BlackBerry Pearl 8230 Flip gets pictured
Well, it’s no Curve 8900 and it’s certainly no Bold but BlackBerry fans with a need for buttons will be happy to learn that the Pearl 8230 Flip should be landing soon on Verizon shelves near you. This SureType clam shell is probably among RIM’s less desirable newer handsets but options are never a bad thing as they say. Pricing and availability are still a bit of a mystery but we know silver will be among the color options, obviously. Test units have gone out however, so the launch can’t be too far off. Unsolicited advice for our pals at Big Red: If you’re planning to launch this puppy with a giveaway contest of some kind, hire a new team to run it.
Thanks, George!
I have it with TMO and it ROCKS.
UMA wifi and MyFaves is OUTSTANDING.
40 for 1500 minutes and free myfaves and 10 for unlimited WIFI calling!!!
Great device
Yay…
@flippearl
Unfortunately, the Big Red doesn’t allow for UMA or Wifi. The 8230 will most likely be 3g and gps like the 8330. /_\
Always LATE, big red. Ouchh!!!! –from a bleeding verizon customer, who start to believe that your great service, reception, leaves customer’s with swolen bills, and outdated devices. And STiLL sticking with you guys
Looks good, nice to see some more verizon berry news.
Hey I’m with T-Mobile….How much are you paying for 1500 mintues with my-faves?
hopefully the niagara will follow
well i practically saw it coming RIM always make gsm & later the cdma version of it most of the time well we probally will see the sprint version later
And how many months behind will sprint be? 6-9 is my bet.
Umm..
The Pearl Flip is new.
T-Mobile is the ONLY network in the US with it.
This will be the first CDMA one.
And Verizon would allow WiFi if it did have it, but RIM wouldnt because All CDMA BlackBerrys have 3G and GPS.
Not Verizons choice, its RIM’s.
Verizon has it for 79.99
but i get it for 67.99 with my discount from Verizon.
T-Mobiles is 69.99, but with Verizon you get 4 times the 3G coverage and a lot more coverage.
T-Mos myfaves = no Mobile to Mobile.
It is already out there with T-Mobile..and UMA..It really rocks..I’m not sure I’d wanna go with Verizon..
@Tom: Verizon has plenty of WiFi phones and has for years. Not sure where this idea that they don’t allow WiFi comes from… RIMM has never put WiFi in a CDMA BlackBerry, it’ll be interesting to see what happens with the CDMA Bold.
What the 8230 should have that the 8220 doesn’t is 3G, of course…
VZW doesn’t want you using WiFi for free data or VOIP calls. They could have forced RIM to create Berry’s with it if they really wanted to.
Well Vodafone did convince RIMM to make a touchscreen BlackBerry and PALM to make a non-touchscreen Treo, so I suppose the carriers do have the ability to push for certain features, (especially when they’re the second-largest in the world like VOD is) but that’s different than forbidding them outright. (By the way, note that Engadget Mobile claims the Samsung Saga was built to VZW’s specs- and it does have Wi-Fi)
But as for VoIP calls, I believe that’s in part due to the standard. As far as I know, (I could be wrong and defer to anyone with more knowledge) there is no standard for handing off VoIP calls onto a CDMA2000 network, unlike UMA on GSM which does allow that. Now, of course, EV-DO Rev A does have the latency and such for pure VoIP like Skype.
Remember the bullet points being leaked from Verizon that said that Verizon’s 3G was a positive compared to the Bold and Iphone’s wifi? LOL.
Not gonna bash Verizon at all, at least not in this post….
BUT….
Could BlackBerry have designed this phone a little better, by making the keys larger, and not having that big lip at the bottom of the phone. I mean MY GOD its like Michael Phelps chin, all huge!
This is a nice phone for sure. Hopefully VZW getting this first will mean Niagara is going to Sprint first? Haven’t heard much about that lately…
I want to see what the sprint version looks like.
One positive to WiFi is for the allowance of simultaneous voice/data similar to the way a HSPA network does.
VZW has a good network where I live, but so does Sprint and T-Mobile. I just wish VZW wasn’t so freaking expensive. I’m sure there are areas where their prices justify the network, but in many urban areas they are no better than the others.
I’m not a huge fan of the flip Pearl, but I’m all for diversity. The clamshell form factor is very popular and a good addition to the RIM family.
I like the phone, personally. It looks to have just about all of the same features of the Verizon’s current 3G Pearl 8130, but with the later Blackberry OS. I dig the clamshell too, as I like to put my phone in my pocket (not a condom or holster)
The screen and keypad should be larger than the existing Pearls as well, given that when open, there’s more real estate compared to the candy bar. Just one more nice feature for me.
Some people are mistaking the simplicity of the device as “boring” – I think it’s a great step up from the existing Pearl though.
@20 Jenny – VZW offers discounts depending upon who you work for. The larger the company, the larger the discount, they just need a work photo id or pay stub to verify it. And I myself am waiting for their version of the Bold whenever it decides to roll out, more built in memory, full qwerty keyboard, much better device than the pearl.
Did this thing just jump right past ATT? If VZ gets it with 3G, does that mean that ATT will get it with 3G?
EPS Said:
@Tom: Verizon has plenty of WiFi phones and has for years. Not sure where this idea that they don’t allow WiFi comes from… RIMM has never put WiFi in a CDMA BlackBerry, it’ll be interesting to see what happens with the CDMA Bold.
What the 8230 should have that the 8220 doesn’t is 3G, of course…
________________________________________
Sure, but how many times have they crippled the Wifi in those devices to not allow it to work siamotainously with the data. This left us not being about to make or receive a phone call while using wifi. I remember having to download a hack to get around that.
Everyone keeps defending VZW on not allowing wifi on BB devices but I still haven’t heard a good reason. My guess is that they can’t “bully” anyone but RIM to keep it off the devices. HTC, Palm, Samsung probably put it in and said take it or leave it. So they spend a year writing firmware that limits its use making it nearly obsolete by the time it hits the shelves.
If VZW isn’t intimidated by wifi, then there is not reason to leave it out. Period. Make all the excuses for them you want but it should be there.
@RogerA who said: “Could BlackBerry have designed this phone a little better, by making the keys larger”
Obviously, you’re not terribly experienced with BBs, and certainly not this model. Either that, or you’re simply too oblique for your own good.
The 8220/8320 has much larger keys than the previous versions of the Pearl. Large enough that if produced any larger would’ve been of a ridiculous size, as they are oversized already.