Pearl goes North next week!

Thank goodness for wireless internet. We’re currently sitting outside of our local authorized Rogers dealer, sitting in a fold-out deck chair and awaiting the release of the BlackBerry Pearl up here in Canada. Thought there’d be a bigger line. Hmm. Question is, folks, are we kidding or not?

Digressions aside, we originally had dates for late October, now news from the Globe and Mail says that the Pearl is headed for Canadian land next week. And it seems our pal Jim, who’s been extremely busy, may be getting a little aggitated.

“I’m not supposed to preannounce another carrier’s launch plans next week, but I don’t think these things will be very long,” Jim Balsillie, RIM’s chairman and co-chief executive officer, said yesterday. “Heaven forbid that September should end without these things being announced.”

So there’s news for Canada, but I suppose it’s already been a week since the Pearl climbed off the Mayflower down South, so state-side readers: thoughts from the week later? Have you picked up the Pearl? Waiting? Don’t want? Don’t care?

And just because he’s our favourite, another quote from the same press conference (this one’s from a different article) from Mr. Balsillie:

Quarterly results come out next Thursday, but again Balsillie didn’t say much. “Yeah, um, … actually I can’t talk before they’re released unless you promise to come and visit me in jail,” he quipped.

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PowerMarc

I’ve had the Pearl for a week now, and while it is – hands down – the best phone I’ve ever owned, it does have some quirks.

Moving my data to it from a 7100t wasn’t a problem, thanks to the new desktop software. That part was practically painless. However, there are a lot of steps that aren’t explicitly spelled out, like having to resend your service books, going to the email manager on the T-Mobile web site and switching over your accounts to your new device PIN, and the biggest mystery of all: re-activating your internet access by re-registering your host routing table. Yikes.

This isn’t the fault of the Pearl, however – RIM and T-Mobile need to be a little more upfront about what’s needed in the switchover.

Regarding the Pearl, I’m not going to go over what’s so good about it, because we all know about that from reading this blog and other sources. What’s not as good? (And I say it that way because they’re not deal-breakers by any means.)

Battery life is not as good. I knew that it would be shorter than my 7100t, but I have to make sure it’s hooked up to the charger almost every night, depending on how much I used it. Sometimes I could go 2-3 days with my 7100t, but not with the Pearl. I may even buy a car charger this time around.

Call quality seems a little lower than my 7100t. Now, I’m not sure if that’s because of how the EDGE network handles voice, or if it’s actually due to how the phone processes the call, but there is definitely that “sawtooth” edge to the sound during a call when I have less than 4 bars of reception. My 7100t had smoother sounding voice reception all the way down to 2 bars.

One last, temporary niggle that’s not the Pearl’s fault: There were no accessories on launch day! No cases, no chargers, no nuthin’. And there still isn’t really anything available until later this week.

But, even with all this, I love my Pearl. You can have it when you pry it out of my cold, dead hand.

Marc
PowerMarc

I’ve had the Pearl for a week now, and while it is – hands down – the best phone I’ve ever owned, it does have some quirks.

Moving my data to it from a 7100t wasn’t a problem, thanks to the new desktop software. That part was practically painless. However, there are a lot of steps that aren’t explicitly spelled out, like having to resend your service books, going to the email manager on the T-Mobile web site and switching over your accounts to your new device PIN, and the biggest mystery of all: re-activating your internet access by re-registering your host routing table. Yikes.

This isn’t the fault of the Pearl, however – RIM and T-Mobile need to be a little more upfront about what’s needed in the switchover.

Regarding the Pearl, I’m not going to go over what’s so good about it, because we all know about that from reading this blog and other sources. What’s not as good? (And I say it that way because they’re not deal-breakers by any means.)

Battery life is not as good. I knew that it would be shorter than my 7100t, but I have to make sure it’s hooked up to the charger almost every night, depending on how much I used it. Sometimes I could go 2-3 days with my 7100t, but not with the Pearl. I may even buy a car charger this time around.

Call quality seems a little lower than my 7100t. Now, I’m not sure if that’s because of how the EDGE network handles voice, or if it’s actually due to how the phone processes the call, but there is definitely that “sawtooth” edge to the sound during a call when I have less than 4 bars of reception. My 7100t had smoother sounding voice reception all the way down to 2 bars.

One last, temporary niggle that’s not the Pearl’s fault: There were no accessories on launch day! No cases, no chargers, no nuthin’. And there still isn’t really anything available until later this week.

But, even with all this, I love my Pearl. You can have it when you pry it out of my cold, dead hand.

Marc
http://www.blackberrycool.com/ Steve St. Pierre

Thanks, Marc. Really appreciate the note.
http://www.blackberrycool.com Steve St. Pierre

Thanks, Marc. Really appreciate the note.
http://www.optimuscrime.com/ optimus

Pfft. Pearl nothing, I’m still waiting for a single 8700-series device to be released on Bell’s CDMA network.
http://www.optimuscrime.com optimus

Pfft. Pearl nothing, I’m still waiting for a single 8700-series device to be released on Bell’s CDMA network.
hazaelox

Yeah yeah…
but when is this baby coming to Mexico??
i know is this year…but anyone knows exactly when???!!
hazaelox

Yeah yeah…
but when is this baby coming to Mexico??
i know is this year…but anyone knows exactly when???!!

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