It's been quite a year for Research in Motion. In 2008, the company debuted its premiere touch-screen BlackBerry, the <a href="http://reviews.cnet.com/smartphones/rim-blackberry-storm/4505-6452_7-33311850.html">RIM BlackBerry Storm</a> as well as its first clamshell model, the RIM BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220. While it didn't draw quite the oohs and ahhs of the Storm or the <a href="http://reviews.cnet.com/smartphones/rim-blackberry-bold/4505-6452_7-33016450.html">BlackBerry Bold</a>, there are still plenty people of who really like the flip phone design. Take a look.
The internal display measures a spacious 2.25 inches diagonally and shows off 65,536 colors at a 240x320-pixel resolution. Text and images look incredibly vibrant, and the new BlackBerry interface really pops with its updated and snazzy icons.
On front, you get a 1.6-inch diagonal external non-touch display with a 65,536-color output and 128x160-pixel resolution. In addition to showing the standard information, it displays notifications for new messages, missed calls, caller ID, voice mails, and the like.
The Pearl Flip borrows its keyboard and navigation controls from the BlackBerry Pearl. Below the display, you get Talk and End keys, a BlackBerry menu shortcut, a back button, a trackball navigator, and a SureType keyboard.
On the front of the BlackBerry Pearl Flip, you'll find the 2-megapixel camera, which comes with flash, 5x zoom, and video recording capabilities. Picture quality was decent. Images were sharp with clearly defined objects and good contrast, but the colors looked a bit flat and gray.
According to RIM, about 70 percent of the cell phone-owning population in the United States has clamshell phones, which is why it wanted to provide this option to customers in the RIM BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220.
There's plenty to like inside the device as well, including an updated operating system and interface, document editing, Wi-Fi, strong e-mail support, and a 2-megapixel camera.
In its closed state, the smartphone measures 3.9 inches high by 1.9 inches wide by 0.7 inch deep and weighs 3.6 ounces. It's not the most compact flip phone we've seen, but you should be able to slip it into a pocket with no problem.
