Research in Motion released the Blackberry Pearl, a very powerful and sleek yet compact blackberry. It has added some features to the Blackberry Pearl that have never been placed on a Blackberry before.

For example, the Blackberry Pearl includes a digital camera. It’s a 1.3 megapixel camera with a 5x digital zoom. These images can then be shared in a variety of ways. One could send them via e-mail or use them as caller ID images. Of course you can always transfer them back to your computer via a USB connection.

Another new feature is the integrated media player. This feature allows you to store music and videos and then view them on the phone itself.

The last new feature is the expandable flash memory card (MicroSD) slot built into the Pearl. You receive 64 MB of flash memory which is a little small, but you can always go out and buy larger capacities which can easily have the phone store over 1 GB of data.

The Blackberry Pearl has a large display (240×260) which has the ability to change brightness depending on the lighting environment you are in, so you can always see what’s on the screen.

As for battery life, the Blackberry Pearl has up to 15 days standby time and 3.5 hours of talking time.

The Pearl as mentioned is small in dimensions. RIM seems to have revamped the look of the Blackberry from a wide phone to one that looks just like a phone. Its dimensions are 4.2 x 2.0 x 0.57 inches (107 x 50 x 14.5 mm) and weighs only 3.1 ounces.

As with any Blackberry, the Pearl comes with helpful tools such as Blackberry messenger, Blackberry Maps, and e-mail and text messaging. The phone also contains Bluetooth 2.0 allowing for calls to be taken from Bluetooth headsets.

I think RIM did a great job to bring the Blackberry up to spec with some other features that cell phone companies have been adding to cell phones.

I love the new slim look which gets away from the “wider” Blackberry look. I think it provides a great way for work to get done, but also allows for play, and relaxation.