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This is the ultimate in personalization of your BlackBerry Pearl, Curve, or Bold (and others): custom colors for front, sides, and back–from a dazzling array of solid and metallic colors.

If you want a phone like nobody else, then read on!

Let’s jump right into how you would get your Pearl, Curve, or Bold colorized.

Design your custom paint job

From the ColorWare home page, select Smart Phones. You’ll see a gallery of sample phones to choose from. Choose your model: Pearl, Curve, or Bold (or other). Note that some Curve models qualify for RapidReturn that will get your existing phone colored and returned in the shortest possible time.

Selecting your model of BlackBerry will take you to the Design Studio where you can choose colors for Front, Bottom (Pearl and Bold only), Back, Sides, Frame (Bold only), Camera (Bold only), and Decal (Pearl and Curve only).

Solid color choices are:

• Ferrarri (a red)
• Crush (an orange)
• Caution (a yellow)
• Billiard (green)
• Jade (a blue-green)
• Glacier (a blue)
• Cobalt (a blue)
• Abyss (a blue)
• Concord (a purple)
• Fusion (a pink)
• Cotton Candy (a pink)
• Romance (a pink)
• Smoke White (white)
• Coffee (a brown)
• Jet Black (black)

Metallic color choices are:

• Candy Apple (a red)
• Hybrid (an orange)
• Blaze (an orange)
• Gold Rush (a gold)
• Lightning (a gold)
• Envy (a green)
• Alpine (a green)
• Dragon (a green)
• Midnight (a blue)
• Techo (a blue)
• Powder (a blue)
• Wet (a blue)
• Lilac (a purple)
• Blush (a pink)
• Mystique (a purple)
• Prowler (a purple )
• Sand (a tan)
• Steel (a silver)
• Graphite (a gray)
• Carbon (black)

Decal color choices are:

• Chrome
• Gold

Since words can’t really describe these colors adequately, see ColorWare’s color description page. Are you really finicky about your colors? Order a color sample.

Having trouble finding a color scheme you like? Try the Brainstorm tab.

Want to send your design idea to a friend to get her/his opinion? Use the Send Design tab.

Send In or Buy New?

You have a choice of sending in the phone you already own (Pearl, Curve, or Bold) or ordering a brand new phone through ColorWare (Pearl and Curve only).

Place Order

After you’ve designed your color scheme, click Send In or Buy New. This takes you through a standard Shopping Cart, Checkout, and Confirmation process.

To create an account, you will only be asked basic name, address, and phone information–no credit card info.

To pay, you’ll be able to select Credit Card, Cashier’s Check, or Bank Transfer, as well as PayPal or a Google checkout.

Shipping choices are FedEx 2-3 day, 2 day, and 1 day. For shipping to a P.O. Box or APO/FPO, USPS shipping is available.

Prices

Figuring out the price of your choice is a bit complicated. If you choose multiple colors for the various parts of the phone (e.g., front, sides, back), you usually have to pay more. If you stick with the same color for different parts, you sometime avoid any extra charge. Chrome decals apparently are free, but gold decals are not. In the table below, I tried to figure the lowest and highest prices you could be charged, depending on which color choices you made.

Shipping cost ranges from about $13 to $33, depending on the FedEx delivery method.

Sales tax is charged only for orders shipped to Minnesota, USA.

I’m sure that pricing is subject to change with the state of today’s economy, so please don’t quote me on these–do your own pricing at the ColorWare site.

X2 Coating

Wonder how durable your paint job will be? ColorWare has a secret technology known as X2 Coating. It’s a scratch-resistant plastic coating that is used in the final step of treating your phone. Not only does X2 protect your paint job from wear-and-tear, it even resists damage due to ultraviolet light from sunshine.

Gotchas

There are a few issues you should be aware of:

• Generally, the colorization process voids the manufacturer’s warranty. ColorWare apparently offers an alternative warranty to help with this. Check with them for details.
• Once your phone has been colored, you can’t do it a second time. Gotta get it right the first time, and be content with your first choice.
• RapidReturn doesn’t apply to all models (only the Curve 8310 and 8320). If you want ultra-fast turnaround time so you can have your phone back in your hands with minimum downtime, make sure your choice qualifies for RapidReturn. Otherwise, be prepared for a longer downtime.

Conclusion

I can’t fully explain why, but mobile phone owners really care that their phones make a statement about themselves. The choice of a BlackBerry alone already makes a definite statement about what kind of person you are. With a ColorWare paint job, along with your other custom choices for theme, wallpaper, ringtones, case, etc., you can have the most unique BlackBerry of anyone you know. Unique–just like you.

Related posts:

• All Things Berry–By Cherri (themes and more)
• iPhone vs bPhone (a theme)