PDAStreet: News: Telus Canada First to Picks Up RIM's Newest Pearl Smartphone

Internet.com's premiere site for mobile managers and IT professionals is where wireless meets business. Our expert analysis and tips will guide you in buying, deploying, securing and managing mobile technology in the enterprise. You'll find strategic analysis, best practices, news, buyer.s guides and practical advice on how to evaluate and support a wide range of devices in the workforce.

PDAStreet.com > News > Telus Canada First to Picks Up RIM's Newest Pearl Smartphone

Telus Canada First to Picks Up RIM's Newest Pearl Smartphone

By James Alan Miller
November 6, 2007

Click to View

Research In Motion's (RIM) latest BlackBerry Pearl model, the 8130, is now available in Canada, the mob-e-mail leader's homeland. Verizon Wireless and Sprint will start offering this smartphone in the U.S. this month.

Telus is selling the new and improved Pearl, also the first edition for CDMA/EV-DO carriers, for $200 CAD with a (typical Canada) three-year contract. If you don't want to sign up for three years, you can also get the 8130 for $400 with a two-year agreement, $450 with a one-year deal, or $500 without a contract.

The new BlackBerry will support CDMA carriers like Telus, Sprint and Verizon's EV-DO 3G data networks, far faster than the 2.5G EDGE technology used by Pearls that have been available to GSM operators for over a year.

It also integrates GPS to support location-based services, such as RIM's own BlackBerry Maps software.

The Pearl 8130 measures 4.2 x 1.97 x .55 inches (107 x 50 x 14 millimeters) and weighs 3.4 ounces (96 grams), slightly heaver than the GSM Pearl, the 8100, which only hits 3.1 ounces on the scale.

RIM says the Pearl 8130's battery last 9 days in standby to the 8100's 15 days and 220 minutes of talk time, the same as the GSM version.

As with the 8100 the 8130 sports a microSD expansion slot. It supports the SDHC variety of microSD card, which currently top out at 4GB and will someday reach 32GB. There's also 64MB of internal flash memory.

For picture and video there's a 2 megapixel camera with what RIM is calling an enhanced flash. There's a 3.5mm stereo headset jack and support for Bluetooth stereo audio.

The 8130 display supports 240 x 260 pixel resolution.

Of course, there's the Pearl's trackball (the pearl in the pearl) navigation system and RIM's light sensing technology to automatically adjust screen and keypad brightness.

In addition to RIM's standard array of push e-mail and personal information management software, the new BlackBerry will be pre-loaded with RIM's new Facebook application, which allow you to tag and upload images, poke and message your Facebook friends, add new friends, check the status of your friends, etc.