BBHub reader Jaron Brass is on his second BlackBerry Pearl. He bought his first one on September 12, the official release day.

After encountering some issues with wiped data, he then secured a replacement from T-Mobile earlier this month.

In his second model, Jaron says that he has encountered some improvements that has him wondering if some fine-tuning hasn't been done in the last several weeks.

Jaron has at least eight reasons for suspecting this has been going on, and another point-of-fact observation that may or may not explain the differences between his first Pearl and his new one.

Let's go over each one. And let's look at a side-by-side pic, too.

1. The backlighting in the trackball and under the keys has a more noticeable -- and brighter -- feel. Instead of being stark white, the backlight now has a slight purplish hue to it.
2. The keys are NOT as "squishy" as they are on my original 8100. They feel tighter, and the tactile feedback seems much more firm. I recall previous Engadget posts about the keys merely being 'glued' on. It seems they still are, but perhaps stronger glue or a different method.
3. The speakerphone is considerably louder.
4. And, because of #3, ringtones and other things are significantly louder, often distorting as they used to on my 8700g
5. Despite the software being the same revision, I haven't yet experienced the "uncaught exception" when coming out of standby.
6. The MicroSD Card door has a more pronounced "Open" engraving.
7. The FCC ID on the OLD 8100 has L86 printed next to it. The NEW 8100 has 896.
8. Of minor note, the LED flash housing on the OLD 8100 is somewhat opaque. On the NEW 8100, it's very much clear.

Jaron detects a pattern.

He wonders, given these observations, whether this newer Pearl 8100 is perhaps a quiet second revision responding to initial QA concerns or otherwise.

"I don't use the media player much, so I can't say if those glitches have been fixed. I am, however, more content with this version than I was with my previous version."

Oh, but there's one more "yeah, but." And this is a big "YEAH, BUT!

"P.S. One other thing I did notice -- this phone has a 'Made in Mexico' sticker under the battery, on top of the standard IMEI and regulatory sticker," Jaron writes. "My old 8100 does not.

"Perhaps this was manufactured at a different factory," he wonders. "Or perhaps this is something new
to the revision 2.0 devices?"

OK. Let us follow this. Let us compare sticker one (Pearl made in Canada) to the newer one (made in Mexico).

Here's the sticker for the Canada-made Pearl Jaron bought on 9/12:

And now for the Mexico-made Pearl he purchased earlier this month:

Slightly different FCC ID and IMEI, (International Mobile Equipment Identity) number scheme.

Makes you wonder, eh?