The BlackBerry name has long been synonymous to great business phones. The Pearl is one of the long list of business phones to come out of Blackberry’s production line. But the phone certainly stands out from other models in terms of size and design. The phone comes in a surprisingly candy bar design. The company has certainly moved forward in terms of design and moved away from its original concept of big looking QWERTY cellphones.

The Pearl comes in three different forms, the 8110 is basically the same with the 8100 and 8120 series of phones. Althought the phone is Wi-Fi capable AT&T’s 8110 comes with GPS functions. This provides great support for AT&T’s Navigator product offer.

When you think about BlackBerry phones the first thing that comes to mind is their size. The Blackberry Pearl 8110 represents a shift in design with its candy bar figure. Surprisingly the Pearl still features a QWERTY keyboard in its small dimension. Another feature is the cellphones trackball located in the center of the keypads. The trackball is a great addition allowing for quicker navigation and access of the phones features. For Blackberry user’s the smaller phone size might pose some problems because the new size means a smaller are to work with.

Together with its smaller size, the Blackberry Pearl 8110 offers a simple menu layout. The phones home screen displays a simple and easy to access menu interface. Clicking on the major categories brings out the application icons uncer them. This interface is similar to multimedia or basic phone layouts we see.

Pushmail technology is an integral part of any business phone. BlackBerry certainly did not leave out on this feature in making the cellphone. Emails are important and getting your email on time as soon as it is sent is essential for both business and personal communications. The BlackBerry Pearl 8110 also allows for viewing attachments on the go.

Along with Pushmail technology the pearl also supports Microsoft Word, Excel and basic Powerpoint presentations. Here, the trackball is truly an invaluable addition as it makes short work of viewing documents. Together with office document support and pushmail this makes the pearl a true business phone. An area that seems to be left out however is the Wi-Fi option for AT&T 8110’s and 3G support. These additions could have made the Pearl a capable business or smartphone.

A biult in 2.0 Megapixel camera comes equipped with the phone. It is armed with a flash which is great for low light captures. Image capture also comes with a 5x zoom feature. Adjusting zoom requires toggling the trackball for zoom adjustments. Image quality is decent and a feature that could have made shooting pictures clearer was an auto focus function.

For trips outside of town or navigating streets to look for business partners and friends, the BlackBerry’s GPS is easy and accurate enough in giving directions. Making it an invaluable tool as a business phone, the pearl features a travel log and a short click gives you weather information on your next destination.

Multimedia features and functions are basic. The phone provides applications for image viewing and music track playing. The Pearl however comes out ahead with some of BlackBerry’s bigger models. Listening quality and viewing videos were good and certainly helps pass time on the road.

Test with the BlackBerry Pearl 8110 showed battery life was average. Battery life lasted for one and half days and allowed for navigating and frequent calls with occasional music playing. Call quality was generally good and signal reception was average in hard to reach network areas.

Though the BlackBerry Pearl 8110 presents no major innovations or features but it represents a major change in BlackBerry form and structure. The Pearl’s candy bar design is fresh for a company known for making business and smartphones. The Pearl is a capable business phone, for people who are looking for a good looking phone and don’t want to sacrifice their business needs, the BlackBerry Pearl 8110 is one serious contender.