BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 user reviews
Should I buy it?
Ask your Facebook friends and Twitter followers if you should buy the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220
Android App 
RSS Feeds 
iPhone App 
Newsletters
User reviews4
Tom 'Treckie' Wiltshire 22 July 2010
Good: Great screen, flip design, Blackberry email capability, 3.5mm headphone jack, fairly sturdy.
Bad: Plasticky back cover, no 3G, freezes occasionally.
Comment: I bought this from CEX for £65 and use it all the time. I'm very impressed. This is my first Blackberry and the email is amazing. The music player isn't as bad as everyone makes out and contrary to what this review says, you CAN change tracks when the flip is closed - just hold the 'volume up' or 'volume down' keys until the track changes.
I love the keypad. Very fast and efficient, and the trackball is great, much better than the optical trackpads on more recent Blackberries.
9/10. It just freezes occasionally.
Raven_is_dead 4 October 2009
Good: you can access email
Bad: it constantly crashes!
Comment: This phone is just the biggest waste of space, hence why providers are stopping seeling this product. I have had five replacement phones in 8 months and still you suffer from the same problems. The phone will decide to reset itself, the front screen will constantly show you the clock yet when you open the phone it is completely dead!
I would also add Orange has just been a total nightmare when dealing with their customer services and Blackberry are just useless too!
rayslater 28 March 2009
Good: Clamshell, Compact for a Blackberry
Bad: Mini-USB is not the same as on all other blackberries so new chargers needed
Comment: Pretty happy really. Software sometimes goes slow
HiFranc 24 January 2009
Good: Clamshell, not 3G, clear screen
Bad: SMS section not on front page as a default
Comment: I have just had the misfortune to have a Sony Ericsson W910i (for those who aren't familiar with it, it has a habit of restarting by itself). As such the high regard I give to reliability became stronger and I spent ages researching my next phone.
I settled on the Blackberry 8220 as I hadn't come across any reports of faults by users and it was a clamshell. I've always wanted a clamshell simply because you know you aren't going to accidentally call or text someone.
My phone usage tends to be mainly SMS and e-mail with a few calls and a bit of browsing so this phone already ticked all the boxes. 3G wasn't a priority for me as through my experience (and user reviews of other 3G phones) I equate 3G with a strong likelihood of faults.
How does the 8220 stand up?
My first impression was the solid metal feel, which left as soon as I opened the battery case (the cover is plastic). Another discovery I made (I got mine through O2) was that, despite not being listed in the contents of the box, the phone came with a memory card already inserted. I wish I had known that at the time of ordering as I could have saved some money ordering one. That said, I don't know if mine was the exception or the rule.
Anyway, I'm sure you're probably not going to want me to rabbit on so I'll stop the story:
The screens are crisp, clear and bright. The interface is speedy (unless you're trying to change a ring/text/alarm tone at which point the merest hesitation whilst scrolling through the list of tones means that you have to wait until it starts playing that tone before you can move on). The responds smoothly to the scroll wheel.
One of the annoying things for me was that the SMS section is not on the first screen by default (but you can move it from where it is if you wish). I took the other option and reprogrammed one of the convenience buttons for that. E-mails are easy to set up but another thing I miss is the ability to choose when to check for e-mails (either by manually requesting it or programmable timings) but I'll probably get used to that (after all I've only had it a couple of days).
The hardest thing for me was getting used to the key layout as I've always had traditional phones before. One of the things I like is that the predictive text seems to look at the context to try and work out the most likely word you're typing. I might be wrong there but it definitely has a higher hit rate of correct words than any other phone I've used.
Overall it's a good phone with a few minor niggles. If it does turn out to be as reliable as it seems, I'm not sure if I'd want to upgrade again.