Yo guys, I’m in the market for a new cellphone on the Verizon network and have narrowed down my search to a Blackberry Pearl 8130 and the Palm Treo 700p.
I’m leaning towards the Pearl, but I do want to know…
a.) is the email sync to device free/low cost?
b.) can i forward my gmail to it?
c.) how readily available are applications for it?
d.) how do you like the phone?
Right now I have a POS Razr V3 (ask all my friends about how bad it is) and just want something that works…
Joe, you need someone with a pearl to answer all the questions. I do know that you can forward your gmail to it; of course you need the data plan. Pincus has a pearl and Tytus has a curve; they both seem to love it. Also, there is something called blackberry tracker. Your friends will be able to track you down. =)
Working for ATT, i know quite a bit about Blackberries, i also own one
A: It depends on Verizon’s data plans and their prices, i know ATT charges $35 for this service. The cheapest in the market if im correct is T-Mobile at $20, so expect to pay something bewteen that for the blackberry service (which will include unlimited internet as well 
)
b: Yes it’s very easy to do, just follow the instructions on your blackberry once you start it up and you should be all set. The only thing i have seen with GMail is that when you send something from your blackberry, it will send you a confirmation e-mail saying it was sent, could be useful and annoying at the same time.
c: apps are available, but the software isn’t as easy to find as it is for Windows Mobile. Blackberry applications tend to cost more than more tradidional apps for phones. apps like Google Maps and Yahoo GO are avalble for Free. (I know Verizon stopped people from downloading these a while back, but because of the open acess law being passed. they have to let you download it.)
d: I’ve used a pearl, but i own a Blackberry 8800 and used it for about 9 months. The pearl is a good phone, the things that i lacks are the full keyboard, (I hate the short touch keyboard RIM uses on the pearl) and that it can’t stream video. it also is a pain to download media over the internet from the blackberry.
Personally, i would look into the Curve (yes, it’s out for verizon now, just came out like a week ago.) it has a larger somewhat larger screen and a full keyboard.
I haven’t heard anything about this app, there is something where you can see where your friends have been. it’s like a virtual scavenger hunt game though. if you have more info on this please post.
a.) for that much more I might not do it and go for just a phone, mobile email is sweet, but not for $35 a month
b.) this mostly tied in with the fact blackberry has a could all email is sent from to the devices, so i was just checking to see if i could do it.
d.) i looked online and didn’t see the curve, so i’ll go look at the store
thanks man
I don’t know about the Blackberry, but the Palm 700p is absolutely horrific. It resets, break connection, looses phone calls. It felt like we went back 15 years in cell phone technology. I do know someone else who has one and has had mostly the same issues, in some cases worse.
Holy @#@#@#@# a blast from the past! lol
I said the 700p because several of my friends rave about it, including my big bro. I’m thinking the Pearl/Curve, but I’m not a huge fan of $30 a month data plans…
I love the data plan honestly. Where I live and work, it tends to run rather fast and pretty smooth. Kinda ticked that Verizon wants another $15 a month for me to be able to hook my phone to my laptop. It’s just the number of issues that I’ve had with the operations of the 700p that makes me say I will never buy another Palm product again, and I’ve bought a lot of products over the years from Palm. I used to recommend them so highly, but I think they’ve taken a turn for the worst. Just this past weekend, I had to fix my fiance’s 700p because it wouldn’t stop rebooting. You couldn’t do anything with it, and it took me a half hour of research to find out how to set it straight again. Like I said, my personal experience with it, I would hope no one would have to go through what I’ve been through with that phone.
I too am looking into a new phone as I trade in in two weeks, so I was looking at the pearl (for sprint). The only thing that I found against it was the extra package you must have to get it. If you want Joe, I always go to the sites and “buy” a new phone. I will go through just like I am getting a new phone and stop as soon as I am able to see the price. This is where I found that you have to have the package to use the pearl. I usually then delete my cookies and redo it. I also use this method to accurately compare the price and features of each company.
If you are looking for a phone that is just a phone and has a QWERTY keyboard, then try looking at the ENVY, I have heard it is a pretty decent phone before. I personally Am going for the LG RUMOR as I am on sprint.
Now I’m just going to wait till Android comes out and that’ll be my next phone.
I’ve got a Blackberry Pearl, and I like it.
Email… outstanding. I have both my gmail and andymark email accounts set up to it, so when anyone emails me, I know right away (crap… shouldn’t have said that). I also get these pesky “Reported post from ChiefDelphi” emails too often.
Browser… not so good. It’s slow, tedious, and freaks out often. My plan switches from EDGE to GSM (or whatever it’s called), and I don’t use the browser enough to tell the difference in speed… they both audibly inhale when browsing.
Camera is good. 3x optical zoom is decent. My camera takes more self-portraits of my daughters than it needs to. … nostrils, tongues, closeups of eyeballs… lovely stuff.
Case and hardware are durable. I’ve dropped this thing a few times with no resulting damage. One time, it careened down some stone steps, and I had to remove the battery to kick start it.
Battery life is good. When I forgot my charger on a recent trip to Hawaii to volunteer at silly robotics event, it lasted 1-1/2 days before crapping out. Some guy from NASA tried to charge it on his laptop with a USB cord, but that is not as good as the wall plug in charger.
Mp3 player is nice… who needs an iPod? Putting mine on shuffle right now, and I get “Pinch Me” by Barenaked Ladies. eh, that song sucks… hit “n” for next… I mean “American Music” by Violent Femmes.
Apps… I still need to figure those out. I am sure there are many things on here that I don’t know how to use yet.
Brickbreaker is a mighty fine game… I’m got to level 18, and a high score of 10,440. Beat that.
Andy Blackberry
Thanks everyone for your help, I’ve decided the Palm is quite big and not for my taste (I want a phone with a good camera on it, since my phone is slowly and surely replacing my digital camera…) and I like the idea of digital wireless media.
Right now I’m looking at Pearl and the MOTORIZR (mobile TV ftw)…
Joe, the HTC Touch Dual is going up on verizon the day before championships…april 16th. it’s a REALLY GOOD phone, has all the advantages of the pearl. the e-mail and browser are easy to set up, they run just like outlook on the device.
also for the person with sprint… you should look into the SERO plan, you can get it online and it’s a VERY good deal. $30 for 500 minutes. unlimited night and weekend, mobile to mobile… text messaging, internet… and mos of everything else.
i’ll post a link to this plan if anyone else is intrested.
As cool as that phone is, it’s still $200 more than the Pearl, which means quite a bit to my bank account, plus I want a new phone before champs, and yes it’s coming out the day before, but the last thing i want to do is set that thing up while packing and panicking. 
I’ll keep you guys updated on what I’m looking at/getting. So far I’m leaning towards the Pearl…
I have the HTC Shadow, and I am cheap/conservative, and would not pay the prices for the data plans either.
I am assuming that these phones have the same feature (Wi-Fi) that my Shadow does. If so, I would recommend syncing your phone, or just logging into Gmail whenever you are in presence of a hot spot.
My Wi-Fi is fast and durable enough to support an International Skype connection to put things into perspective a little.
I’ve made up my mind on what phone to get. Mine is now just crapping out to the point of no return, so tomorrow morning when the store opens at 9am (that’s early for a college student!) I’m going to buy the Blackberry Pearl. Simple, elegant, and I got to play with the one of the ones my brothers have and it’s definatley what I want now. We’re on the family plan, so my parents will continue to pay for my bill, but I will be buying the handset and the data plan for it.
Thanks everyone for your help!
Howdy ya’ll.
After a full night of Relay For Life (only team to go platinum!) and a few long days, I can say that the Blackberry Pearl is really really tight.
Few notes:
-The data plan is $30 a month, not great, not bad.
-Camera is really good, but when uploading to FB it has to resize them, and they come out looking worse then they actually are (I’ll post comparisons soon).
-YouTube works on it. Uh oh. I wish though that you could tilt the phone on it’s side and watch the video, opposed to having to watch it in portrait and have bunch of black space on the screen.
-Facbook application (get this Andy!). Uh oh.
-Free Google Maps has that neato triangularization feature that’s on the iPhone.
-Keypad requires getting used to, but it’s quite handy and well done.
-I’m having trouble uploading mp3’s to it using my mac, I’d love to use them as custom ring tones.
-This thing is a chick magnet, 'nuff said. They love the game on there and the form factor.
Hey I found this on the Sprint website, but it says that I need a Sprint employee email address to see it. I guess the only two questions I have for it is:
A) What phones are available for it? They have the rumor pictured, but if they have the pearl, I’m all in.
B) Does it come in a family plan?
Also, glad to hear you got the phone you wanted Joe!