Types of BlackBerry Phones

Blackberry phones, made by developer Research in Motion, are smartphones with specialized email capabilities. They are also equipped with PDA-like organizational and scheduling tools. Blackberry devices are ubiquitous in the business world of these capabilities, but newer models aim at a wider crowd by including multimedia and social networking applications.

Blackberry Curve

Research in Motion's Blackberry Curve is a classic Blackberry handset, and is the most iconic of the types they offer. It features a full QWERTY keyboard for fast and simple communication. You can use this keyboard for everything from making calls to sending emails and text messages.

Blackberry's user interface is clear and centers on navigation with the four-way trackball that lets you easily browse menus and icons. Some of the phones in this line have Wi-Fi access while others have GPS. Check with your service provider to see if these features are available for your plan.

Blackberry Pearl

The Blackberry Pearl is a small, candy-bar style phone that manages to pack the Blackberry user interface into a much smaller shell. The QWERTY keyboard present on other types of Blackberrys is compressed here into a "Suretype Keypad," in which most of the keys have two letters or symbols. Right above the keypad in the center of the phone is the ubiquitous Blackberry four-way trackball. Most of the other Blackberry features like email, texting and the organizational tools are available, although Wi-Fi and GPS are not supported.

Blackberry Storm

The Blackberry Storm is Research in Motion's direct shot at the current champion of touch-screen smartphones, Apple's iPhone. The Storm is Blackbery's first touch screen device and it features a large high-quality display with "click" feedback that indicates when you have made a selection.

The Storm has Blackberry's most up-to-date software features including built-in GPS, a full-HTML broswer and wireless email. In addition, The Storm has a 3.2 megapixel camera that can capture video and a multimedia player that supports many video and music file types.

Blackberry Bold

Blackberry's Bold is the first in their 9000 series, featuring enhancements in both the hardware design and user interface. The Bold has a glossy black finish with silver accents running around the edges. Unlike the touchscreen Storm, Research in Motion went back to the full QWERTY keyboard and large, clear screen. The user interface has been updated with a more modern look and feel, while the 2 megapixel camera is capable of taking video. Other features include GPS with Blackberry Maps and Internet access via Wi-Fi.

Special Features

Every Blackberry is connected to Blackberry's proprietary messaging client called Blackberry Messaging (BBM). BBM allows any user with a network connection to freely communicate with other devices over this network, you only need the other user's Blackberry PIN. Blackberrys also feature Enterprise software that is specifically designed to integrate a user's phone with their corporate accounts, allowing them to keep up with their work outside of the office.