RIM's Consumer Focused Blackberry Pearl 8100 Launches

RIM Blackberry Pearl 8100

RIM Blackberry Pearl 8100

RIM Blackberry Pearl 8100

Research in Motion (RIM) has announced its first Blackberry device to include full multimedia capabilities, the Pearl 8100. The Blackberry Pearl is clearly aimed at consumers more than RIM's traditional business market, and includes all the features common to the new demographic.

The Blackberry Pearl 8100 not only includes all the features people have come to expect from a RIM device, such as push email, full PIM functionality, and corporate data access, but also sports some more 'fun' inclusions such as a 1.3 megapixel camera as well. A large, 240x260 pixel resolution 65k color TFT display features prominently on the front of the device, as does a glowing track ball, similar to that on the Sidekick III. Below the track ball, a SureType hybrid QWERTY keypad can be found.

A microSD memory card slot complements the 64MB of on board memory inside the RIM Blackberry Pearl 8100, and Bluetooth v2.0 with stereo headset support and a full media player supporting MP3, MIDI, AMR-NB, and AAC/AAC+/eAAC+ audio and MPEG4/H.263 video also make a showing. This fully featured handset also comes preinstalled with the Blackberry Maps application, allowing the user to get maps and directions easily by typing an address, or by clicking on an address in the device's address book.

The RIM Blackberry Pearl 8100 will launch in the US with T-Mobile on September 12 and with Rogers Wireless in Canada during October 2006.