When the Blackberry Tour crashed the smart phone scene in August, it was received well by loyal Blackberry users and consumers looking for a more complete smart phone. Interestingly, the Blackberry brand name alone is often enough to attract consumers, but it is important to evaluate the individual models themselves. That said, let's take a look at the Blackberry Tour 9630.
The Blackberry Tour is offered only on Verizon Wireless and Sprint.
Core Performance
The most basic, but arguably most important function of a cell phone is the phone call. In the core performance areas of reception and call quality, the Tour outshines rival smart phones. In diagnostic tests conducted by Senior Editor Bonnie Cha of CNET.com, the Tour outperformed the smart phone market leader, Apple's iPhone 3GS, in call quality, number of dropped calls, and reception (controlling for service provider). As an owner of the Tour, I can testify that three to four bars out of five prevail in most urban and suburban areas. Obviously, there are spots in buildings where service may disappear, but this is more attributable to the buildings’ architecture or the wireless carrier, not to the phone. I have owned the Tour for roughly three months now, and the one time it dropped a call, I was in an elevator. I cannot say the same for my previous smart phones, Apple’s iPhone 3GS and Palm’s Treo 755p. Both phones dropped calls quite regularly and even routed calls directly to my voicemail without ringing at all.
The most basic, but arguably most important function of a cell phone is the phone call. In the core performance areas of reception and call quality, the Tour outshines rival smart phones. In diagnostic tests conducted by Senior Editor Bonnie Cha of CNET.com, the Tour outperformed the smart phone market leader, Apple's iPhone 3GS, in call quality, number of dropped calls, and reception (controlling for service provider). As an owner of the Tour, I can testify that three to four bars out of five prevail in most urban and suburban areas. Obviously, there are spots in buildings where service may disappear, but this is more attributable to the buildings’ architecture or the wireless carrier, not to the phone. I have owned the Tour for roughly three months now, and the one time it dropped a call, I was in an elevator. I cannot say the same for my previous smart phones, Apple’s iPhone 3GS and Palm’s Treo 755p. Both phones dropped calls quite regularly and even routed calls directly to my voicemail without ringing at all.
Relative to other smart phones, which tend to be stacked with multimedia features but fail to deliver on the basic necessity of strong call quality, the Tour is a pleasant surprise minus the common trade-off between features and functionality.
Hardware and Physical Design
The Tour is sleek and stylish, and its large QWERTY keyboard is a big plus.
The Tour’s black exterior is shiny and slick, creating a very modern and sophisticated look. The sides of the phone are lined with silver casing, which acts as a sort of border outlining the phone. The black and silver complement instead of rival one another. The Tour’s designers executed a harmonious balance between both colors, giving the Tour a dynamic appearance that suits both Blackberry’s loyal business customers and all others as well.
The Tour sports a large 3.5 inch, high-resolution display that delivers extra sharp and vibrant picture, making photo browsing and video streaming a delight. This represents an enormous improvement over the Blackberry Curve 8830, whose display was far from crisp and lacked high color integrity. The Tour also features powerful speakers equipped with Research in Motion's (RIM) patented "Audioboost" technology, which allows them to rival the maximum volume of laptop speakers! The “Audioboost” technology essentially kicks the Tour’s speakers into another gear after displaying a warning message that states, “WARNING: You are about to activate AUDIOBOOST and exceed the recommended safe output volume limits of the BlackBerry smart phone. DAMAGE TO YOUR HEARING MAY RESULT.” Although this warning builds suspense, it is not an exaggeration because the difference “Audioboost” makes can blow out your eardrums. RIM definitely created “Audioboost” with media lovers in mind.
The Tour also sports a 3.2 megapixel camera, currently one of the highest resolutions offered in the smart phone market. Improving upon its predecessor, the Curve 8330, the Tour has a spacious QWERTY keyboard with a range of symbols, keeping typos to a minimum and making texting and e-mail composition hassle-free. The customizable shortcut keys on the side of Tour also facilitate quick accessibility for on-the-go users. You just tap a shortcut key once, and you’re where you want to be instantly.
Interface, Applications, and E-Mail Client
The Tour features a sexy, but professional interface. Unfortunately, the Tour does not have a touch screen like other popular smart phones, but its trackball serves as a mouse, delivering extra precision. The Tour's options and applications are also well organized out of the box. This represents a major improvement over earlier smart phones, on which finding specific applications or accessibility options required many keystrokes. The variety of application offerings on Blackberry’s App World Catalog falls short of that of the industry leader, Apple's App Store. Nonetheless, a host of useful apps like Sprint Navigation with turn-by-turn driving directions and popular apps like Facebook, Twitter, and NFL Mobile Live make the Tour a viable competitor in mobile media, granting users entertainment at their fingertips. In the realm of third-party applications, no phone has yet to match the 10,000+ applications offered on the iPhone, but the Tour at least covers the basics and then more.
Interface, Applications, and E-Mail Client
The Tour features a sexy, but professional interface. Unfortunately, the Tour does not have a touch screen like other popular smart phones, but its trackball serves as a mouse, delivering extra precision. The Tour's options and applications are also well organized out of the box. This represents a major improvement over earlier smart phones, on which finding specific applications or accessibility options required many keystrokes. The variety of application offerings on Blackberry’s App World Catalog falls short of that of the industry leader, Apple's App Store. Nonetheless, a host of useful apps like Sprint Navigation with turn-by-turn driving directions and popular apps like Facebook, Twitter, and NFL Mobile Live make the Tour a viable competitor in mobile media, granting users entertainment at their fingertips. In the realm of third-party applications, no phone has yet to match the 10,000+ applications offered on the iPhone, but the Tour at least covers the basics and then more.
Last but certainly not least is the e-mail client that has made Blackberry phones so famous and attractive to business users. The Tour’s e-mail client is hands down the best on the market. It has nearly all of the features of Gmail or Yahoo! Mail with options to search e-mails by name, subject, and/or body text and sort e-mails into unique folders. Fortunately, in spite of the wide array of e-mail features on the Tour, sending and receiving e-mails is a breeze. E-mails arrive in HTML format, and replying and forwarding takes seconds and sometimes no more than a click of a button. Additionally, multiple e-mails within a single thread appear as a single item in your inbox, which reduces clutter and helps keep you organized. On both the iPhone and Palm Treo 755p, this feature does not exist, which is something to think about if you are someone who receives e-mails regularly. Conveniently, clicking links in e-mails on the Tour also opens the web browser directly to the linked content.
Network
The Tour is offered on the 3G networks of both Verizon Wireless and Sprint, which are two of the fastest networks currently available for smart phones. This makes any sort of web browsing from reading headlines on CNN.com to watching YouTube videos enjoyable and convenient. On the downside, the Tour is not equipped with WiFi, making access to wireless Hot-Spots impossible. This is quite a disappointment, given that nearly all smart phones out there today have Wi-Fi capabilities. I wonder what RIM was thinking here...
Recap
Overall, RIM's Blackberry Tour is the total package, combining high-speed functionality, solid multimedia performance, and the best e-mail client on the market into a single device. The phone is ideal for on-the-go business users and tech geeks alike, proving that it can do it all (except Wi-Fi!). What is also comforting to know is that the Tour comes without the trade-off between strong battery life and high performance. On any given day, I blast music on my Tour at the Audioboost level for up to four hours, and by day’s end, the battery still has two out of five bars remaining.
The Tour is offered on the 3G networks of both Verizon Wireless and Sprint, which are two of the fastest networks currently available for smart phones. This makes any sort of web browsing from reading headlines on CNN.com to watching YouTube videos enjoyable and convenient. On the downside, the Tour is not equipped with WiFi, making access to wireless Hot-Spots impossible. This is quite a disappointment, given that nearly all smart phones out there today have Wi-Fi capabilities. I wonder what RIM was thinking here...
Recap
Overall, RIM's Blackberry Tour is the total package, combining high-speed functionality, solid multimedia performance, and the best e-mail client on the market into a single device. The phone is ideal for on-the-go business users and tech geeks alike, proving that it can do it all (except Wi-Fi!). What is also comforting to know is that the Tour comes without the trade-off between strong battery life and high performance. On any given day, I blast music on my Tour at the Audioboost level for up to four hours, and by day’s end, the battery still has two out of five bars remaining.
Users should be aware that navigating all of the Tour's features can be a bit overwhelming, as the phone’s interface isn't exactly "intuitive." There is a decent learning curve, which you should keep in mind if you're seeking simplicity or aren’t very tech-savvy.
For a more in-depth look at the Blackberry Tour, including specs, features, and available accessories, check out the phone's official website here.
