[PixalArt]

Hello all, Please tell me I�m dead wrong on this�

I got my Verizon Pearl about two weeks and been playing with it a lot. I want to make sure this phone is going to be the phone I want to keep for the next 2 years.

Here are the issues I have run across and find totally unacceptable.
Email, I find it to be almost useless! Come on, its 2008 not 1995, guess what most emails are in HTML format and have some type of graphic mixed with the text and attachments. I get boat loads of email that have HTML code on the screen, Does Black berry really except me to try and load each link into the browser and then refer back to the email and piece it together back in my head, that�s nuts!

Ok OK I know there is 3rd Party software that is supposed to help/fix this. So I installed the free 4 day trial of BBSmart for email, and it is better for some emails but it is still really bad.

To look at a PDF attachment you have to zoom in and then BB button and pick enhance and it looks good, But wait, you can�t scroll right or left or up or down? You have to zoom back out scroll and then re-zoom and hit enhance again? I have to do X amount of times to read 1 stink�en line on a PDF page? You got to be kidding!

Now let�s talk about the browser� Again, what were they thinking? It�s almost useless, Very few WEB sites that I need to go to are readable or so disjointed I spend over a 15 minuets trying to decipher a site that I know in my head. The browser in my Moto Razor worked better than this. There has to be a better way and we paid extra dollars for these features?

Don�t get me wrong, I love this phone a lot. I like the keypad and fine it easy to type on and get my messages in and calendar dates. It sync�s very nicely with my office 2007 on a MS Vista machine. It cabled broad band work awesomely with VZAccess. It charges from a standard USB port, while online! The list goes on and on of what I like but, in reality if mail and browser doesn�t work worth a you know what, the phone just isn�t going to cut it for me.

I stopped in at the Verizon store this afternoon and was able to look at a few phones that had MS mobile 6 on it. I browsed to a complicated WEB site and it showed up perfectly. I was not able to test mail there at this time. So I am considering making a switch to a VX6800 but after reading a bunch of reviews that phone has its own issues also, things that work great on the Pearl�

So HELP me please! Tell me there are real working fixes for these short comings.

Thanks
Bob

[JazzeeJEF]

For your Browser issues Check out Opera Mini....Many posts on here about how well that works.

As far as the BBSmart View that works just fine for me.

[wxboss]

I have a BB device and a WM device. Your frustration will grow with a WM device as lockups and resets are par for the course. Yes, WM does certain things nicely, but it all boils down to what you need.

Please consider your needs closely because WM isn't the 'be all to end all' of mobile devices.

[donas2000]

PixalArt,
I too have the same complaints that you have, but I can tell you this....I had the XV 6800 for 2 1/2 months and traded it for the Pearl. The 6800 does the Web thing pretty well, but that is about it. The battery lasted me on average 6-8 hours with minimal use, you can't leave home without a charger. It would push my e-mail when it felt like it, I would manually sync it when I went a few hours without seeing anything new. The ringer has some quirk where the sound turns off but does not show on the screen, here again, wouldn't realize it until I picked up the phone and had 10 missed calls...this is apparently a standard problem with many of these phones. I could go on, my suggestion is keep the pearl!! Let me know if you have any other questions about the 6800.

[PixalArt]

Hello Again,

Thanks for the responses.

I loaded opera mini and it seems better. I was able to do some real work on some WEB sites that I tested. Thank you for that suggestion!

Thanks for the info on 6800, I read a lot of bad things about it. I did get to play with a working 6800 today and it was pretty cool/nice, I kind-of like WM6 from what I saw. I read from several others that it is pretty stable OS now. But, after looking around and playing with a a lot of phones and reading a bunch of reviews I feel Pearl seems to be the one to keep.

I really don’t want to carry a laptop around but, I think that’s the real answer for me and use the Pearl as my broad band modem. I will be able to do 80% of my stuff on Pearl the 20% well I either have a laptop or use a customer’s computer while I’m their.

Thanks for the help!
Bob

[manilaboy1vic]

Its a phone with extras is how i see it.. sounds like you need a laptop to me..

[PixalArt]

Yes, I probably do need a laptop, LOL I do have one but it�s kind of been commandeered by my wife and it seems harder and harder to get my hands on it because it would involve ripping it out of her hands�lol

But, what everyone should keep in prospective is that a phone with extras did come with a price tag! And a new monthly expenditure on top of that, for me $59.00/month that�s $708.00! or $1,416.00 over the two year contract. For that kind of money I expect it to work, and not just a little but, work correctly.

Has the public really fallen into the trap of �that�s good enough� for this type of products too? I find it amazing that people put up with all this half baked stuff and paid extra for it and then don�t seem to care that it doesn�t really work, I guess maybe some don�t even no difference so they are happy no madder what.

You might say, well it depends on your needs, Yes and No, I think it�s simple, it a feature on the phone it should work correctly. What else I find very interesting is that there really isn�t anything better out there in the same type of package..

Despite it�s short comings I going to fall into the trap of �that�s good enough� because for some reason against my EE background I really do like this phone with extras..lol

Thanks
Bob

[exquisitegyal]

No matter what... don't buy any Windows Mobile Phone... trust me.. I"ve tried them all! Palm OS is great however the phones are bulky. WM sucks!! SERIOUSLY! You think you had minor problems with the BlackBerry OS trust me it'll get 1000x worse with the WM. I myself had to get rid of a WM phone after getting fed up with it 3 months later (I wasn't even covered for a refund but I was that desperate to get rid of it!)

Although the BB Browser leaves you wanting for much more.. it's certainly worth the whole-package. We are just going to have to wait for an update to the Browser... as you mentioned other than the email/browser everything else works great. Maybe stick to mobile sites for now? As for annoying views of PDF... I donno what to tell ya :S

[garypip]

Pixal

Your price of $1416 for 2 years is flawed. The Pearl works perfectly as a cell phone. Your only complaint (although I don't think there are any) should be the $29 for the BIS service. You would have a cell plan anyway no matter which phone you had and actually the internet plan for the other phones is $45/month. This is a pretty good deal for an internet phone. It's not an iphone, 6800, treo or anything other than what it's supposed to be.....a Blackberry!

[PixalArt]

I guess I should clarify a little on price, the $59.00 in on top of my regular monthly payment ~ $180.00 or $239.00/month together.

I’m glad it’s not an IPhone or the others you mention, My colleagues out in the field setting this stuff up tell me they have a lot of problems with IPhone and others.

Bob

[stuka75]

FWIW
Ive been an Ipaq user(wear it daily) since the day they came out. Whenever that was So im attune to WN mobile and its shortcomeings.
A few months ago I got a Ppc6800 from Alltel. I liked the overall usage, but the unit would lock up requireng a reset whenenver standby was initiated and bluetooth was paired and running. Made the unit uselss when driving. It was a known issue fromHTC and they knowingly put the unit on the market. THis prblem was unniversal across multiple carriesr, and in spite of assurance a OS update would be forthcoming, initiating the built in gps as well as fixing the bluetooth, they still havent come up with a firmware upgrade. I had taken th eunit back and dropped Alltel.
Now, I just purchased a Pearl 8130 on UScellualr, and its light years better out of the box than Win mobile and the Htc.
The OS is crisper, fewer to no os lock ups. Even at 1X my data usage is more than reasonable. Not great for surfing, but my pc is for that.
Anyway, IM sold on the 8130 and wish I had over to this OS sooner.

[Reed McLay]

...
Despite it�s short comings I going to fall into the trap of �that�s good enough� because for some reason against my EE background I really do like this phone with extras..lol

Thanks
Bob

BlackBerry is making the transition from pure business to consumer with the current generation of products. This is v1.0 for the Browser and times have changed for the reliable old email system.

Sure there are limits, but the product they came up with is superior to anything else on the market. Windows will catch up, hardware vendors will keep making better devices and BlackBerry will upgrade function in OS revisions.