Hello Pearl 8130! My Soon-To-Be Very First Blackberry!
Hello Crackberry Forums!
First off, I would like to thank all the members of these forums for all the information that has accumulated on this site. It has been a wealth of information and has helped me so much in making my decision to buy a Blackberry.
I'm a Verizon customer, and I have been for about 3 years now. Until recently I've always stuck to dumbphones (most recently the razr). I would say I'm moderately tech-savy, having a background in web and graphic design. Furthermore, however, I am a lover of finely-engineered pieces of technology.
About a week ago, my Razr finally bought the farm. After dealing with this piece-of-crap poorly-engineered piece of trash for over a year now, I was so excited to finally go shopping for a new phone! This time things would be different. This time I wanted something that would be more than just a phone. Something that would not only make my life easier but that I could truly enjoy as well.
I have long been an admirer of the Blackberry. My ex-girlfriend had an early-version pearl and I fell in love with it after using it only a few times. I'm sure that if I began talking about all the things I loved about the Pearl I would just be preaching to the choir, so I'll save it. However, I did go through a journey on my way to deciding on the Pearl.
Upon walking into the Verizon Wireless store, I was greeted with a plethora of phone choices. Of course were the dumbphones...ranging from all different sizes, shapes, and colors. I already knew that I wasn't going to buy another one. After my horrible experience with the Razr I was ready for a better piece of equipment.
Lately I've been seeing a lot of my friends get these new touchscreen devices like the iPhone and the Voyager. Honestly, I was almost dead-set on the Voyager from the start. It was so pretty! And Blingin! AND YOU COULD TOUCH THE SEXY LITTLE SCREEN AND MAKE IT DO THINGS OH MAN! I was instantly disappointed. Upon setting my hands on the Voyager I knew it wasn't for me. The touchscreen was clumsy. The design was cheep. $400 dollars for this piece of crap? No way. I pushed on.
And then I saw it, those two little devices that would give me so much of a headache to decide between I would go through an entire bottle of aspirin trying to decide. The Blackberry 8130 Pearl and the Blackberry 8330 Curve.
I started playing around with both in the store and was instantly amazed. Where had this device been all my life? The OS was smart and sexy. The button layouts, despite being different between the two models, were very natural. The screen was vibrant, crisp, and bright. I knew I had found my phone. I just didn't know which one yet.
So I ran home and started scouring the internet, comparing the Curve to the Pearl. Initially I was sold on the Curve. I liked the bigger screen and the full QWERTY keyboard. The Pearl was still on my mind though. It took me a lot of soul-searching to decide, but eventually the Pearl won. After looking through all the reviews on each I could find, I deduced that the major difference between the two phones were the keyboard, the screen, and the price. I decided on the Pearl after playing around with one a bit more at the store. Although Suretype was originally weird and foreign, it quickly grew on me. And although the screen on the Pearl was smaller than that of the Curve, I liked the more vertically-oriented design of the Pearl to the horizontally-oriented Curve.
Although the touchscreen phones like the iPhone and the Voyager are cool and blingin', I couldn't bring myself to purchase one. Touchscreen technology, in my opinion, is still in it's infancy as far as cell phone application. The thought of wiping off my screen of fingerprints and micro-scratches is disgusting. Messaging is awkward and annoying. And I can't replace the battery on the iPhone? What the **** is up with that?
So, as of yesterday I jumped on ebay and bought a brand new 8130 Pearl! It should be here on friday and I'm looking forward to activating and breaking in my new baby!
I do have a couple of questions to which I had a hard time finding clear and concise answers:
Will my 8130 Pearl will support my 8g microsdhc card?
Will Verizon charge me extra for Blackberry service?
Thanks for all your help, Crackberry!