BlackBerry Tour 9630
Posted on Jul 22, 2009 by Rob in All, Featured, Review
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It’s been almost a year since I made the switch to BlackBerry. I’ve used just about every major smartphone on the market at one point or another and always found them lacking somehow. Within a few days of use I fell in love with the BlackBerry platform and have been hooked ever since. I’ve owned 4 BlackBerries over the past year and the latest is hands down my favorite. I started with a BlackBerry Pearl 8130 and found it to be a great little device. It was slightly underpowered for me, but definitely got the job done. I moved from the Pearl to a BlackBerry Storm 9530 but quickly found the Storm was more of a novelty than a true BlackBerry. I traded the Storm for a BlackBerry Curve 8330 and fell in love with BlackBerry all over again. I loved the Curve but it was already an older device when I got it and was showing it’s age with some of the newer apps available. The latest upgrade was to the newly released BlackBerry Tour 9630. I’ve been using the Tour for a few days now and have found it to be everything I had hoped for. It’s like a luxury model of the Curve with some Storm sexy thrown in.
I’m sure you’ve likely already read countless reviews and spec sheets about the Tour so I’m not going to go into the details of the phone. I want to give my first impressions and try to approach it from the viewpoint of a basic BlackBerry user, not a tech reviewer.
1. Look and feel
The Tour has similar design styles as the Storm. In fact holding up next to our Storm it looks like a keyboard was added and not much else. The bottom is a little more rounded and it’s a little slimmer. The biggest difference is the weight. The Tour is a lot lighter than the Storm without feeling flimsy in the least. It has a bit more heft than my Curve and definitely feels of a much higher quality. The battery door sits a little loose, but the carbon fiber/rubber design feels great in the hand and looks amazing.
2. Keyboard and trackball
The biggest change from the Curve is the new keyboard and trackball. The keys are the same chiseled look found on the 8900 and Bold. It took me a day to get used to the uniform keyboard but I’m now typing faster than ever and really enjoy it. The trackball is a little harder to get used to. It’s very recessed so moving around seems more difficult. I’m having a hard time comparing though since my Curve had an after market G1 trackball in it and was a step up from any BlackBerry experience.
3. Screen
The screen on the Tour is absolutely amazing. It has the same 480×360 resolution found on the Storm but packed into a smaller display. Text, colors, and media are all incredibly sharp and vibrant. It’s easily viewable in bright light and is easily the best phone screen I have seen so far. Even when viewing minuscule text on zoomed out web pages, it’s easy to read and clear as day.
4. Camera
One of the best improvements to the functionality of the device is the camera. The 3.2MP auto focus camera is truly excellent. Cameras have always seemed like an afterthought when it comes to smartphones. The cam on the Tour is quick, clear, and even does well in lower light situations. The flash is very bright and easily lights up your subject. The zoom works in small incremental steps so you no longer have to choose 1x, 2x, or 3x when zooming. The video is standard in size, but looks great. It does a good job with image stabilization, making streaking movement very minimal, especially when compared with other mobile video cameras. Feel free to check out my quick video test for an example of the standard video quality.
5. OS
There’s not a lot to say about the Tour’s OS. It has a unique 4.7 system on it that looks and feels like a strange mixture of the Storm and Curve 8900. I’ve found it performs very well (with minimal lag), but it’s so new I’m sure many things will change with multiple updates over the next few months.
Pros:
- Amazing screen – seriously, you need to test one to understand.
- High quality build
- Updated keyboard with solid typing
- Sleek body design (finally a Verizon BlackBerry that’s all black!)
- Clear sound, call quality, signal, and overall UI
- Excellent camera that performs well even in lower lighting.
Cons:
- Trackball is lacking somewhat.
- Battery door feels a little loose
- No themes (Plazmic is always behind on this)
- Strange OS (some apps work perfectly, while others aren’t sure what phone they’re on)
Conclusion:
If you’re a Verizon user (and why wouldn’t you be with their network), the BlackBerry Tour is the smartphone to buy (get it if you’re on other networks too). The quality, design, interface, and options are great. This is the best BlackBerry to come out in quite a while. There are a couple bugs, but that’s expected with a week old device. The networks are going to sell a ton of these and that helps get developers on board quickly. I fully expect this to become the flagship of RIM in the next year (much like the Curve was). If your Curve is feeling its age, the Tour is just the thing you need.
