Blackberry Pearl vs Curve

My BB Pearl recently decided to stop working as it should (random movements, and very random letters & numbers appearing). I don’t blame Blackberry too much for this, as even though it was in a rainproof pocket, it got a little damp in a downpour of rain.

The long and the short of it is that my company loaned me a BB Curve whilst the Pearl either dries out and recovers or is repaired. I’ve had it now for a couple of days and, surprise surprise, I like it better than the Pearl.

You can compare the size and the specs of the 2 for yourself over at the Blackberry website, but here are the main things that have swung me over to the Curve:

• Wider screen. It’s great the Pearl is like a normal phone, but it’s a real pain reading emails, as even a short email is pages long on the Pearl’s narrow screen. With the Curve you can actually read the email without the constant scrolling down the page. Likewise for web browsing as well, the Curve is far superior.
• I’m sure the ring is louder! I’ve got the same ringtone on the Curve as the Pearl and it is much louder, which is great when it is in a pocket.
• It has a flash for the camera. I know it is not a perfect camera (only 2 mega pixels), but I find it really useful to have a camera always around to take a quick snap and email home.
• GPS. I bought an external tiny little GPS device to link up to my Pearl via bluetooth, and it works fine, but it ain’t as good as built in GPS, which you never forget. I love the GPS and it is really useful combined with Google Maps, especially as I travel around Europe a bit and finding your way back to the hotel late at night after a couple of lager shandys can sometimes be a bit of a struggle.
• Obviously, you get a full keyboard on the Curve, whereas you have 2 letters per key on the Pearl. This isn’t as bad as it seems, but the full keyboard is easier to use, and you don’t have to keep checking what word the Pearl thinks you meant to type via predictive text. The Pearl always called my boss, who is called Alan, Slab. I quite liked that!
• On the downside, it is bigger. All the cool shortcut keys seem to be missing - how stupid that you can’t lock the phone without selecting the lock phone icon. On the Pearl you can just press and hold the * key to lock the phone. Likewise, I was used to scrolling up a message with 3 and down with 9. 6 took me to the next message - on the curve you can hit u for the next unread email, but there is no key for the next email in the list, when you are in an email. Also, you can’t change the colour of the pearl/rollerball on the curve!

I’m sure I’ll find out more pros & cons over the next few weeks, but at the moment I’m not going to give the Curve back!

What features appeal to you the most? Are you going for the sexy Pearl or the workhorse Curve? Please leave a comment below. Thanks.