Be gentle. Currently have a 8703 through VZW that I like but I am itching for a change. Although, a change may not make sense. I have 100 lines on a business account, and my whole family is with VZW. I pay about $160 a month for my phone. The 8703 is bigger but not a problem, I'm use to it. The downfall is no mms messaging, but that's not the end of the world. I can grab a Pearl for free (buddy owns 3 Cingy stores), small form factor, still a blackberry, camera - multi media device, sim card. Comparable plan is a little less but not alot. It seems like this should be easy and to stay with VZW would be best, but I am considering switching. I'm sure at one time or another you have had the itch for change. Have I lost my mind? What would you do?

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8100/4.2.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102)

I switched from VZW and the 8703e to Cingy and the 8100. I loved the 8703 but had an oportunity to go with Cingy. Both are great. Yes you can MMS with the 8100, and open attachments (except adobe with the onboard doc reader), you have video and MP3 capabilities, and the camera, and voice commands, and well for me the 8100 does a lot more. Everybody has different needs however so how much versatility one uses is dependent upon the person. There is of course the 8800 that will be coming out for VZW so minus the camera this may be a better option for you. It's not just the device but also the carrier. So take that into consideration also. Hope that helps!

I would spend some time typing on the 8100. I just switched from VZN to CW and got the Pearl and was OK with it 90% of the time (SureType). After a week or so though I needed a full qwerty as I did not like the way it acted when typing an email to someone not in my address book or how it automatically switched to MultiTap for passwords and then did not switch back to SureType. While the 8100 is a very impressive phone and I absolutely LOVED how light and compact it was, it was not for me. Take the time to really test out the phone before you go making a major switch. While the Pearl has a camera, video and music capabilities they are not necessarily the strengths of the BBs and I am not sure I would make a switch based on these capabilities alone.

Good Luck.

Let me say that I have spent some time on the Pearl. We have a few people in the office that have it and suretype is not an issue. I have typed on it and while it is not 100 percent accurate, it is pretty impressive. That being said the keyboard is not an issue. Thanks

I was very impressed with the Pearl, don't get me wrong. The thing I liked most about it was the form factor. It was nice and compact and light enough that I could toss it in a shirt pocket if need be or even my back pocket no worries.
The only reason I did not stay with it is I just did not like having to pay so much attention to the predictive text to ensure that it was on the same page as me. SureType is very impressive but being so used to qwerty, I just could not make the switch. I kinda wish I had one as a secondary phone but that is not really practical.

That's true Dawgfan. SureType takes some getting used to. While I have gotten used to it, I am no where near as fast as with Qwerty. But it is deff a consideration when choosing a device.

Simple answer...

Be wary of switching to a different carrier because of a cool new phone...make sure there's service where you need it to be. Bottom line? The coolest phone in the world won't matter if it doesn't work where you need it to.

Good luck on your decision.

I read on the 8100 forums (maybe rumors) that VZW will have the 8100 in May. Just hang tight.