BlackBerry Tour 9630
Average Ratings
great blackberry
I have had this phone for about 4 months now. I immediately noticed how rich and sharp the screen was, especially when compared to bb curves. Keyboard is amazing, has an excellent squishy click to it, &i hardly ever mistype things, even when not looking @keyboard.
Internet is very fast, I download most of my apps & large files much quicker than on my 3g att phones of the past & present.
Battery life is pretty good, I can get a minimum of 2 days heavy use- I normally charge this about 2x a week.
It has a 3.5mm headphone jack, & Sprint includes pandora radio free. I got an oem silicone case (I recommend) off ebay for $3, and it has worked well- I can put this atop any ledge or counter & never be afraid of it falling, although they may not be too impact resistant. There are numerous cases available to suit anyone's needs.
You are able to set individual ringtones, txt, &pin tones, etc for EACH individual person-- (i can even select which led colors go off with an additional program).
its a blackberry, so it is organized up the wazoo. The trackball was a worry, as the new phones have an optical-- but i feel i made the right choice, i got this one for the keyboard & fast internet.
has gps, and you can "send your location" to other blackberries, makes for easy pickups of people. "where am i?" is no longer shouted in my ear, people can simply txt their location automagically.
Signal always fine on my end, but others have problems hearing me. Im quiet?
CONS:
one of the most frustrating things-- when the battery gets so low, it shuts down radio use. Even when you plug it in, it will say "battery too low for radio use." I have never had any other phone reject me from making calls due to battery life while it is plugged in. After 5 mins or so, you can make calls again.
if you press on the screen, you can see the colorsmear. The curves have a thicker harder plastic screen, but the resolution and richness & sharpness make up for this fact.
Hard to multitask, unlike windows phones.
ALMOST PERFECT
This is my only phone. I do not have a land line and use the TOUR for all my personal and business needs. I changed to the Tour from the STORM 1. The only issue I have with this phone is battery life.
Two weeks into my TOUR and I have had no I repeat no issues. No battery door problems, no lock-up problems, no trackball problems.
PROS....Verizon network
1) SOUND, excellent on both ends
2) SCREEN, bright and sharp. Good in all light conditions.
3) KEYBOARD, with a little practice..easy
4) E-mail and messaging typical BB.
5) signal strength..better that the STORM
6) Browser. It may be my immagination but the browser seems faster and more responsive than the STORM.
I have not checked out or downloaded any of the Apps. I use this as a business tool and personal phone. For these purposes this unit is excellent. As a "gammer" or "app"machine I have no usefull comments.
I'm still looking for RIM to provide "Flash" for E-mail to allow flash video attatchements to be viewed.
CONS:
1) THE BATTERY LIFE IS AWFUL. Even if the case has to be bigger please, please provide a battery with a useful life. The battery life is all that detracts from an otherwise excellent phone that I highly recommend. Just have a charger at home, in the car and at work
Audio quality poor with bluetooth headset
This phone is awesome -- but comes with a major defect that is simply untenable. Whenever the bluetooth headset is paired, recipients of my calls can't hear me. They strain and strain and I end up shouting in the headset or disconnecting the bluetooth. After several hours on the phone with Verizon Tech support and RIM tech support, it's my opinion that this is a known defect. And, a dangerous one if users of this phone forego a headset and handsfree talking in order to be heard when making calls while driving.
I owned a Pearl for 2 years and loved it. The Tour is sleek and has many upgrades that are awesome. But the bluetooth audio problem makes it a loser phone.
Good phone
i think for what it does its an excellent phone
Pros: Has a good size screen and keyboard also pretty fast with the cdma networks and evdo
text and email come in quick unless your tethering the phone which you could do pretty fast. faster than dial up atleast
cons: voice quality while not on speaker is intermittent on days when you may not be heard other than that excellent phone!!
Thank you sprint for making the data package affordable
Tour is the shiznit
I had a BB Curve 8330 from Sprint which was my first ever Blackberry. But when I heard that Sprint was going to get the BOLD I was estatic.I bypassed the Palm Pre,which is a great phone,to check out the Tour and it's all that and a bag of chips and hot dog. But I got Verizon now and I have no complaints so far..Keyboard ,a real keyboard not virtual like the BB Storm feels good in your hand ,fast processor,clean interface,etc.
Now I heard on crackberry.com that a Tour 2 is coming w/Wi-Fi. Iphone can't even touch this but Verizon is the top bidder for the iphone and they're getting the Pre in 1/2010. But the BB Tour is excellent.This is for the grown folks and young professionals alike.Teenie boppers ,stick with your sidekicks.
Is Tour all that?
Okay, I have had enough of the kool aid drinkers of the Tour. Yeah, it's ok but it's just that, okay. I think the Curve was a more stable phone. The Tour browser stinks and very hard to see even when zoomed. The keyboard, please folks, it's lousy.
I could go on with this but I think you can get an idea of where I am going with this.
In summary....nice phone, not great. Worth the upgrade? Thats your call.
There is no wow factor in this phone as it is a souped up Curve.
Tour ok, Curve was sufficent
I have been using Blackberry's for 9+ years and I am always amazed to see the advancements each new model brings. This said, I just used my upgrade to move from my Curve to the Tour. Was this a worthwhile upgrade for *me*, thus far, honestly, no.
I stress "me" because for my particular needs and usage, using my upgrade on this was not worth it.
Pros: Screen size, Mini USB (even though I had a gazillion chargers and batteries) as my wife's phone (LG) uses the same charger, the ability to easily scroll up to sounds option, and the fact that you can move certain apps into certain categories more easily now.
Cons: This device runs hotter than the Curve. The charging port is awkward, especially when using in the car. On the Curve I could tap the space bar and get to my call log. I don't seem to be able to on the Tour, unless I have not figured it out. The web browser displays some pages great, and others just awful (very small). I downloaded and tired Bolt and Opera Mini and had the same result. Battery life is poor compared to the Curve, and the Curve was not exactly battery friendly!
Though there was a time when having the "latest and greatest" important to me, today, not so much. In retrospect, the Curve was just fine.
Separate rant: Someone, somewhere needs to find a way to "clone" these devices (like Apple did with Mac Computers) so when you make a switch, you don't have to manually move all your bookmarks (116 in my case) and change all of your settings.
never knew i would be so happy to pop my blackberry cherry
So I am completely new to the world of Blackberry and I must say I am in awe with this phone. I came from just a regular smartphone and there is so much more you can do on a Blackberry that I always wished I could do before. I have not yet found anything I don't like about it and I doubt I will if I had been okay with just a smartphone.
I travel through rural areas a lot, through middle TN and all around KY, and have not lost connection and if I haven't lost connection through there I doubt there's many places I would. Thanks to Verizon for that.
Also the keyboard is just great. Took a day or two to get used to but it is the best I've had.
Definitely recommend this phone to anyone looking for a great phone whether your a tech freak or just want a fun device.
It's about time Alltel gets a new Blackberry!
I love this phone!! I bought it the day it was available for purchase on Alltel and I can definitely say I wouldn't give it back for the world.
PROS:
-Beautiful camera. Absolutely beautiful. Flying down a road at 80 MPH and you can read the road sign in the picture you just took? That's amazing.
-It kicks the 8830's you know what. Major improvement as far as a world phone goes.
- 16 GB Micro SD Card support because I keep majority of my files on my Blackberry. I haven't used an 8 GB card up completely yet, but it's nice to know and when and if I do, I have the option of expanding.
-The blacked out trackball. It's black. No getting a grimy dirty trackball anymore!
CONS:
I only found one, and it's if you have a bluetooth active-sync system in your car. You can hear your caller just fine on the bluetooth system, but the caller cannot hear you. It only happens on the in car bluetooths. Doesn't happen on a regular bluetooth headset like my Motorola H710.
I still give it a 5.0 even with the bluetooth issues because I don't use bluetooth often. I try to stay off my phone when driving anyway!
Good Phone- - Finally
The Tour 9630 is my first BlackBerry; I'm usually a Sanyo cell phone guy. I ordered the phone through the Sprint Telesales the first day it was available, and maybe that was the problem.
The 1st Tour I got was "ok", it seemed that it wouldn't hold a charge and it took a long time to charge. I returned it after a 2 week trial because everyone complained that they couldn't hear me. It was like I was down the hall from the phone as most put it.
I returned the 2nd phone after using it for 2 days. I could hear a really high pitch in the earphone for about 45 seconds in each call I made or received. Not everyone could hear it, for example my girlfriend couldn't but luckly the Sprint Rep could. He agreed with me that it was so annoying that it instantly gave him a headache. But the battery charged quickly and lasted much better than the first phone.
So I'm on my 3rd Tour and I had them use the battery from the 2nd phone. Its been about 10 days now and I think this one is going to work! No phone call complaints, and the battery charges and holds up all day with no problems.
Pro's: Speaker phone is great, screen is bright and clear, letters are clear, keys are shaped just right, pictures are very good for a phone, and the video light is very bright.
Con's: The numbers are sometimes hard to see (red color), with the keyboard locked and the keys get pressed in your pocket it makes a annoying noise so I pretty much have to use the leather case, manufacturing flaws.
PS: Someone posted that some are made in Mexico and some are made in Canada. The posting said the Mexican made units have a higher return rate. All three of mine were made in Mexico. The Sprint Rep looked at all their stock for me and said they were all from Mexico.
