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7
stars
BOLD IS STILL NUMBER ONE BUT THE TOUR'S NOT FAR BEHIND!
by ImNotDead_1993
on
July 7, 2009
Pros: Design pulls the Curve 8900, the Storm, and the Bold all into one sleek package
QWERTY keyboard is like the one featured on the Bold and the 8800 series
Updated Blackberry OS adds nice design touches and brings a nice update to the older aging OS
Cons: WIFI!!! Where did it go? This is the first blackberry without wifi in recent months.
Design could use some tweaking
Summary: A friend of mine who works a local I.T. Tech firm recently got his hands on this new handset through connections at Verizon and I have to say it ...
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Summary: A friend of mine who works a local I.T. Tech firm recently got his hands on this new handset through connections at Verizon and I have to say it is a great improvement over Verizon's old Blackberry series. Verizon is the best carrier it seems around the downtown Los Angeles and Upper Manhattan areas (where I split my time with work).
I currently own a Blackberry Bold and can say that there are certain things that the Bold has that the Tour doesn't. Firstly I think the Tour's back is more solid than the Bold's faux leather backing and just feels more secure. Secondly I think the Tour's red numeric accents add a nice touch (unlike the Bold's all-white lettering) it just makes it easier to read. Style is subjective too so it all depends on what you want.
While using the phone as a phone/text/internet/email device while I was at work I felt confident while using the phone that it was powerful enough to do everything I needed it to. I didn't have it long enough to find it worth it to set up my corporate email (Microsoft Exchange) so I cannot say how it will work but it was smooth sailing on the Blackberry Bold which I'm assuming will work just as well.
While I was traveling around downtown Los Angeles I had excellent reception and so did not need Wi-Fi but it is a nice thing to have if you live inn area where you do not pull in 3G speeds. While I waited for my flight at LAX in Terminal 4 to JFK signal did drop a bit and at times the web browser was slow although nothing major and nothing too much to complain about.
Touching down at JFK the network automatically changed the time upon my turning on the handset once in the terminal. Signal strength was quite low at points in JFK but it never dropped signal and I was able to talk continuously to a business associate on my way through the terminal all the way out through baggage claim to the curb. Right on, Verizon!
The phone also performed well in web browsing. Keep in mind that Blackberry's browser (while it is a full HTML browser) does not perform as well as Apple's Safari or even HTC's Android browser. However for my needs it performed well. Text was easy to read and the small cursor makes clicking links a snap.
The phone itself (making calls and receiving calls) performed well (as previously stated) and call quality was a tad better over the Bold's. I personally prefer AT&T coverage and customer support however it's all up to the buyer as to what they want to go with. Verizon's coverage was clear all the way from JFK up to Central Park and out and around Manhattan. The phone works and clearly excels as a phone. The speakerphone works well (though the Bold's stereo speakers do project sound better than the speaker on the Tour).
Battery life was incredible even with 3G. (Since Blackberry took out Wi-fI that will make your battery last even longer) I'm assuming that Blackberry used the same powerhouse 1500mAh battery found in my Blackberry Bold which lasts well up to three days with the phone fully performing. I did have the phone off during the flight over from LAX to JFK so that may also have lengthened the battery life. However with email, text SMS messaging, phone calls, and internet browsing the battery only dropped two and a half bars from 4AM in Los Angeles to 11PM in New York City. Rock on, Blackberry!
Another feature that corporate users (and others, students too) will like is the Documents to Go Suite now included in Blackberry's operating system. I was able to open Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files without a hitch from my email when sent as an attachment. Documents to go worked better than the Office MObile on Windows Mobile phones. Just something to think about. IPHONE DOES NOT HAVE THIS CAPABILITY. Just thought I'd mention that. I'm not a big fan of the iPhone since it seems way to standard now days. It's silly to compare an iPhone to this since they're in two different categories.
If you're thinking about the Tour and don't have Verizon please check coverage in your area before signing on with them. Again the Tour DOES NOT HAVE WIFI so you're relying heavily on Verizon having coverage in your area. IF YOU ALL READY HAVE VERIZON, and you're up for an upgrade, then heck! GO FOR IT!
I personally would not choose this phone but it is one sick powerhouse phone that will outperform most other smartphones. Excellent work, Blackberry and Verizon
Updated on Jul 7, 2009
Oh well SKULIJIBB, I realize that and firstly it is a dual band phone and secondly I was merely commenting on the fact that it does not have Wi-Fi there is no need for your juvinile "duh" comment and I apologize for any mistake in my post.
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14 out
of 17 users found this user opinion helpful.
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9
stars
This is the best Verizonberry yet
by CNETwhatchdog
on
August 15, 2009
Pros: -Its not a Storm
-Fantastic Screen
-Great size, weight and shape
-Blackberry Maps work better than my Garmin (in a downtown area)
-Best Media Player and Manager on a Verizonberry
-Sweet camera
Cons: -Keyboard is a bit on the small side
-Charger that is included (international version) is too large and make a high pitched hum
Summary: Being a Crackberry addict is tough but the Tour makes it all worth it!
First of all I must say that I am sick and tired of fools who don'...
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Summary: Being a Crackberry addict is tough but the Tour makes it all worth it!
First of all I must say that I am sick and tired of fools who don't own products, yet opinions and offer reviews. Your lack of ownership and experience with the product is grossly apparent. Please stop wasting our time. O, Sorry this is a review of the Verizon Blackberry Tour not a blasting of the foolish.
If you want a smartphone this is the best of what you can get on the Verizon network. The Tour is a fine culmination of the Blackberrys that preceded it. Having owned and used the Pearl (8130), the 8830, 8703e and 3 weeks with a Storm I can tell you this handset is fast, reliable, and easy to use.
Some of the other reviews complained about the battery life of this phone. During the first few days that I OWNED this phone I thought they were right, but now that I am not playing with the phone every minute of the day the BATTERY LIFE is as GOOD or BETTER than my other blackberrys.
Another complaint that I have read about is that the resolution of the screen is too high and that it makes the fonts on the browser too tiny. This is accurate; the fonts are tiny but just click the pearl and it gets bigger. The high resolution is a far greater asset for every other function of this phone to be worried about enlargeable fonts being too small.
This phone does not have WIFI. Give me a break! Its a phone! If you need to use the internet so much go get a netbook! There is no debate that the Verizon network is the best of all the wireless options out there. This is after all a phone (a phone with some fantastic abilities) but it works primarily off of a cellular network not WIFI so this should not be an issue when considering if this Blackberry is for you.
If you are a Blackberry power user this is the one. I tried the Storm for 3 weeks yes it has a nice screen and it does same thing as the Tour but it was slow I was mad at it all the time. The click screen on the Storm is the worst idea ever, if the people at RIM had used a touch screen like that of the ipod itouch and given the Storm the 256mb of memory it would have been a contender.
In closing this is great blackberry. It works well, it's fast, it's slick, it looks better in person than it does on line. it comes with a nice case, it's the right size, it feels good in your hand, the keyboard is very good (it takes a few days to get used to), the battery life is very good, the battery doors does not wiggle, the micro USB location is just fine, the screen is sweet, the track ball works fine after it is broken in after a few days, it's not heavy, it's just the right weight. if you want great a Blackberry and you want Verizon THIS IS IT!
If you have never had a Blackberry, have be on Verizon, don't mind a super slow and heavy phone, and value style above function and preformance give a Storm a try.
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8 out
of 8 users found this user opinion helpful.
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8
stars
Why are Tour reviews so extreme?
by GerreB
on
September 11, 2009
Pros: 1. Beautiful screen
2. Plenty of installed apps.
3. Inclusion of "docs to go." No subscription this time around.
4. Camera
5. Keyboard is different but easy to use
6. Inclusion of Sounds profile on home screen
7. Speaker phone
Cons: 1. Call quality is pretty good but sometimes muffled. Not a deal breaker but not as clear as my Env Touch.
2. Early reviews noted track ball problems and loose battery cover. Those issues seem to be fixed.
Summary: Reviews of this phone in particular seem similar to our current political climate -- polarized and one extreme or the other. In this case 4-5 star, '"I love it" or ...
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Summary: Reviews of this phone in particular seem similar to our current political climate -- polarized and one extreme or the other. In this case 4-5 star, '"I love it" or 1-2 "phone sucks" reviews. Another general observation on cell phone reviews in general. Many, many phones seem to draw negative comments about battery life. Seems that people want their phones to do absolutely everything yet maintain battery power like the phone has only one function.
After a day of talking, messaging, and doing other miscellaneous functions, my phone usually has at least 3/4 charge. I don't know what the big deal is that some folks think charging more than every 3 days is a huge problem.
Can it be that our expectations are becoming unrealistic?
I am a Mac user, and use The Missing Sync. I love that the Tour can be synced using bluetooth, and you only need to use the cable the first time. Blackberry and Mac have some issues, but there are some good third party apps out there to address most of them.
I upgraded from a Curve, and though there are not drastic differences in the phones interfaces, I find the Tour to be the superior phone. It has more options, a better screen, and at least for me, better call quality.
So when the verdict is in, I end up being in the "I-love-this-phone" camp.
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6 out
of 6 users found this user opinion helpful.
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8
stars
Great phone, poor battery
by blue1244
on
August 25, 2009
Pros: Features, Keyboard, phone quality
Cons: Battery life
Summary: Came from the Curve 8330, which I really liked. Overall, the Tour is awesome. Love the apps/features, keyboard, phone quality. Wasn't sure I'd like the keyboard compared ...
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Summary: Came from the Curve 8330, which I really liked. Overall, the Tour is awesome. Love the apps/features, keyboard, phone quality. Wasn't sure I'd like the keyboard compared to the Curve, but I actually like it better.
My biggest complaint of the Tour is horrible battery life. I cannot make it through the day on a single charge. I did not have this problem with the Curve.
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6 out
of 6 users found this user opinion helpful.
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9
stars
New Tour's have been fixed
by mhock86
on
September 12, 2009
Pros: Fast Internet
Sleek Design
AMAZING keyboard
Good speaker
High resolution screen
Cons: Battery life could be better, but its not bad
Summary: Ok first, this is to people who gave this amazing device bad reviews. The first batch of Tours had several devices with problems, such as loose battery door, and faulty ...
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Summary: Ok first, this is to people who gave this amazing device bad reviews. The first batch of Tours had several devices with problems, such as loose battery door, and faulty trackball. This has been fixed on devices with a manufacture date of August or later. Mine was manufacutred July 17th, and Ive had NO problems though, some of the original release Tour's are fine as well.
Now on to my short review. I LOVE this blackberry. It is my first, and I will never buy a non-blackberry device again. The web browsing is very fast, they keyboard took me 2 days to get used to, it seemed cramped at first. I came from a big keyboard though (LG Voyager). After my first 2 days, Im just as fast at typing. The speakerphone, or when playing music is very loud and clear. Voice quality on my part and from the other side is great. Batttery life was sub par until about 5 days of use, its much beter now. Trackball works terrific on my particular device, a new Tour will be out shortyly (blackberry Essex) and Tour owners can make a simple swap that yes, will void warrenty, but you will be able to use the trackpad from the Essex on your Tour.
In short everything about this device is great. I would reccomend it to anyone.
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4 out
of 4 users found this user opinion helpful.
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10
stars
I love my Storm. Love Tour almost as much.
by glk165
on
July 27, 2009
Pros: Look, weight, size, keypad, clarity of the screen, red numbers for dialing, voice quality, layout of the screen, updated OS, camera quality, video quality
Cons: Haven't found any yet
Summary: I have a Storm also. Yes people either LOVE the Storm or they HATE it. I love mine and never thought I would say this but I love the Tour ...
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Summary: I have a Storm also. Yes people either LOVE the Storm or they HATE it. I love mine and never thought I would say this but I love the Tour just about as much. I use Storm for personal use and Tour for business use. When got the Storm the day they came out I gave my wife my Curve. She has always been unimpressed with phones and says a phone is a phone. The day I brought the Tour home I made a mistake and showed it to her. This it the first time she saw and tried out a phone that she said it reminded her of the Verizon commercial where the guy says in his mind "don't put that down or I'll take it" so the next day I went and got her one. She abosolutely loves it and is the first smartphone or for that matter any phone she has ever used to it's potential. I never thought I would use anything except a touch after having the Storm but I find myself carrying around the Tour more than the Storm. Fits the hand well, looks great and works very well. I WOULD DEFINITELY RECOMMEND THE TOUR AND SO WOULD MY WIFE!!!
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5 out
of 7 users found this user opinion helpful.
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3
stars
I miss my Curve
by Gfive5
on
October 6, 2009
Pros: The pros: The Tour comes with a SIM card so when you travel internationally, you can purchase local SIM cards with a local phone number and save heaps of cash using the local phone system, rather than Verizon's super expensive off shore rates.
Cons: Terrible battery life.
Mouse ball too close the the key board
Many devices have defective mouse balls and bugs in mouse software.
USB charger has new size plug so you have to buy new chargers and cables to replace the old format used with Curve.
Summary: Cons:
1) The battery is sub par and runs out of juice before your day is done. The Curve lasted all day.
2) The mouse ball is too close the ...
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Summary: Cons:
1) The battery is sub par and runs out of juice before your day is done. The Curve lasted all day.
2) The mouse ball is too close the the key board, so when I type messages, I frequently accidentally brush the mouse ball which then inserts the cursor into the middle of the message. This requires a re-write of almost every email, text and BBM I send. The Curve did not have this problem.
3) Many of these devices (including the original one I bought) have defective mouse balls and bugs in the software that render the mouse ball useless when moving horizontally. This problem was only solved when I exchanged the device for a new one (which required hours of transferring contacts and other data). The Curve did not have this problem.
I would not buy the Tour unless you have Verizon and absolutely must have the SIM card feature. Even then, if you can, find another phone.
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3 out
of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
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7
stars
Solid phone
by macattk
on
August 3, 2009
Pros: Switching between applications, great network reception, and call quality is great. Blackberry App World is nice to have, more apps each day. Battery life is excellent.
Voice dialing thus far has been very accurate.
Cons: Little base memory and apps install to main memory, not exandable SD card. GPS is slow to receive at first. Could be easier to manage photos from the camera.
Summary: Good solid phone. It's not an iPhone killer, but it works almost everywhere with great call quality (speaker volumes, etc). Pandora, Shazam, Bloomberg News, Google Maps, etc are all ...
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Summary: Good solid phone. It's not an iPhone killer, but it works almost everywhere with great call quality (speaker volumes, etc). Pandora, Shazam, Bloomberg News, Google Maps, etc are all available which is a plus.
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3 out
of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
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4
stars
Almost ready for prime time
by fatcat
on
September 7, 2009
Pros: The usual BB strengths of email, apps and texting.
Nice to be able to go international now!
Camera better, but not as good as DARE.
Cons: Reception down by 2 bars as compared to Curve in same location
Short battery life- won't last all day
Sound quality is a REAL issue- customers saying they can't understand me is a PROBLEM!
OS buggy- still get screen freezes that last up to 10 sec.
Summary: A must have BB if you travel out of the US and use Verizon.
If you get one with a bad track-ball, just trade it out.
Get Vlingo for dictating ...
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Summary: A must have BB if you travel out of the US and use Verizon.
If you get one with a bad track-ball, just trade it out.
Get Vlingo for dictating texts and emails- it keeps you hands-free while driving.
Visual VoiceMail is a real time saver!
Get a case from Seidio.com
Updated on Sep 9, 2009
Well, I finally gave up and returned my TOUR.
The reception IS THAT BAD. I swapped phones and updated completely! Still I only had 2 bars where I'd had 3 or 4 with my CURVE.
The TOUR has nice features but they DON'T MAKE UP FOR FOR POOR RECEPTION!
My customers noticed immediately and said it was nice to be able to understand me again.
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3 out
of 4 users found this user opinion helpful.
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8
stars
Best Phone I've Ever Owned
by Spo0k14
on
January 15, 2010
Pros: It's fast, convenient, looks great, feels great, functions great.
the Keyboard is AMAZING
Cons: No Wifi.
the 3mp camera is good, but it could be better.
trackball. it looses sensitivity after a while but only affects games and really really long messages.
Summary: Great phone, leaps and bounds above any other phone I've owned. It's light on the applications but heavy on the functions it has. Facebook-Contact attachment is super cool ...
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Summary: Great phone, leaps and bounds above any other phone I've owned. It's light on the applications but heavy on the functions it has. Facebook-Contact attachment is super cool cause I like having photos on my contacts.
Battery lasts about 2 days with normal use.
Wifi would be nice, but I am extremely satisfied with this phone.
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2 out
of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
Manage updates with the Download App
BlackBerry Tour 9630 (Verizon Wireless)
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