Blackberry Tour Review
Blackberry Tour Review
In mid-July, RIM released the much anticipated and much needed Blackberry Tour 9630 smartphone on both Sprint and Verizon. Prior to the Tour, the Curve was the most up to date front facing qwerty Blackberry you could find with the CDMA technology, so it was time for an upgrade. Coming with the new styling for CDMA carriers, it also has the sleeker and easier to use Blackberry 4.7 OS. With the limited success of the Storm on the Verizon network, it was clear that the majority of Blackberry users love their keyboards, and RIM wanted to take it up a notch. As a device, the Tour takes some of the best hardware features of its GSM cousins the Bold and the 8900 and gives CDMA users a reason to stick with their carrier. However, with many new and positive features it still lacks some essential ones like Wi-Fi. The Blackberry Tour used in this review was provided by Sprint. It is available for $199.99 with 2-year contract.
In the Box
- Blackberry Tour 9630
- 1 Standard 1400 mAh Lithium Ion Battery
- 1GB MicroSD card
- Sprint SIM card
- MicroUSB AC Charger
- 3.5mm Stereo Headset with microphone
- MicroUSB Sync/Charge Cable
- Carrying Case
- Various guides and CD’s
Specs
- Technology: CDMA/EVDO Rev. A with GSM/EDGE/HSPA world roaming capabilities
- Frequencies: 850/900/1800/1900/2100
- Weight: 4.58 oz
- Size: 4.4″ x 2.4″ x 0.6″
- Cubic Volume: 6.33”
- Screen: 480 x 360 (HVGA+)
- Camera: 3.2MP
- Headphone Jack: 3.5mm
Phone/Data
Right up front with with this phone, I realized that something wasn’t quite right. I powered it up and immediately saw that it was on the 1X network vs what I am used to on CDMA devices, 1XEV.
This means that the device was only able to take advantage of the older 1XRTT network for data, and would not be able to get phone calls if it was in a data session. Thinking that it may have been an issue with the device, my first course of action is to always pull the battery and reset the phone. This seemed to clear up the issue initially, but within a few minutes I found the phone had fallen back into 1X.
Of course my location could certainly be a factor, so I pulled out my Sprint EVDO USB card to see what my service looked like. No problems whatsoever for the card.
In fact, after a week of using the device, radio service seems to be a big issue on this device. After doing some searching online, I found many people having similar issues to mine regarding RF. The phone just can’t seem to hold a decent signal and is constantly bouncing between 1X, 1XEV and No service depending on your location. This caused both missed and dropped calls for me, and really forced me to think about whether or not to take a call on this phone. For the areas I live and work, Sprint service has never been an issue. I have tested out many devices from Sprint, and had good results. I also carry a Sprint EVDO card with me all the time, and regularly get great results with coverage and speed. In fact, I like Sprint’s 3G network so much, that I moved away from Verizon for my data uses all together on the laptop and am now Sprint only.
One of the nice things is the Global Network capabilities of the Tour. With both GSM/EDGE in a quad-band configuration, and single-band 2100mhz HSPA 3G, the phone can literally be used almost anywhere in the world. This feature makes the phone much more attractive to those that want to have CDMA service here in the US, but want to take their phone with them when they travel. The phone does come with a Sprint SIM card, but the phone can be unlocked to use with other SIM cards, and the phone will not recognize any other SIM cards until you do so.
Unfortunately, you’re out of luck if you want to use your unlocked Tour on GSM 3G in the United States; neither T-Mobile nor AT&T employ the 2100Mhz frequency for U.S. 3G. So your Tour will be stuck on 2.5G EDGE if you decide to unlock and go the GSM-route–at least in the States.
Hardware
The Tour hardware looks like a blend of the Curve 8900′s styling with the keyboard of the 8830. For comparison purposes, I took 4 different Blackberries together so you can see the differences. From left to right, the AT&T Pearl, Verizon Curve, T-Mobile 8900 and Tour. This is also the order from top to bottom in photos with this configuration.
Keyboard comparison
Left side. The Tour has an external speaker and left convenience key.
Top side. Tour has a lock button and mute button.
Right side. Tour has the 3.5mm headphone jack, volume rocker buttons, right convenience key and microUSB charging and syncing port
Bottom side. Just the microphone port
Back side. Tour has a 3.2MP camera with LED flash. There is also a release switch to remove the plastic cover for access to the battery, SIM card and microSD card.
Pearl vs. Tour
Curve vs. Tour
8900 vs. Tour
Sprint vs. Verizon Tour (courtesy of PhoneScoop.com) On the front is the beautiful 480 by 360 display, plus keyboard, Trackball and standard send, end, Blackberry, and back keys. The keyboard of the Tour is one of the best I have used on a Blackberry. I find the keys very comfortable, although close together. The tactile feedback is great, and I really find myself liking it the more I type on it.
Software/Features
The Tour comes with the latest 4.7 version of the Blackberry OS.
The new version 4.7.1.40 has decent speed, but i did feel it to be a but sluggish in comparison to the Curve 8330 or 8900 . The new styling of icons makes more sense than 4.5 and earlier software.
Along with the standard PIM applications you expect on every smartphone, the Tour comes Word To Go, Sheet To Go and Slideshow To Go from Documents To Go. These applications allow you to open and view your Word, Excel and Powerpoint files.
Instant Messaging applications have been added to the suite of messaging functionality with AOL, Google, ICQ, Yahoo and even Windows Live Messenger. Blackberry Messenger is still of course on the phone, one of my personal favorites.
Sports and Entertainment icons are grouped in a separate folder, giving you access to some of the hottest content around with Nascar Sprint Cup Mobile, NFL Mobile Live, MLB.com Mobile Premium, Sprint TV, Sprint’s Music Store, Pandora and Pocket Express.
Social Networking is now integrated into the standard applications, with quick access to Facebook, Myspace and Flickr.
Games are always a fun way to pass the time with your device. The Tour comes with BrickBreaker, Word Mole, Texas Hod’Em, Sudoku, and Klondike.
The Media Player is typical of all Blackberries, with Music, Video, Ringtones, Pictures and Voice Notes. Music sounded great, and the videos played smoothly on the screen.
Maps is a great built-in program to take advantage of the GPS capabilities of the phone. Sprint Navigation is also a very good program that does a good job of getting you where you want to go using the data connection of the phone to pull down maps online.
RIM’s recently introduced App World brings the Blackberry into the world of easy to download apps directly to the phone. By heading to blackberry.com/appworld users can now download the application to their device that allows them to load applications easily and quickly to the device.
A few notable ones that I installed to test were Slacker Radio, Twitterberry and CaptureIT. Of course I wanted try out the Slingplayer client as well on the device, but unfortunately, the Tour does not have Wi-Fi, and the application will not download from the Slingmedia site. This was a bit of a bummer for me, as I love my Slingboxes, and like to be able to watch them wherever I go.
The 3.2MP camera on the Tour has great quality, and takes similar photos to those of the 8900. The auto focus definitely assists in the resolution, and in both indoor and outdoor conditions, it is arguably a point and shoot replacement. Here is a comparison of a few different phones and cameras taking an indoor photo with florescent lighting.
Sony Cybershot DSCP31
Apple iPhone 3GS
Blackberry Curve 8330 with flash
Blackberry Tour 9630 no flash
Blackberry Tour 9630 with flash
Overall
The Blackberry Tour 9630 from Sprint is a great piece of hardware. It has more memory, a faster processor, and a cleaner UI than it’s predecessor, the Curve. However, the lack of solid signal strength caused me some concern with the phone, and hopefully it is something that Sprint and RIM will be able to solve with a software update in the future.
I have had a Sprint Tour for over a month now and definitely find the RF to be pretty poor. I upgraded from a Palm Treo 755p and it held calls through my whole drive home, the Tour drops out in several places and doesn’t work well in my backyard where the Treo did fine.
I hope that a software release will help, but I fear the problem could be related to the antenna used by the phone, if they made it work for so many different frequencies, they may have had to compromises.
Regarding the world capabilities of the phone, Sprint has a Worldwide Blackberry Plan for $69.99/month that covers unlimited data anywhere the phone will get a signal. That sounds like a pretty good deal, but voice calls run around $2/minute which is pretty outrageous. Does anyone know if you use a local SIM card with a Blackberry if the data features will work? It would be a big hassle to use the Sprint SIM card for data and then switch to a local SIM card for making voice calls and then switch back again. I haven’t timed it, but this phone seems to take about 5 minutes or so to re-boot in between changes.
I just used the Worldwide Blackberry Plan for a week while in the Yukon territory of Canada, so I only had to pay for the week I was there, of course they didn’t put my regular Blackberry Data Plan back on the phone after I left Canada and it required a couple of calls to Customer No-Service to get it fixed.
Overall I like the Blackberry Platform over the Treo. I miss a couple of things like being able to program a hot key to launch an application. I only seem to be able to assign a speed dial phone number to hot keys, but maybe I’m missing something…
I don’t think the data features will work. These are tied to your “Blackberry” account, and so you won’t have email, or Blackberry Messanger. I’ve tried to use a different SIM in my Pearl, but it definitely did not work the way I would have hoped. No web surfing.
Thanks for your comments.
Here is another idea…
Is there a VOIP application out there that would allow you to place calls with the Tour using ONLY a data connection? I was looking at Skype, which isn’t available for the Tour currently anyway, but it requires you to use local phone service in the country you are in.
I wouldn’t mind paying for International calls to Sprint if the price was reasonable. $2.00+ per minute is NOT reasonable. I paid $0.20/minute while in Canada with their Canada Roaming plan. I thought that was pretty reasonable!
One more idea that seems like it might work. I see that there are dual SIM adapters for sale on the web. You have to cut the SIM cards so that they will both fit on one standard SIM size adapter. You can then switch between the two with an app on the phone so that you can use your standard Sprint SIM for the data functions, then switch to a local SIM card for making voice calls.
So one other question about your review, is the phone really locked when delivered? This is quoted from Sprint’s website under “Full Feature List”:
Unlocked SIM Device
Use in-market carrier SIM cards while traveling abroad.
I have fiddled with some SIM cards I had laying around, but I am not really sure if they worked correctly or not as I was trying them out here in the USA.
I tried a 3rd party SIM in the device, and was not able to make a call. Seems they are “unlockable” but not unlocked when delivered. The process to unlock is easy though:
1. Call Sprint International Support – (817) 698-4199, prompt #2
2. Ask them if they’d kindly unlock your SIM slot on your BlackBerry Tour
3. Turn off your wireless network connection on the Tour (yes, you’ll have to call from another phone)
4. Click on Options > Advanced Options > SIM Card
5. Type MEPD
6. Type MEP2
7. The representative should give you a 16-digit code
8. Thank the representative for their help
9. Reboot your phone and you’re ready to go
Sadly, these radio problems seem to be all too common with modern Blackberries. I’ve had this exact issue with the Storm on VZW. It just can’t seem to hold and EVDO signal, where my Pearl has no problems.
The lack of a good data connection is one thing, but what it does to the battery life is another. With all of the connection searching, I couldn’t even get through the day with that phone. I may have been able to live with a little spottingness with the connection, but the accompanying battery issues just can’t be overlooked.
I hope RIM gets this figured out. My Tour should be arriving this afternoon, and if it has these radio problems, it’ll be going right back.
So I finally called today to ask that my BlackBerry Tour 9630 get unlocked, but was told it was already unlocked. I recall the ads said that the SIM slot was supposed to come unlocked. The rep told me an early batch of the phones had accidentally come locked and so they need to check, but my phone was not one of the ones that were locked.
So have you been happy with your phone overall? I’ve found the trackball to be pretty un-reliable, but with a little cleaning it works much better. I use “Sight Savers” that are for cleaning glasses. They have alcohol that helps to remove oils and dirt from the ball and it works better.
I hope to upgrade to the Tour 2 with the Trackpad, WiFi and slightly faster processor, features I would really appreciate. It should be out any day now…
Julian
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Blackberry Tour Review
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