When you get one of the only BlackBerry Pearl 3G handsets in the country to review, that's the kind of thing you boast about on Twitter.

So I shared a pic of my new toy with the Twitterverse, and the reactions flooded in. They ranged from demented fangirls ('Oooh – the new Pearl! It's so cute. It's so pretty. Can I hold it? Can I touch it?') to cynical techno-boys who scoffed at 'the BlackBerry that's not a BlackBerry' and predicted that I'd never get used to the multitap numeric keypad.

But when I flashed it around a cellphone shop on its first outing, two guys actually offered to buy it from me. So when it comes to the Wow Factor, the Pearl's got it in spades.

But how about that numeric keypad? Dealbreaker or not?

So far, it's not a big issue for me. My fingers still have the muscle memory to deal with texting on a multitap keypad. And there's the SureType predictive text to help you along. Right now the SureType is annoying the crap out of me, but apparently it gets better as it learns your favourite words. Right now, I just wish I could figure out how to turn it the hell off.

Much of what I heart about BlackBerry is right there – the icon-driven menu system, the endlessly downloadable apps, the extreme user-friendliness of its social networking capacity. And it's super-speedy too. On phone calls, I thought some voices sounded a little far away, but that may have been a network problem.

If the Pearl has any serious downsides, the next few days will tell. I'm a heavy phone user and I need something to distract me from the demands of the school holidays. The Pearl will be my wingman. Let's hope she doesn't let me down.