Aside from that, the Pearl does everything your Samsung does…expandable up to 1GB (supposedly 2GB support is coming with the next OS update), mp3 playback, quad-band w/ EDGE, audio/video playback, 1.3mp camera. The only difference is the Pearl doesn’t have a full QWERTY keyboard or EQ settings. The 8800 will take care of the full keyboard (I actually really like SureType, it seems to be the best predictive-text I’ve ever used), and it doesn’t have the EQ. I don’t think RIM is overdoing it with the Pearl promotion, considering how much of a leap this was for them…just a year or two ago, their president said they’d “never release a Blackberry with a camera”, but look where they’re at now.

I’ve wanted to switch to Blackberry for the past three years, but didn’t because of either form factor and/or a lack of features compaired to similarly-priced phones. I don’t use the camera or mp3 player that often, but if I’m spending nearly $400 for a phone, I’m surely going to take the one with the extra features, just to make it worth my while. Now RIM has finally released the BB that I’ve been waiting for, and I bought mine the first week it came out. I didn’t HAVE to buy it, but it does exactly everything I need it to do, and it does it better than any other smartphone I’ve ever owned. I’ll never use another smartphone than a BB again, and it wasn’t because of the hype, but because it excels at exactly what it was designed for.

Aside from that, the Pearl does everything your Samsung does…expandable up to 1GB (supposedly 2GB support is coming with the next OS update), mp3 playback, quad-band w/ EDGE, audio/video playback, 1.3mp camera. The only difference is the Pearl doesn’t have a full QWERTY keyboard or EQ settings. The 8800 will take care of the full keyboard (I actually really like SureType, it seems to be the best predictive-text I’ve ever used), and it doesn’t have the EQ. I don’t think RIM is overdoing it with the Pearl promotion, considering how much of a leap this was for them…just a year or two ago, their president said they’d “never release a Blackberry with a camera”, but look where they’re at now.

I’ve wanted to switch to Blackberry for the past three years, but didn’t because of either form factor and/or a lack of features compaired to similarly-priced phones. I don’t use the camera or mp3 player that often, but if I’m spending nearly $400 for a phone, I’m surely going to take the one with the extra features, just to make it worth my while. Now RIM has finally released the BB that I’ve been waiting for, and I bought mine the first week it came out. I didn’t HAVE to buy it, but it does exactly everything I need it to do, and it does it better than any other smartphone I’ve ever owned. I’ll never use another smartphone than a BB again, and it wasn’t because of the hype, but because it excels at exactly what it was designed for.

It’s only natural for SureType-sized BlackBerries to shrink a bit in size, as most technology is prone to do. And aside from the camera and media player, the Pearl is still a BlackBerry, first and foremost. I think smartphones are the wave of the future, so to speak, and the BlackBerry has always been at the forefront of that.

Still, I have to echo the first poster’s sentiments regarding disabling the camera via BES and IT departments. It seems like it would be easier to do it that way, rather than produce two different Pearls with such a minor difference (although I suppose I can understand that just having the camera period might be seen as a liability, “just because it’s there.”)

It’s only natural for SureType-sized BlackBerries to shrink a bit in size, as most technology is prone to do. And aside from the camera and media player, the Pearl is still a BlackBerry, first and foremost. I think smartphones are the wave of the future, so to speak, and the BlackBerry has always been at the forefront of that.

Still, I have to echo the first poster’s sentiments regarding disabling the camera via BES and IT departments. It seems like it would be easier to do it that way, rather than produce two different Pearls with such a minor difference (although I suppose I can understand that just having the camera period might be seen as a liability, “just because it’s there.”)

And what about the bes people? can’t the camera be disabled via I.T. Policy?

And what about the bes people? can’t the camera be disabled via I.T. Policy?