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Image Gallery: RIM BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220

Flip form factor mobile phones are very popular in the U.S. and until now these users were unable to pick up a BlackBerry in this form factor. The RIM BB Flip brings the power and functionality of the BlackBerry to this form factor, complete with a SureType QWERTY keyboard. The BB Flip from T-Mobile also supports WiFi and UMA for unlimited calling over WiFi.
By Matthew Miller, Contributing Writer
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1 of 39 Matthew Miller/ZDNET

Flip form factor mobile phones are very popular in the U.S. and until now these users were unable to pick up a BlackBerry in this form factor. The RIM BB Flip brings the power and functionality of the BlackBerry to this form factor, complete with a SureType QWERTY keyboard. The BB Flip from T-Mobile also supports WiFi and UMA for unlimited calling over WiFi.

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Here you can see what makes the Flip unique in the BlackBerry world.

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Both of these devices have SureType keyboards, but as you can see the BB Flip one is actually quite roomy.

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The Flip has an attractive outer face with a small integrated display that shows you status, caller ID, and other basic information.

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The camera and flash are located on the top of the front face and when flipped open it appears on the back so you can take photos of your subject.

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The battery/SIM cover is located on the back. The back actually has a bit of a contour to it and feels great in your hand.

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The Flip is fairly slim and as you can see has a bit of curvature up towards the top.

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There is a mute button, 3.5mm headset jack, and microUSB port on the upper left.

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There is nothing along the bottom of the device.

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The volume controls and another application button are located on the right side.

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There is a microSD card slot under the volume buttons on the upper right.

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When you open the Flip the top display rotates back over the device to reduce the overall length when opened. It is a cool design that reminds me of my MacBook Pro.

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Here you can see the BB Flip on top of a BB Curve for size comparisons.

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There are four hardware buttons around the now common Pearl trackball.

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The keyboard is quite roomy and has good feedback. The SureType software is also very accurate.

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As you can see the keys are quite flush, but they do have a contour to them that fits your thumbs easily.

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The keyboard and hardware buttons are well lit on the Flip.

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The Flip feels good in my hand and I like the clamshell form factor.

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The closed Flip easily fits in your pocket and hand.

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The outside mono display shows you some basic information. You will also see caller ID and music player info when running.

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The BB Flip runs BB OS 4.6 as you can see in this new standby screen.

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Pressing the application button takes you to the new and cool BB 4.6 display.

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Here is a view of my blog site mobile format in the web browser.

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The web browser works well, but the ZDNet pages show up in mobile format by default. You can change how web pages appear in the settings though.

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Here you can see the full RIM website zoomed out in the browser.

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You can easily zoom into pages in the browser.

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The media player application allows you to view videos, images, and manage your ringtones.

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Music player on the BB Flip.

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There are several IM clients included on the Flip, including Windows Live, Yahoo! IM, Google Talk, etc.

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Windows Live Messenger works well and is quite functional.

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You will find several preloaded applications in the Applications folder, including Tasks, video camera, Documents To Go suite, and more.

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As you can see the new BlackBerry OS supports video capture capability.

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Manage all your wireless connections (phone, WiFi, and Bluetooth) with this utility.

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The Settings utility is found on the device and gives you access to the extensive BlackBerry settings display.

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There are 6 games included on the Flip.

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The profiles manager looks a bit different than before and is easy to use.

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There are several settings for the camera.

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