Comments on: Blackberry Tour Review

By: BB themes

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By: Julian W

Julian W — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 18:35:20 +0000

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

By: Nate

Nate — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:21:53 +0000

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.

By: mickeypapillon

mickeypapillon — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 02:38:06 +0000

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

By: Julian W

Julian W — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 02:35:24 +0000

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.

By: Julian W

Julian W — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 01:54:19 +0000

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!

By: mickeypapillon

mickeypapillon — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 23:09:24 +0000

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.

By: Julian W

Julian W — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 23:01:42 +0000

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…