Blackberry 8120

23 Aug 2008
The BlackBerry Pearl 8120 joins Research In Motion's Pearl Series of mobile phones. It provides users a handset that cater to business and entertainment needs through its smartphone features. Other mobile phones in the Pearl lineup include the BlackBerry Pearl 8110 and the BlackBerry Pearl 8100.

Although an improved version of the original Blackberry, RIM's 8120 sports the shape and size that are relatively similar to its predecessors. Weighing 91 grams, and with the full dimensions of 50 x 14 x 107 millimetres, the Blackberry Pearl 8120 is a quadband smartphone that supports GSM 1900, GSM 1800, GSM 900 and GSM 850.

The Blackberry Pearl 8120 flaunts of a wide display screen with a 240 x 260-pixel resolution that supports 65,000 colours. It comes with a host of picture wallpaper and screensaver selections to suit its user's needs. As hardware navigation tools, the Blackberry Pearl 8120 comes with a trackball and a QWERTY keyboard that runs on SureType Keyboard software. It also supports polyphonic ringtones in MP3 and MIDI audio formats.

The Blackberry Pearl 8120 has messaging services of SMS or text messaging, MMS or multimedia messaging, as well as instant messaging. The mobile phone comes with a predictive text system. Email clients with support for attachment are also allowed in the Blackberry Pearl 8120, specifically for Webmail and corporate emails of up to ten accounts. Voice dialling is also supported by the 8120, as well as a voice recorder for purposes of creating voice notes.

Practically a business mobile phone, the Blackberry Pearl 8120 comes with a gamut of organiser features such as calendar, phone book, alarm clock, memo pad and a task list. It also allows document viewing, supporting Windows-based applications, namely PDF, Word, PowerPoint and Excel. The mobile phone also comes with the BlackBerry Maps feature. For security purposes, users may activate the mobile phone's password protection option.

To give its gamer-users entertainment, the Blackberry Pearl 8120 has built-in games. Online games may also be downloaded to the pocket-size smartphone. The audio facet of the Blackberry Pearl 8120 includes an internal music player with a 3.5-millimetre headset jack, built-in speakers, a microphone and a speakerphone.

A salient improvement to the BlackBerry Pearl 8120 is its multimedia aspect. It houses a 2-Megapixel camera that comes with a automatic flash and 5x zoom that may be selected through its rollerball navigator. The camera includes a host of settings for better and more customized snaps, such as a self-portrait mirror. The mobile phone comes with keys and buttons that exclusively function as camera keys.

A breakthrough in the Blackberry Pearl 8120's camera technology is its support for on-device video recording, playback and streaming. The 8120's camera is known to produce good shots even under low light.

Another enhanced feature of the Blackberry Pearl 8120 is its full-fledged Wi-Fi capability at 802.11b/g, which allows better connection with mobile networks. Other connectivity features include wireless Bluetooth technology, USB support, EDGE and GPRS. The Blackberry Pearl 8120 user will experience high-speed wireless Internet connection through the smartphone's built-in HTML Web browser that comes with an RIM modem.

The Blackberry Pearl 8120 is capable of storing up to 64 Megabytes of data files, photos and videos. The mobile phone comes with an accessible slot for microSD cards that are SDHC-compatible; hence, the smartphone's memory may be expanded, depending on its user's discretion. The Blackberry Pearl 8120 allows its users a maximum of 4 hours of talk time under a fully charged battery, or 360 hours of standby time.

As downsides, users have noticed that the Blackberry Pearl 8120's battery drains quickly when Wi-Fi feature is being used. There are also reported instances of dropped calls and erratic signal when using the 8120. Other dissatisfied users complain that while it is reputed for running on advanced technology, the Blackberry 8120 does not support 3G connectivity. Some have found the display screen too small to allow a good view of attachments to emails, as well as Web sites. While it runs on SureType text, this type of entry system does not suit some of its users. Moreover, users lament that the Blackberry Pearl 8120 is not supported by hardware controls for playback purposes.

Reviewer: David - Birmingham
Reviewed on: 24th March, 2008
Rating: 6/10
This is my second blackberry pearl, the first being its predecesor the 8100. I liked the former blackberry and notice the Blackberry 8120 has improved some of it's features. I particularly like the spelling prediction feature. The phone comes with a carrying case which automatically turns off the screen and locks the keypad when you put the phone into it.
However despite the fact I do really like the Blackberry 8120 it has the same fundamental problem as the earlier model. That is it doesn't work! I sent back my 8100 3 times for replacement or repair. The problem is the rollerball which just freezes with no warning. I have had the 8120 just over a week and the rollerball has locked up once already. I am therefore sending it back to O2 and exchanging it for a Nokia E51 which can, like the Blackberry give me the pushed e-mail I require.
Pity but it's no good if it doesn't work.

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