Customer Reviews

BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 - unlocked Smartphone - GSM - folder (flip) - BlackBerry OS

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4 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Background: If you do your research on this phone (and other BlackBerry's) you will note that many people talk about the bugs/problems, etc. Many of these complaints are hardware based (bad chips, etc) NOT software based (although it may seem so).
Make sure that if you buy it, you can return it (if bad) with no hassles/restocking fees (example: Amazon and sold by Amazon).

Condition: Mines was like new (with covered screens), original box, USB cable, power cable, original CD (there's and update online), headset and small instruction booklet (does not look original). Mines had no software/hardware issues (no rebooting, no Bluetooth issues, no slowdowns, etc).

The advantages in general of the blackberry's are the great screen (geared for text readers) and the keyboard.
The bad is the Blackberry "WiFi situation": they want you to buy the "blackberry internet plan" which is a hookup with your cell phone provider. Cell phone providers will have different names for this plan but note that it will cost you in the US around $15-$20. If you have a prepaid plan they will tell you the plan is not available (unless you have a monthly plan). I don't recommend this plan (if you can get it) because I consider it a ripoff. That will probably be the biggest issue with this phone (and all blackberry's).

The workaround: If you want to use Wi-Fi they will use a combination of WiFi and GPRS/EDGE. For example when you try to use the BlackBerry GMail app from Google you will be able to install it halfway but when it tries to connect it will tell you, you need a connection. If you disable your data connection (GPRS/EDGE) you will get the same result and so on and so forth with different applications.

To get around this BlackBerry Wi-Fi situation you have to get applications that are not exactly BlueBerry approved (and you will probably not see in their new store) that allow you to use Wi-Fi ONLY and not a combination Wi-Fi/GRPS/EDGE (again they use EDGE/GPRS to check if you have the BlackBerry Plan if you don't they don't give you access). For example for GMail I use LogicMail (uses Wi-Fi only), UberTwitter, Opera Mini, Yahoo Mail (you have to use their website) with the Opera Mini browser because you won't be able to use it with the BlackBerry browser (these are the only ones I found that I installed).

Final review: Great phone, almost perfect form factor and screen (recommended 7 point font), almost perfect for SMS/MMS/emailing. Wi-Fi, Keyboard is better than a standard number keyboard but NOT better than a full keyboard (of course). If you can deal with the Wi-Fi issue (and sub par and very limited apps compared to the IPhone or even Windows Mobile phone) then this is a GREAT phone!

I purchased my Blackberry Pearl (BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220) seventeen months ago from an Amazon vendor on May 3, 2010. One month ago, the Bluetooth stopped working. Another BIG problem: The unit has a bad habit of rebooting at the most inopportune times, such as while making a Bluetooth call when driving - My Pearl's reboot is slower than the rear-end of a south-bound snail. This problem, coupled with the loss of the Bluetooth, discourages me from ever buying another Blackberry. One might think a sub-two hundred dollar phone would last longer than seventeen months and RIM OS a bit faster with better reliability.

I have had my Blackberry Pearl Flip 8220 for a little over a year now. I have to say I do not like this phone at all. The screen is too small, the camera is the worst I have ever seen & it's just not a user friendly phone. I wish I would of did my research before buying this phone. I cannot wait til my upgrade with T-Mobile so I can get rid of this thing!

I wanted a smartphone for the administrative apps and features such as spreadsheets, more advanced calendar applications, as well as the photo and sound file systems. What I got was a nightmare of forced software applications, every freakin IM program known to man, BING so called smart search (never gotten a relevant search result from BING), the most unfriendly user interface I've ever had on a phone (still trying to figure out how to get rid of the above mentioned junkware) and you MUST use a blackberry add on package along with your cell service package so add another $40.00 to your current cell plan just to use it. All apps must be through blackberry because none of the apps available through cell provider will work with this phone (or I cannot find the settings on the phone to do so). Good luck finding some way to contact an actual employee of blackberry because user to user forums are the only thing I can locate online.

Oh and I thought I had gotten rid of the junk apps that were part of the latest "update" until I had to reboot the device then they just added themselves back on. So essentially you have no choice on what you want to use because the updates force you to accept software and apps without any clear cut way to get rid of it permanently.

Wish I had never gotten myself stuck with this thing for 2 years.