BlackBerry Tour 9630 - Black (Verizon) Smartphone

Ok, so needless to say, this phone is the "latest and greatest" release by Blackberry since the 'Storm' and Verizon since the 'Voyager'.

THIS BLOWS THEM ALL AWAY!

In terms of cost, it's just under $200 with a contract and almost $500 without, but even at that cost you get your money's worth. Similar in design to the Curve by Blackberry, the major flaw of a small keyboard was addressed and resolved. It's amazing how just a slight adjustment in key size allows for MUCH easier text messaging.

As for connectivity, this puppy flies! The 3G lives up to it's name. The non-touch screen is extremely clear and visible in broad daylight. This comes in two models, one with, and one without a camera. They list for the same price, so be sure to get the one with the camera. It's a full 3.2 megapixel which is...well....AMAZING! Battery life is decent, and I recommend getting a hard case for it.

My complaints are these:
-First, this does NOT come with Car charger....what were they thinking? Wait....I know...buy the $30 charger from Verizon...NOT! Can be purchased on ebay for like $5.

-My second is that it REQUIRES a Data play which is $30 for personal and $45 for business use. I realize all Blackberrys have this mandatory fee, however for those who are looking to hold off on frills and just get the phone with no frills, this is not possible.

-Lastly, my gripe against Verizon. I couldn't go without making the point that Verizon made this "latest and greatest" phone available for preorder for NEW customers before allowing customers such as I, who've been loyal to Verizon for nearly 10 years. Maybe I'm just used to professional companies such as Apple, Sony, and LG taking care of 'their own'.

SO! Buy this phone. You won't regret it! Just don't let Verizon take you for a ride with all their overpriced accessories.

The Blackberry has plenty of features for the person who is using it for business or personal use. A large phone list with full details both work and home and a picture profile anniversary, birthday and notes. I use all the features available because I am a field service technician, and store all my clients details emails and websites. And the GPS program to guide me to locations I have never been to before to avoid getting lost. The alerts help to never miss a call, voice mail or email message from a customer or from my own company. I have used Blackberry cell phones for 3 years and cant imagine doing my daily work without it. Blackberry also provides a free desktop download to your PC to backup all your phone list notes pictures and saved messages. This program has helped me plenty of times and can transfer your information to a new Blackberry with just a few minutes.

The good: The RIM BlackBerry Tour 9630 offers world-roaming capabilities as well as Bluetooth, GPS, and a 3.2-megapixel camera. The smartphone offers a great design that combines a sharp display and an easy-to-use QWERTY keyboard in a fairly compact size.

The bad: The smartphone lacks Wi-Fi. The Web browser falls short of the competition, and there's a bit of shutter lag on the camera. You can't save applications to a media card.

The bottom line: With a winning design and fast performance, the RIM BlackBerry Tour 9630 is one of Verizon Wireless' top smartphones for both business users and messaging fanatics.

Go places with the BlackBerry® Tour™ 9630 smartphone. Chat with friends, email colleagues, share pictures, and listen to your favorite tunes – it’s all within reach! Featuring 3G technology, a 3.2–MP camera with geo–tagging functionality, BlackBerry push technology, VZ Navigator™ Global, Visual Voice Mail, V CAST Music w/Rhapsody, Mobile Broadband Connect and support for popular apps like Facebook®, MySpace®, and Flickr™, this global smartphone gives you the power to do more of the things that matter in your life. Take your life with you, almost anywhere you go with the BlackBerry Tour 9630 smartphone.

The BlackBerry Tour 9630 is a true world phone with the ability to work on both CDMA networks locally and GSM networks abroad. It is packed with many of the features busy executives will look for in a smartphone including access to mobile versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint. For those who are more social, it’s easy to stay connected to popular social networking sites such as MySpace and FaceBook. The only item really missing in this otherwise well-rounded BlackBerry is the inclusion of WiFi support.

Now that I have a Blackberry, I do not know how I ever survived without one. I can see now why it has earned the popular name of Crackberry. Here is my review for the Backberry Tour and I hope it helps!

SCREEN:
The screen is pretty amazing. It’s not a huge panel but the colors are rich and and text and graphics look as sharp as ever. Additionally it looks like there’s a harder plastic covering the LCD than there is on the Bold and 8900 and it feels solid.

CALLING:
Calls came through loud and clear, and callers can hear me perfectly on the other end.

SPEAKER/SPEAKER PHONE:
The speaker and speakerphone function on the Tour are good. You can really tell this was designed as a business device. There’s only one speaker on the left side since the 3.5mm headset jack is on the right. I personally do not have a bluetooth, so I just use the speaker phone when I'm driving and it works well.

KEYBOARD:
The best and most efficient way to type on the Tour is not to press on an entire key but on the angled area of a key. This let’s you pound through emails with relative ease and doesn’t really let your finger hit more than one key a time. It is Simple, easy to use, and perfectly laid out. It’s a winner.

BATTERY LIFE:
Battery life is impressive. I've heard that even with the exact same usage and same applications installed, you are able to get double to battery life using the Tour compared to the Bold.

CONCLUSION:
I would highly reccomend this phone. Overall, I give it a very good rating.