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Tarfumes.com - BlackBerry Pearl 8130 Smartphone, Black (Sprint)
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List Price: $499.99
Our Price: $99.99
Your Save: $ 400.00 ( 80% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: BlackBerry
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Wireless Phone
Brand: Blackberry
Color: Black
Feature: Slim, powerful Blackberry messaging phone with SureType hybrid numeric/QWERTY keypad
Label: BlackBerry
Manufacturer: BlackBerry
Model: 8130
Publisher: BlackBerry
Release Date: 2007-10-28
Studio: BlackBerry
Variation Description: Black
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Features
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Slim, powerful Blackberry messaging phone with SureType hybrid numeric/QWERTY keypad
Access Sprint Mobile Broadband Network via EV-DO connectivity; Sprint TV and Sprint Music Store enabled
2-megapixel camera with video capture; MicroSD expansion; Bluetooth connectivity with music streaming
Up to 4.6 hours of talk time, up to 216 hours of standby time; measures 4.2 x 1.9 x 0.55 inches (WxHxD)
Includes: Battery, AC Charger,and USB Data Cable
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Editorial Reviews:
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Bringing the acclaimed style and svelte body of the Blackberry Pearl to Sprint's CDMA network, the Pearl 8130 comes packed with new features including a striking new software interface, rich multimedia capabilities, built-in GPS and support for Sprint's high-speed EV-DO data network--perfect for surfing the Web as well as downloading music and video from Sprint's Music Store and TV service. The Pearl 8130 continues to offer all the communication features that you've come to expect from Blackberry smartphones, including email served up by the BlackBerry Internet Service and a full menu of messaging options (SMS, MMS, and IM). Other features include a 2.0-megapixel camera with video capture, Bluetooth for both communication headsets and stereo music streaming, MicroSD expansion, digital audio player, speakerphone, and voice-activated commands and dialing. 
Nicely compact and lightweight at just 3.4 ounces and 0.55 inches thin. | 
Quickly and accurately type messages thanks to the SureType enhanced predictive text typing technology. | Sprint Service Options
Supporting the EV-DO high-speed data standard, this phone is fully compatible with Sprint's Power Vision service (additional charges applicable). With Power Vision, you can download and stream high-quality video, straight onto your phone. Enjoy full-color video clips or live TV of the latest news, sports, and entertainment from brands you know, like CNN, Fox, The Weather Channel, NFL Mobile, and more. Power Vision also serves as a portal for enhanced games. Where coverage is available, EV-DO connectivity provides average download speeds ranging from 400 to 700 Kbps, with peak rates up to 2 Mbps. The Sprint Music Store enables you to buy, download, and then jam out wherever you are with new songs or old favorites. Offering a growing selection of more than 1.6 million songs, the store provides you two copies of each song--one for the phone and another for the PC, as well as the ability to burn songs to a CD using Windows Media Player. Save your songs to a memory card with a capacity that's right for you. With Sprint TV, you can make your BlackBerry 8130 Pearl 2 your always-on source for news, weather, sports and more. This comprehensive video service combines high-quality streaming audio and video from channels including the NFL Network, ABC, The Weather Channel, Fox Sports, E!, CNN, The Discovery Channel, and more. The Sprint Software Store, powered by Handmark, offers a wide selection of software, games, ringtones, graphics and other Windows Mobile applications to purchase and download right to your phone. This phone is also GPS enabled, allowing you to receive audible and visual turn-by-turn driving directions, map your location, or conduct local searches direct from your handset. BlackBerry Maps, which can conveniently guide users to their destination, now includes a local search capability that allows users to find local businesses, such as banks, hotels and restaurants, within a short driving distance. Sprint Navigation requires a separate subscription. 
More than just an email companion, the Pearl 8130 also offers built-in GPS, a media player, and 2.0-megapixel camera with video capture capabilities. | Phone Features
Weighing just 3.38 ounces and just 0.55 inches thin, the Pearl 8300 manages to fit a QWERTY keyboard onto the handset's slim frame. Each button on the keyboard shares two letters and the unit automatically determines which letter is the intended one based on what it predicts you are trying to spell. This unique predictive text technology, known as SureType, makes the Pearl 8300's diminutive size possible. SureType also learns the words you use most often, further enhancing your typing speed. It sports a large 240 x 260 screen that supports over 65,000 colors--plenty of real estate to view your e-mails, Web browser content, messaging sessions, and attachments. The venerable BlackBerry trackwheel has been replaced on this model with an innovative four-way trackball placed below the screen. On the rear of the handheld, you'll find a 2.0-megapixel camera and a self portrait mirror. The handheld's MicroSD memory card slot is located inside the device, behind the battery. There's also a standard 3.5mm headset jack that can be used with the included headset, as well as a mini-USB port for data connectivity. The Pearl 8130 features an updated visual interface and integrates a new font rendering technology that displays characters with enhanced legibility at even the smallest point sizes. The BlackBerry Browser is further improved with a new "Page View" option that displays a full web page on the screen along with a magnifying glass that allows the user to quickly and accurately point and zoom in on a specific area of the web page. It also provides quicker access to Bookmarks and History, and supports the 3GPP RTSP Streaming protocol via EV-DO, so you can view streaming video from sites like m.youtube.com. With a BlackBerry data plans from Sprint, you can receive e-mails instantaneously from up to 10 e-mail accounts (personal and enterprise). And with BlackBerry push technology, you don't need to retrieve your e-mail. BlackBerry devices are designed to remain on and continuously connected to the wireless network, allowing you to be discreetly notified as new e-mail arrives. Support is also built-in for viewing e-mail attachments (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, WordPerfect, and PDF formats). This phone provides Bluetooth version 2.0 wireless connectivity, and includes profiles for communication headset, handsfree car kits, audio/video remote control, and printing. With the A2DP Bluetooth profile, you can stream your music to a pair of compatible Bluetooth stereo headphones. The integrated media player allows you to create and edit playlists right on the handset. The Pearl 8130 also features a 2 megapixel camera with 5x digital zoom and enhanced flash. The new camera also supports video capture in two resolutions: 240x180 or 176x144 for sharing via MMS. Other features include: - Phone as Modem Capable: Use the included USB cable to connect to laptops for a wireless modem, or choose to run this capability via Bluetooth with no USB cable requirement.
- Voice Command and Voice Activated Dialing: Built-in speaker independent voice command allows users to look up contacts, place phone calls and access key information from the device.
- Voice Notes: Make a voice note and send as an email .wmv file attachment.
- Productivity Tools: View and update your calendar, schedule appointments, checks your task list and more while you're on the go. Also includes a calculator, alarm clock and memo pad.
- Notification: Polyphonic, MIDI, MP3 ringtones plus vibrate mode
- Rating for hearing aids: M3, T3
- Instant Messaging: Connect with your IM contacts using popular applications like Yahoo! Messenger and Google Talk
- 64 MB internal memory
- 3.5mm stereo headset capable
- Built-in speakerphone
Vital Statistics
The Blackberry Pearl 8130 weighs 3.4 ounces and measures 4.2 x 1.9 x 0.55 inches. Its 900 mAh lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 4.6 hours of talk time, and up to 216 hours of digital standby time. It runs on the 850/1900 CDMA frequencies and is compatible with the EV-DO data network.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Phone, just not 5 star!
Comment: I have used a lot of cell phones in my lifetime and wish that I could give this a 5 star review, but I can't. This one is really good for what I use it for, which is just to stay on top of e-mail, mainly at night and on the weekends. I would not recommend it for web surfing or other functions. The manual is poor at best and the functions that I want to find out about, are not listed in the manual. You have to basically find them yourself by searching on the phone itself, which is hit or miss. I like the compact size as this phone fits in a pocket of a pair of Jeans or Khakis well. Good for traveling also. Other complaint is the battery charge only lasts about 2 days. For what I use it for, I would recommend. Others maybe disappointed though.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great phone with a few bugs, Sprint is so-so
Comment: Bought this Pearl after using a Palm Centro for almost a year and other flip phones for years before that. I liked the feature set of the Centro but audio quality was horrible, and the operating system was very antiquated and incompatible with many newer mobile web features like the gmail app, google maps my location etc. Debated between this and iphone but didn't want more expensive plan and AT&T overall crappiness.
One thing to remember is that there is no perfect smart phone. You sacrifice size to get a bigger keyboard, or choice of carrier and actual tactile keys to get an iphone, etc. Overall though I really like this phone.
Audio Quality: Superb! Finally a phone that actually performs well in its primary function. Calls are loud and clear, and people on the other end say I sound clear with minimal background noise (important when walking NYC streets). Interestingly a friend's Verizon Pearl doesn't have as good quality, so maybe they changed something in the Sprint model.
Form factor: sleek and sexy. Fits easily in your pocket. Fun to look at and hold.
Battery Life: seems pretty good for a smart phone. 3g data eats away at battery life but holds its own next to Palm or iphone.
User Interface: better than palm, not as incredible or cool as iphone. Definitely intuitive. Operating system is pretty clear and after a few days I'm getting the hang of texting, emailing, shortcuts etc. Trackball is fairly easy to use but isn't as super sensitive as it could be. I wish the blackberry was more customizable. I can't figure out easy ways to, say, keep my text messages in a different location from a voicemail notification or an email. It integrates everything into one folder which can be annoying. Being a gmail user, I just didn't set up my blackberry mail thing and just use the gmail app, which is fast, easy and great. One glaring stupid bug is that when your internal memory fills us, your texts are automatically deleted. There is no way to save them to your SD card. Duh duh duh! Hopefully they will fix this down the road with upgrades.
BB Message: Cool feature I didn't know about till after. Simple and QUICK way of texting other BB users.
Multimedia: very good camera (2 megapixels, pretty sharp) with flash and video feature. Phone has a standard 3.5mm headphone jack which is GREAT as you can use any headphones (most phones have the mini 2.5mm jack). The audio player is clunky and poorly designed, no where approaching an ipod level. It's easy enough to, say, start a record, but pausing, navigating, stopping etc easily requires too many steps. But for just playing tunes on the subway, in the car, at the gym, it's at least functional. I have a 4gig memory card in it so can store approx 60-70 cd's at high quality. I've read there are 3rd party players you can buy that are better.
Keyboard: One worry I had was switching from the full qwerty of the Centro to the Pearl's modified predictive text qwerty. I've found it surprisingly "smart" when typing and it's probably actually faster than using a full qwerty phone once you learn to trust it. It's not flawless but definitely very good and I don't feel inhibited. I wish there was a feature to easily switch between T9 mode and single key entry mode but it involves going thru menus etc. would be cool to have a toggle on and off on the keyboard. But overall really not a problem.
Other things: Blackberry has a HUGE online community, so an advantage of using this phone is that it's easy to learn more about it online as there are countless chatrooms and blackberry enthusiasts.
SPRINT service: Good coverage, rarely have a problem finding bars in urban or rural settings. Definitely a good deal. $89.99 for 900 minutes, free data, unlimited text and GPS. Probs best 3g deal in America (T-mobile is slightly less but not 3g). Customer service is HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE. They are incompetent or rude, or both. They will screw up your requests repeatedly. As long as you don't deal with them too much you will enjoy your phone. I've read they are making strides to change this so here's to hoping...
Overall this is probably the best phone I've had. It's not perfect but definitely ahead of the Palm Centro or any standard clamshell phone. I recommend it. This is a consumer-oriented phone and makes it easy to text, email, surf, play mp3s, and most importantly, make clear calls.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Sprint service is the WORST
Comment: A word about Sprint: They used to be the best, and they are now the worst. The absolute worst.
If you call them today, July 15'th 2008, you will get through the prompts until you are given a wait-time and then the systems tells you to call back later and hangs up on you. I'm not surprised at all. They got rid of 80 % of their customer service workforce.
Things have appeared on my bill for a year that shouldn't be there. I have made 5 attempts to fix this and finally gave up. Plan on a two-hour call to get something accomplished and then prepare yourself to be utterly crazed with anger when you see that nothing was actually done several times. A lady from Sprint called me trying to sell something and extend my contract, I laughed so hard, that she actually tried to fix my problems. She said she did and of course, it's still on my bill.
I'm turning off my phone today...
Customer Rating:
Summary: contact problems with Novell
Comment: Outlook cannot be used in some health care environments. If you must use Novell (rather than Outlook) for synchronization there are problems with synchronization of contacts and memos. There are numerous comments about these problems on the Web. According to Blackberry they are working on solutions.
If you can use Outlook this is a wonderful phone and PDA. It has good reception, is a great size, and connects well to the Internet.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great phone for the price
Comment: I purchased this phone with the "Simply Everything" plan from Sprint and it was an exceptional value since (theoretically) I got it for free. Once my mail-in rebate check arrives I'm sure things will even out.
Nevertheless, it's packed with useful features and has some amazing capabilities regarding resolving full-size webpages in its browser and a very handy GPS. Since the current OS from RIM for this phone allows for 8GB microSDHC memory cards, it beats having to carry around a separate MP3 player.
I admit that the "pearl" trackball took a bit of time to get used to, and I'm not enamored with the ridiculous QWERTY setup with two letters per key (I prefer the three letter per number key in alphabetical order - having lived in Japan for six years I am highly efficient typing with just my thumb), but I suppose there are people with hands tiny enough to touch-type with both hands on a BlackBerry... Or at least that seems to be the only reason I can think of why they would do this. Oh well, I suppose it won an Industrial Design award so who am I to judge.
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