The folks over at PureMobile.com sent us a BlackBerry Pearl Flip for review.

The first time the phone was turned on, it took nearly 1 minute, 35 seconds for the BlackBerry OS to boot up.. After navigating through the initial setup (language, date/time, and introduction to using the QWERTY keyboard on the Pearl), I finally reached the main screen.

The Phone

Let’s start with a phone call - from the main screen, I simply started dialing the numbers. Now I don’t know if there was an issue with this particular phone or it’s an issue with all Pearl Flips, there’s a definite delay between the time the key is pressed and the keypad tone is played back. It’s a minor thing, but for someone used to Nokia phones pretty much all my mobile life, it was kind of annoying.

The speaker on the phone was pretty crisp and clear, and the speakerphone was pretty great. In fact, the speakerphone is, arguably, better than most phones including the iPhone (on which it generally sucks). Build quality is rather nice, although when you keep it in your pocket, it seems a bit bulky - which is most likely because it’s a flip. As with the original Pearl, typing on the new-ish keyboard on the flip phone is something that old-school crackberries may have to adjust to.

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