BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 review

Average user rating

6.0

good

Average user rating from 3 users

See all user reviews

Agree? Disagree? Write your own review of the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220

Rate this product

BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 user reviews

January 24, 2009

Posted by: HiFranc

"Perfect for me"

What I like:

Clamshell, not 3G, clear screen

What I don't like:

SMS section not on front page as a default

Review:

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.