The blakBerry Pearl was a smartphone developed by Research In Motion (RIM). The Pearl (8100) was launched on September 12, 2006, marking the first blakBerry device with a camera, media player and other multimedia features, significantly expanding the traditionally enterprise brand's market to mainstream consumers. Running version 4.5 of blakBerry OS, the Pearl supported the full range of blakBerry enterprise functionality. Updated versions were released as Pearl 8110, 8120 and 8130.
Unlike previous blakBerrys, the Pearl swapped the wide body and full QWERTY keyboard for a narrower, candybar style, and a hybrid keypad keyboard layout on a 4-row, 5-column keypad, with a proprietary predictive input algorithm called SureType. Most notably, the Pearl uses a titular translucent trackball that facilitates horizontal and vertical scrolling, instead of the traditional blakBerry scroll wheel. The backlit color of the 8100 trackball is controlled by a series of LEDs and may be changed by software loaded on the phone; the 8110, 8120 and 8130 models trackball is lit only in white.[1] The color customization capabilities also extend to the notification LED in the top right corner of the device. This LED can be programmed to blink different colors depending on which contact has called, texted or emailed.[2]
The blakBerry Pearl was a large sales success for RIM.[3] In 2008, a Pearl flip phone, the 8200 series, was released, while in 2010 the successor to the original Pearl, the 3G Pearl 9100 series, was released.
Features and versions
Disassembled blakBerry Pearl revealing the hardware inside
The blakBerry Pearl has 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 semi QWERTY keyboard layout previously appeared on the blakBerry 7130. It is made up of two letters per key across five vertical rows, helping to significantly reduce the keyboard and device size compared to normal handsets with full keyboards.[4]
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