Blackberry Pearl 8100 black Deals

After its launch, the Blackberry 8100 - known as the Pearl - generated close to mass hysteria in the techno world for its innovation.

Around 75 million mobile phones are sold each quarter in the Europe/Middle East/Africa region, compared with only about 700,000 email devices, so this was RIM's shot at the consumer phone market and the big volume sales. The result is a device that includes a camera, a media player and removable storage and is also small and light.

Among its attractions, the Pearl has sleek ergonomics - it's a beautiful, black-and-chrome, incredibly tiny slab (4.2 x 2 x 0.6 inches, weighing 89 g). As the New York Times wrote of it: "Considering how many things it does, and how well, you may be amazed to learn that no laws of physics were broken in the making of this phone."

It offers all the functionality of the previous RIM handsets in addition to some solid multimedia features, such as a 1.3 megapixel camera - a Blackberry first - and a media player. As well as music and video playback, it offers expandable memory, a mapping application; superior push email capabilities, and EDGE and Bluetooth support.

At 15.5mm thick, the Pearl is a respectably consumer-friendly looking mobile phone complete with its SureType full QWERTY keypad, digital camera and multimedia functions, a sizeable screen and a trackball replacement for the thumbwheel.

Though nothing revolutionary - it lacks integrated Wi-Fi and 3G, for example - but the addition of multimedia features and the already solid email capabilities make the RIM BlackBerry 8100 Pearl an attractive device for business users and consumers alike.

• Small, slim & sleek design.
• 1.3 megapixel camera with video & flash.
• Large colour display for high quality viewing.
• Music and video player.
• 64MB internal memory and microSD card support.
• EDGE technology for Web browsing and downloads.
• Integral email client for email and attachment review.
• Bluetooth™ for sharing data between devices.
• Quad-band functionality for global connectivity.
• Enhanced GPRS for faster downloads.