Latest 'crackberry' gets a camera but loses a thumbwheel, writes Rupert White


It seems that barely a week goes by without a BlackBerry development, the mobile messaging brand that lawyers cannot do without. But there is a reason for this: since RIM, the company behind the BlackBerry, settled its patent cases with InPro and later NTP, it has been obvious that plans for world domination that were held back while the cases rumbled on have been dusted off.



This summer, RIM brought out the 7130g, the nicest looking version of the device that's so addictive some have labelled it 'crackberry'. Not content with that, RIM revealed last week to a select pack of journalists what its design team has been working on at the same time - the Pearl. This latest device looks a lot like a 7130g, except it is smaller, slimmer, lighter and has done away with the 'classic' thumbwheel.



When the latest old-shape BlackBerry, the 8700, was reviewed here, the main interface problem was stated baldly: 'Three new keys are not what a new BlackBerry needed - a little Sony Ericsson-style joystick is what it needed.'



Well, it appears that someone at RIM was thinking the same way, because the Pearl has a little trackball on the front under the screen, instead of the click-wheel on the side. The clickable trackball is white, hence the Pearl moniker.



With a phone-style 'candy bar' shape and no thumbwheel, this BlackBerry points the way to what RIM intends: to wrestle its way into the consumer market. But this might also interest lawyers in small firms, because they probably count as what RIM staffers call 'prosumers' - those business people who use a device like this for personal and work business interchangeably.



Fundamentally, the Pearl scores in areas somewhat removed from the traditional. It is small for a BlackBerry, and the main keys under the screen actually make sense if you want to use it like a phone.



The big addition that RIM chiefs were touting last week is a camera on the back - the first time a BlackBerry will have one. While not great, a 1.3-megapixel camera is, in the words of Larry Conlee, chief operating officer at RIM, 'adequate'. Mr Conlee was refreshingly honest about the camera, saying research had told the company that consumers demanded it, but that it did not need to be brilliant. RIM staffers were tight-lipped about when, even if, there will be a 3G BlackBerry.



BlackBerry users and virgins alike pronounced it gorgeous, but many questioned whether mere mortals would ever evolve to be nimble enough to use such a compact keyboard.



All these points aside, getting access to and fluidly using multiple e-mail accounts, including Webmail accounts such as Yahoo!, Gmail and, vitally, Hotmail is simple. The screen is typically excellent and build quality looks good. There is also space for a fat memory card.