Blackberry Pearl

Back in April I switched from the Palm Treo 650 to the Blackberry Pearl. My main reason for this was comfort while I am running. The Treo felt like a brick in my belt pack so oftentimes I would switch the SIM card to an old Motorola Razr anytime I was doing serious mileage (16+ miles).

After seeing a great deal for the Pearl (I actually got $100 out of the deal) on Amazon.com I made the change and ordered the phone online.

So far the phone is awesome for my running. I fit it into my pocket and hardly even notice it is there. The call quality is great and I like the easy to use Standby button which helps to keep the phone from getting turned on accidentally when I am running. It can also be set loud enough for me to hear under pretty much any conditions.

The only drawbacks are that it doesn't display PDF's as well as my Palm did. In fact I have yet to find a free program that offers this functionality. Secondly I wish it had a better built in Media Device so I could do away with my separate MP3 player altogether. I guess that is what the i phone does, but how many people do you see running with that thing. While the Iphone is amazingly small for everything it does, it is still almost double the size of the Pearl.

If you are looking for a smartphone to easily carry with you on long runs then the Blackberry Pearl is a good option. They have even upgraded the model line since I purchased and now offer GPS in a lot of the models. Maybe that will allow some people to leave the Garmin 405 at home.