Camera Phone Reviews

BlackBerry Pearl 8130

BlackBerry Pearl 8130 Reviews

mlive reviews the BlackBerry Pearl 8130 and writes, "The phone has a 2 megapixel camera and also can record video in the quality you would expect from a cell phone (nothing great). A flash and zoom were added bonuses for the camera."

CNET reviews the BlackBerry Pearl 8130 and writes, "The camera also gets an upgrade to a 2-megapixel lens (from 1.3 megapixels), but more importantly, you can now record video--a first for a BlackBerry. For still images, there's a 5x zoom and flash, as well as three picture sizes and three quality options. You also get white-balance settings and several color effects you can add to the photo."

The Washingtonpost reviews the BlackBerry Pearl 8130 and writes, "As RIM has moved the BlackBerry lineup into the consumer mainstream they’ve made significant improvements to the multimedia features on the device. The Pearl 8130 sports a two megapixel stills camera, which is an upgrade over the original Pearl. The quality of the photos taken by the Pearl was only average, however; the images had a good amount of detail, but the colors were off, with some colors (particularly yellows) coming out pale and understurated. The Pearl 8130 also introduces video recording, a feature not previously seen on BlackBerries, but again the quality was not very good; while the videis it captures are fine for sending at MMS messages, they aren't going to look good on a TV."

Wirelessinfo reviews the BlackBerry Pearl 8130 and writes, "The Pearl has digital zoom. Digital zoom is only worth a single point because in virtually every case you’re better off not using it. What happens when it’s used is the picture is enlarged and cropped, which can be done much more gracefully and accurately with even basic image editing software...The Pearl has a fixed-focus lens. This translates into faster image capturing than auto-focus lenses, but worse quality overall...The Pearl has a flash, which is atypical for phone cameras. Further, it’s an actual flash as opposed to an LED that just stays on when flash is enabled. The flash is only good for a close range picture; when you get more than four feet away, captures will look dark and muddy. Even so, the Pearl’s flash puts it head and shoulders other over camera phones."

InfoSync reviews the BlackBerry Pearl 8130 (Sprint) and writes, "The camera on the BlackBerry Pearl has seen a slight upgrade to a 2-megapixel sensor. The lens quality was not very good, but passable. Images were noisy with blurry edges, but colors weren't exaggerated, and details were available, if not clear. Photo management on the BlackBerry isn't pretty, but there are plenty of options to send your photo via Bluetooth, e-mail or SMS."

PC Mag reviews the BlackBerry Pearl 8130 and writes, "Research in Motion's 2-megapixel camera sensor, first seen on the Curve, finds its way into the new Pearl 8130. It's quite good here, too, taking sharp, detailed photos, even in low-light situations. Compared with a standalone camera, the images were a little flat on color and soft on contrast, but they're surprisingly good. The LED flash helped brighten things a bit, but it also gave an orange tint to some photos. The Pearl records 240-by-176 videos—a new development for RIM—although recorded files showed too much motion blur. The trim handset delivered excellent battery life for an EV-DO device, lasting 5 hours 24 minutes on a talk-time rundown test."

PC World reviews the BlackBerry Pearl 8130 and writes, "The 8130's 2-megapixel camera with 5X zoom and flash did okay with snapshots and landscapes but had difficulty focusing sharply on objects at close range. I found pictures a little dark, too. The 8130 also takes video at the 240 by 180 and 176 by 144 resolutions; you'll need a microSD card (not included with our test unit) to shoot and store clips. To take a picture you must go into the camera application and press the trackball, since the device has no dedicated shutter button."