BlackBerry Pearl 9105 outed

By on Apr 19, 2010 at 1:10 PM
General April 19, 2010

blackberry-pearl-9105-leak

Well, there it is: the BlackBerry Pearl 9105 complete with T9 keypad. The images, which were posted and subsequently removed from the Google Group id-blackberry-archive, show the phone as looking identical to the render we saw at the end of March. What’s particularly interesting to us is that even though the keypad is quite the departure from SureType, no changes appear to have been made to the configuration settings in Input Options when compared to the current Pearl and Pearl Flip line-up. When we last checked in with the 9105, word was going around that it was headed to Europe in May or June, but recently a few little birdies informed us that it will also be making an appearance Stateside. We’ll see.

Thanks, Astor

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  • Larry Love

    Too little too late…..

  • Chiggidy the Diggidie

    I have a 3 year old Pearl and love it, i think i will upgrade to this puppy!

  • Tdot34

    It will come with T9 or Suretype, customers will get a choice. Wait until the May release. This phone will sell as well as the original Pearl.

  • Kal-El

    Why no full ‘board?…. Palm did a spectacular one on the Pixi… Which is roughly the same width…

    • mi_canuck

      this will appeal to the “phone” centric peeps… those that don’t text or message much (as typing), but still might need the immediate notices from sms/emails/bbm’s… but they want bigger keys to dial… let’s face it… *dialing* on a BB qwerty isn’t exactly pleasant…

      • OMGWTFBBQ

        If you cannot dial on a BB full qwerty, you need help. It’s more difficult to dial on a touchscreen.

  • AT&T_CSR

    Most of my customers (over the passed 5 years of working for Cingular/AT&T in 3 states) that have the BB Pearl are tweens and teens that opted out of the data plan. Now that you cannot opt out of the data plan, I foresee this flopping.

    • American Patriot

      I love how the trolls downrank you for comments based on professional and experienced feedback, and uprank others for ignorant childishness (i.e.: Kenny’s comment below).

  • bill

    If they want to market to more consumers instead of business users then make the OS more user friendly. Putting a T9 keyboard on it is not the way to go.

  • 12-inch Sandwich

    If this came in suretype, I would be sold. T9 is terrible.

    After having the iPhone and the Droid, I can still say that my Pearl was my favorite phone ever. I guess we’ll see how it is.

  • Kyle

    Yawn. This phone looks like a 10 year old Nokia.

    • AJF

      All of RIM’s phones look 10 years old. Wait, they ARE 10 years old, they just give them different names.

  • S

    this is such a mom phone it’s painful.

  • wolwol

    lol…i have it on my hand now :p

  • mi_canuck

    choice is good…

    so suretype, T9 and there was a rumored full qwerty 9100 shown at one point… 3 pearls… gives a lot of options… all good imo!

  • Kenny

    ZZzzzzZZZZZzzzzzz…. Oh hey what’s that….ZZZzzzzzzzz

  • The Drizzle

    Wow gay!! looks like a free Nokia that requires a 30$ data plan

  • Lol_Cupcakes

    BB is sure moving on down the road. *yawn cakes*. Same old OS, same old shit. What else is old? Oh, the form factor.

  • Henry Earl

    i wouldnt mind having this as a backup smartphone… kind of like the role my very long-in-the-tooth tMobile SDA fills right now. (aka HTC Tornado)
    sure t9 is a pain in the ass but when you’re in a pinch…
    oh yeah, and they cant get away with charging more than $79 for this, tops.

  • ABC

    I think it’s good to have a low end BlackBerry option. Just my thoughts though.

  • Cold Dead Fingers

    The blackberry pearl flip is the best flip phone I’ve ever used and one of my most favorite blackberries. This new pearl is………….they should’ve made a pearl flip 2

  • American Patriot

    If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.

    Blackberry isn’t about ‘new wave looks’ and being fashionable and trendy. Blackberry is about productivity, security, and reliability. There is a functionality between different phones that people don’t take into consideration. Don’t downplay the phone because it isn’t for you. Disregard it and move on. But critique the phone intelligently in a more practical and educated sense. It’s like talking about a movie – Ebert wouldn’t simply say “It sucked, it was ugly, it was stupid.” He’d respond intelligently based on certain fundamentals and aspects. Let’s give credit where credit is due to a company that meets the demands of a certain market and excedes other smartphones in certain criteria and characteristics. The Blackberry isn’t for everyone, just like the iPhone or Droid isn’t for everyone. NO 1 single phone is for EVERYONE. If there were, we wouldn’t have any other phones to pick from. But the iPhone and Droid and Blackberry are great for particular demographics and customer-bases and functionalities, hence why they are all great phones. Let’s try not to make this a Chevy vs Ford war. I’d like to think that our genre of fanboys picks a side more intelligently, and respects technology where respect is due.

  • Joshua

    Well, the only reason I could see for this phone is for someone who needs or wants push e-mail, but has no intention of responding to it on the phone. I don’t know how large that market is, as people most likely to use push will want at least a Pearl, while those who want simpler phones probably don’t care all that much about push e-mail. I could easily see this flopping worse than the Pearl Flip. IMHO this is either a desperation move to find a niche in a consumer market that is being eaten into by not just iPhone anymore, but now Android (and yes, I will be one of those BB users who will be switching to the Evo, albeit not immediately) or just sheer arrogance of throwing a bone to the people who want a true Pearl update.

  • Christopher Cox

    Compared to the latest Android phones, Windows Phone 7, and iPhone, Blackberries are looking more and more lime good messaging dumbphones. Unless they do something different soon, I don’t think they will keep their market dominance as more and more people are migrating to smartphones with lots of apps. People care about the apps today more than they did 5 years ago, and BlackBerry can’t compete with that. The software they have is few and has a very last last generation look and feel. Blackberry is like software for a TI scientific calculator when everyone is using PDAs. I predict RIM will start dropping in marketshare this year.

  • Corey

    I had the Pearl years ago and loved it. Wouldn’t give up my Storm 2 for this, but it is an interesting, and undeniably sell-able, derivative of a successful handheld line. Wonder if they will try and throw 4.5 on this, or if they will spruce up the Pearl line with 5.0. That would be sweet

  • Kate

    I agree with those that feel there just isn’t much of a niche for this phone. There are already cheap messaging phones out there that also give you email and probably a better browsing experience. There are already very cheap phones out there for those that literally JUST want a phone (like my grandma). As others have mentioned, if you are interested in push email, you are probably also interested in at least replying a little bit – but this phone has a T9 keypad! That just seems crazy to me. Is it enough different from the regular pearl with suretype to make it a lot cheaper and more profitable for RIM? Hmm. Just seems like an unnecessary model to me.

    I am no Apple or Android fanboy(i), but I am finding it very hard to continue to find much to defend about BlackBerry… They do still have a good marketshare due to existing contracts and relationships. However, I am in the corporate world and see more and more people getting iPhones, Android phones, etc because they can do the same thing and provide a better user experience. If RIM doesn’t get moving soon, I really think there will be a noticeable decline in their corporate business users over the next year or two. There are some security issues with Android, but Apple has stepped up there (to the point that even my slow to respond and security conscious company has allowed the 3Gs to be used on our network).

    As much as I really really don’t want to join the masses and get an iPhone, if RIM doesn’t do something interesting soon, I’ll have to make the switch – it’s just a better all around phone than any BlackBerry currently out there (for me). I’d much prefer an Android (Evo 4G, anyone?), but that’s not an option with my company. Please RIM, step it up! Don’t make me go over to the dark side!

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