14 DAY TRIAL // Vivo, the largest Brazilian mobile operator, together with RIM announced the release of BlackBerry Pearl 8110, the latest smartphone targeted for users who need both business and multimedia functionality.
There will be two color versions of the 8110, Pink and Titanium, and RIM said in a press release issued yesterday that the Pink one was intended to answer the mobile (and fashion) needs of Brazilian women, who seem to be more and more interested in smartphones. Which is cool.
Vivo already offers a BlackBerry Pearl, the 8100 model, but since this is more than one-year old, the new 8110 brings more features, hence it obviously represents a better option for customers. The Pearl 8110 can be bought for 299 Brazilian reais (about 180 US dollars or 116 Euros), but only with Vivo's Escolha 650 plan, plus the BlackBerry Internet Service unlimited data package.
Coming with built-in GPS, BlackBerry Pearl 8110 is compatible with Vivo's "Co-Piloto" navigation service, which provides audible turn-by-turn driving directions, points-of-interest searching and animated 3D color maps. Co-Piloto currently covers 150 Brazilian cities, including the important ones (Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paolo, Brasilia, Porto Alegre etc). Note that the service is not free and you will have to pay 17.90 reais for every month you want to use it.
Besides GPS, Pearl 8110 features a pretty nice range of specs, including: a 240 x 260 pixel screen with 65k color support, QWERTY SureType keyboard, trackball navigation system, Media player, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, 3.5mm audio jack, email, Instant Messaging, HTML browser, Document viewer (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF), BlackBerry Desktop Software, voice-activated dialing capability, USB, 1GB microSD card pre-installed and a 2.0 Megapixel camera with flash and video recording. All these are packed in a case that measures only 107 x 50 x 14 millimeters and weighs 91 grams.
BlackBerry Pearl 8110 isn't listed yet on Vivo's official site, but users can probably find the smartphone via the carrier's retail stores across Brazil.