Design - Very good

The BlackBerry Pearl differs little, if at all, from the other recent versions of this phone, except that it is available in all-silver. The newer Pearls feature a 3.5mm headphone jack, a welcome addition to any phone, as well as a memory card slot that is easier to reach.

Calling - Very good

We were very impressed with calls made on the BlackBerry Pearl 8130. Calls sounded nice and clean, with no static or reception issues. Callers weren't fooled into thinking we were on a landline, but this is top-notch for cellular phone quality.

RIM's BlackBerry address book is very good, with live searching that makes fine use of the SureType keys to predict input.

Connecting a conference call was easy and intuitive, though we would have liked the phone's screen to give us more info about our three calls, as it didn't even let us know we were all joined together. Bluetooth worked fine for handsfree calling, and the speakerphone was adequately loud for use in a moving car.

Messaging - Good

In some ways the BlackBerry Pearl is a great messaging phone, but in other ways it stumbles, or simply doesn't show up for the party. In terms of push e-mail, if your company is using a BlackBerry server, you're in luck, because RIM's push is fast and responsive.

BlackBerry messenger is the only IM client available. Typing on the Pearl's keys was fine.

Multimedia - Good

The device has an updated media screen from RIM, and some nice multimedia features built in. First of all, it takes microSDHC cards up to 8GB, and had no trouble reading the hundreds of tracks off our card.

Scheduling and productivity - Very good

The calendar app on the BlackBerry is top notch, second only, perhaps, to Microsoft's own mobile Outlook calendar when paired with the desktop app.
For productivity, you can view Office documents, but you can't edit them.

Camera - Good

The camera on the BlackBerry Pearl has seen a slight upgrade to a 2-megapixel sensor. The lens quality was not very good, but passable.

Web browsing - Good

The Web browser on the BlackBerry Pearl now falls into the older generation of mobile browsers, apps that don't try to approximate a desktop experience, but renders a usable page on the mobile screen nonetheless.

Navigation - Very good

The BlackBerry Pearl 8130 features GPS navigation and It found us quickly, even in our cubicles, which don't have a direct view of the sky.

Pros:

A quick Pearl with GPS and fast networking. Interface just a bit prettier. Very good call quality. Nice music options, even without a music store.
Cons:

Keyboard still a bit cramped and slick. Interface could use a modern update. Web browser very basic compared to competition.

It certainly is an enticing phone, and RIM has quietly addressed some of the aesthetic issues that bothered us so much in the original. The new Pearl 8130 gives the OS a haircut and a new suit to wear, and it makes the phone much more pleasant to be around. There's still room for improvement. Some advanced multimedia features, like a great music player and some 3G services, would be nice, as would a desktop-grade browser. Still, potential BlackBerry users should think twice about other devices if you haven't taken a look at this Pearl.