arrival of dummies usually means that the real things can be expected within three weeks, give or take. We know that most Verizon customers waiting for a new BlackBerry probably have their eyes focused solely on the Tour, but hey, it's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

Blackberry Magnum, Onyx, Pearl 3G, and Gemini to harmonize on AT&T

by Ross Miller, posted May 24th 2009 @ 6:54PM

BlackBerry lovers, AT&T beckons. Looks like the just-reviewed Onyx is heading to AT&T and, as rumored before, so is the Magnum. We've got no pics of the latter device, but it's being touted here as the "BlackBerry Bold portfolio evolution" and uses the same processor as the Bold. It's also got a HVGA touchscreen, QWERTY pad, quad-band GSM / GRS / EDGE, GPS, and WiFi. Want more? How about an apparently non-flip Pearl 3G with 3.6 Mbps of HSDPA goodness, Bluetooth, 3.5mm headset jack, trackball and SureType, and aGPS. Rounding out this quartet is the Gemini, with a 512MHz processor, 256MB flash memory, 128MB RAM, Bluetooth, QVGA LCD, 2 megapixel sans flash, trackball, QWERTY keyboard, 3.5mm headset jack, a microSD slot, possibly GPS, and sadly, no 3G. There's no release date in sight, but hey, knowing they're on the way is half the battle, right?

Gallery: Blackberry Magnum, Onyx, Pearl 3G, and Gemini to harmonize on AT&T

BlackBerry Curve 83XX overtakes iPhone 3G in US smartphone rankings

by Paul Miller, posted May 4th 2009 @ 10:34AM

The handset might've been surpassed in functionality and looks by its Curve 8900 successor, but nothing's got an edge on the BlackBerry Curve 83XX series in smartphone sales. According to NPD, the handset overtook the erstwhile champ iPhone 3G in the category for the first quarter of 2009, while BlackBerry's own Storm and Pearl handsets took the third and fourth slots, with the T-Mobile G1 rounding out the ranks in fifth place. Overall the smartphone market has grown from 17 percent of handset sales in Q1 2008 to 23 percent in Q1 2009. Compared to the previous quarter, RIM's gained a whopping 15 percent share of the US market -- owning nearly half of the entire scene -- while Apple and Palm both dropped 10 percent as they prep for their heroic mid-year launches.

T-Mobile UK rolling out annual data plan for BlackBerry

by Chris Ziegler, posted Apr 24th 2009 @ 8:57AM

We can think of a wide variety of BlackBerrys we'd rather have, but let's take a good, hard look at what T-Mobile UK is proposing here: basically, it wants you to shell out £179.99 (about $265), and in exchange, you get the venerable BlackBerry Pearl 8110 plus a full year of unlimited email and web access. That works out to something like $22 a month for unlimited on-device data -- and on top of that, you'll be paying as you go for voice minutes, texts, and MMS messages. Not a terrible deal by any stretch, but we'd characterize this one less as blowout pricing and more as creative deal packaging. Oh, and we'll take a Curve 8900 with that, T-Mobile, thankyouverymuch.

Alltel pulls BlackBerry Pearl 8230 into the fold, $79.99 in early May

by Chris Ziegler, posted Apr 23rd 2009 @ 11:54AM

Here we thought that Verizon was going to ace out the US CDMA market by announcing the 8230 first, but alas, it ends up being Alltel -- the divested chunks of it post-acquisition -- that becomes the first American carrier to trumpet the device. Unlike its GSM sibling over on T-Mobile, the 8230 is a 3G handset equipped with EV-DO, but otherwise, it looks pretty much the same with a QVGA primary display, love-it-or-hate-it SureType keypad, and 2 megapixel cam. It'll hit the "new" Alltel's 2.2 million subscribers in 91 markets come early May for a seemingly reasonable $79.99.

BlackBerry Pearl 8230 comes to Telus

by Chris Ziegler, posted Mar 11th 2009 @ 8:25AM

Alright, Telus, you can dial down the that envy-induced shade of green you've developed while pining for Bell's BlackBerry 8230. Actually, you can't -- green is a part of your color scheme -- so allows us to rephrase: the Pearl Flip is now available on both CDMA nationals in Canada. It'll run you $49.99 CAD on a three-year deal, which delivers the promise of the $50 KickStart we'd hoped for before the GSM version was originally announced; it's just a damn shame it's going to take a three-year contract to get down to that level (of course, the $449.99 contract-free option is always available, too). Grab it now in your choice of black or pink.

[Via Howard Chui]

Telus' BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8230 appears on site, launch imminent

by Sean Cooper, posted Mar 5th 2009 @ 11:41AM

So with Bell's 8230 launch out of the way, Telus has now stepped up and dropped this set on the web. While it's not talking specifics just yet, seeing the flippy thing heralded as "coming soon" should at least whet a few fan's appetites. We had heard the set's price was originally set at $99 on a three year, but Telus may have spiked that in favor of a more reasonable $50 or $449 off-contract price. While we wait for the official news out of Telus, feel free to peruse the tiny gallery we've cobbled together or hit the read link to learn a little bit more.

[Thanks, RileyFreeman]

Gallery: Telus' BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8230 appears on site, launch imminent

Telus' BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8230 gets a plan and pricing, rumor-style

by Sean Cooper, posted Feb 28th 2009 @ 8:05PM

Our friend (and oft correct) RileyFreeman over at HowardForums tipped us off that Telus' BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8230 is pimping and pruning its pricing prior to launch. Word has it that this flippy debutante will be priced at $100 on a 3-year contract, and $500 completely off-contract. Other info mentions that Telus has prepped a special plan just for this pink or black set, running at $32.50 it'll include 200 minutes, evenings and weekends after 6 P.M, 3 months free local calling, and unlimited mail and instant messaging. Of course, with Bell's launch of the same set at $29 on a three-year today -- and competition with its own BlackBerry Curve 8830 at the same price point -- we suspect Telus may want to rethink a tad -- if indeed, this proves true -- before they open the floodgates wide.

[Thanks, RileyFreeman and agent_whitevan]

BlackBerry Pearl 8230 flips its way into the FCC's heart

by Chris Ziegler, posted Feb 26th 2009 @ 10:14PM

In the unlikely event that you needed a few final shreds of evidence to be convinced that the CDMA version of the BlackBerry Pearl flip -- the 8230 -- is real, feast your eyes on this heavy reading. Just-approved FCC documents show a device outline that can only be described as that of a clamshell, and sure enough, the SAR report indicates CDMA and EV-DO on the 850 and 1900MHz bands, so yeah, if this isn't the 8230, we can't imagine what it'd be. The timing on this development really couldn't be any better since we're expecting it to hit both Verizon and Telus in the near term, so quick show of hands: who's buying?

Best Buy spills beans on Telus' BlackBerry Pearl 8230

by Chris Ziegler, posted Feb 25th 2009 @ 5:11PM

So, is the BlackBerry Pearl 8230 headed to Telus this month after all? Yeah, maybe. Best Buy's gone ahead and revealed a product page for the Telus-branded, CDMA-packing version of the Pearl flip, though you can't buy it online -- and until we hear otherwise, we're going to go ahead and assume that they're still plenty hard to find in stores. Pink or black, your choice, for $499.99 CAD (about $398) off contract.

[Via MobileSyrup]

White BlackBerry Pearl Flip spotted on RIM slide

by Darren Murph, posted Feb 13th 2009 @ 3:17PM

Up until now, RIM's first flip phone was available in exactly one shade. And in fact, it's still only being offered in the standard hue. But if the slide shown above is any indication of the future, we'd say it's a safe bet that a white BlackBerry Pearl Flip is on the horizon. The shot was taken at a company presentation on BES 5.0, though no suit made any mention the sore thumb. Fingers crossed!

Verizon's Touch Diamond, Versa, Intrigue, and Pearl 8230 take a family photo

by Chris Ziegler, posted Feb 12th 2009 @ 12:27PM

Aww, isn't that cute? Everyone got together for one last picture before graduation -- that magical time everyone goes their separate ways to retail shelves across the country where they'll be picked up by subscribers and adopted into loving families of their own. Here we've got four hotties that are due on Verizon in the next few months: the Touch Diamond and Versa, both of which we expect by mid-March, the Nokia 7205 Intrigue, which we've expected for over a frigging year now, and the BlackBerry Pearl 8230, which will launch when it damn well feels like it. Nothing particularly amazing about this shot, but we've got to say, the Intrigue looks absolutely stellar -- assuming it actually comes off this good in the flesh.

Verizon tidbits: Versa, Touch Diamond, Pearl 8230, and more

by Chris Ziegler, posted Feb 11th 2009 @ 9:30AM

We've got a handful of juicy morsels coming out of Verizon today -- actually, that sounds a little unpleasant, but you know what we mean -- and we wanted to pass along what we've heard. Follow the break for all the action!

Continue reading Verizon tidbits: Versa, Touch Diamond, Pearl 8230, and more

Sprint's BlackBerry 8130 and 8330 get 4.5 update

by Chris Ziegler, posted Feb 6th 2009 @ 9:31AM

For Pearl and Curve 8300 owners, BlackBerry OS 4.5 is something of a holy grail -- awesome, but pretty hard to find because carriers have generally been slow to roll it out. Fortunately, Sprint has graced owners of the 8130 and 8330 with the latest and greatest pre-4.6 goods, and what's more, tipsters are telling us that the latest version enables MMS messages. MMS, really? Reminds us of the year 2004, our road trip to the Canadian Rockies, and a simpler, more innocent time. But we digress; if you've got one of these devices, go kick off the download and get ready to play almost-catch-up to the 4.6-based 8350i, why don't you?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]