Review: Blackberry Tour 9630

So, I have been using blackberries ever since the day they were released with the 8xx model and have since been through almost every model that has come out, including the Storm for one day.  My recent device of choice was the Blackberry Curve II or 8900 which was a EDGE and Wi-Fi enabled blackberry with a beautiful screen and a great keyboard.  The device prior was a Blackberry Bold, which incidentally sparked the new generation of Blackberries.  Today I received my Blackberry Tour 9630 running on the Verizon Wireless network….sorry but the guy in the glasses was nowhere to be seen in the box and or around me.  Jokes aside, the Tour touts the Verizon EVDO network and no Wi-Fi; it does have a SIM so that it can be used globally.  I know there are dozens of reviews on this product so I am not going to go in to the features, I am merely going to try to share my experience with the device after one day.

Missing WI-FI: When the device became available I was a little worried that the lack of Wi-Fi might hamper its functionality, especially when doing things that required constant streams of data.  I love TWITTER, as you all know by now, and thus I was worried that using apps such as the beautiful “Tweet Genius” would be cumbersome due to updates coming over the aged CDMA network.  However, much to my surprise the speed is wonderful and I have yet to see any need for the missing Wi-Fi radio.

Battery Life: Time will best tell this tale, but as of now the battery stands at a cool 80%.  The battery was fully charged by the time I got the unit in my hands, in fact it had been charged overnight by one of my associates.  I received the unit at about 8am this morning and started the Verizon activation process.  Once activated on the network, I proceeded to do a Blackberry Enterprise Server activation for corporate email, etc.  I have since been using it, rather heavily, for email, twitter, and even streaming financial data.  Battery loss of approximately 20% after almost 11.5 hours of moderate/heavy usage to me is phenomenal, but, as I said time will tell this tale and I will post updates about it when I can.

Keyboard: The Tour has a similar keyboard to the bold, except it seems to me that the keys are raised a bit more.  The little addition of height allows for a better feel of the keys thus making typing a breeze.  I was not a huge fan of the Bold keyboard but I do love the Curve II keyboard and now it would seem that this new style keyboard may just be the winner of the bunch.  I am appreciative of the fact that Verizon left the number keys colored RED which AT&T always wants to re-color to white.  The red actually provides for some contrast and makes using the device a bit more pleasurable.

Screen: The screen on the Tour is the same beautiful half VGA (480×360) screen found on the 8900 (Curve II).  It is bright, sharp, and displays 65,000 colors.  Not much more can be said…but it comes close to perfect for the Blackberries.

Camera: Again the same as the 8900, a 3.2mp auto focus camera with image stabilization and video capturing abilities.  Yes, there is a flash also for those dark moments.

Charging: As with every new cellular device, this has a Micro USB port positioned on its right side…which is a little bit of a bad placement job as it was on the 8900, but, not a deal breaker.  My only gripe here is that I tend to want to use Blackberry Docks and with all of these different devices you must acquire a different dock. #FAIL on the dock not being universal…but accessories make these guys big money and so they do what they must.

Sound: The built in speaker is finally right, its not stereo like the Bold but its also not tinny sounding like the 8900.  It sounds great.  The speaker for your ears sounds, to me, equally balanced for once…so it does’nt seem like someone is shouting in your ears..its a well balanced mid range sound.

Box Includes: Blackberry, Battery, AC Adapter w Word Adapter, Micro-USB Cable, Blackberry Ear Buds, Plastic/Pleather Holster, Documentation, Blackberry Desktop Manager SW CD, and a BONUS: 2GB Micro SD CARD.

Overall Feel: This Blackberry is HEAVY, and I mean heavy.  Personally I like to know that I am holding on to something and the weight of the 9630 makes it feel solid.  If you are into holsters then you know this thing is on your belt.  Enough said!

Final Thoughts: The Tour comes with a newer version of the Blackberry operating system, v4.7.1.40, which is coincidentally used on the Storm.  The OS seems to be well suited for the Tour and is very responsive.  I did notice it stick here or there, but that has only happened 2-3 times and I am certain it was because I was taxing the device.  I am, thus far, quite happy with this new iteration of the Blackberry and hope that I will have many days ahead with it.

I could go on into much more detail, but it would be redundant as there are thousands of reviews of Blackberries out there…I just wanted to share what I felt and thus the most pertinent observations are above.  Please let me know if any of you are using this device and what your thoughts are.