What’s that? Another BlackBerry that looks like, well, another BlackBerry. Launched through Verizon on July 12, the BlackBerry Tour 9630 looks to be a hybrid of Curve and the Bold as far as aesthetics are concerned. According to Verizon, the BlackBerry Tour provides “more reliable emails, dependable downloads, and ultra-fast 3G web browsing, when you need it, where you need it” when operating on its network. The BlackBerry has long-been the go-to choice for corporate types, and that kind of typecasting doesn’t change here with the Tour; however, the Tour is equipped with enough multimedia to keep the monkey off your back if you’re the smartphone equivalent of a punk rocker in a three piece. That is to say that the BlackBerry Tour comes with a high-resolution screen, a camera with video capture, apps from BlackBerry App World, 3G connectivity, Bluetooth, SIM and microSD expansion slots, GPS, micro USB port, a full HTML browser, and there’s visual voicemail and caller ID that can show the user a contact photo, group ID, or sound off a custom ringtone. Also, RIM saw fit to make the BlackBerry Tour ready to handle such social networks as Facebook, MySpace, and Flickr, while Virizon offers up V Cast Music.
Now that’s it’s clear that the Tour is teen friendly, what makes it appealing to the stiff in the suit? The big-top attraction for the international businessman is the global connections with 3G World roaming and dual-mode functionality. Some of the accessories, such as a travel charger and three international adaptors, will also be appealing. The BlackBerry Tour is truly the Richard Branson of smartphones, as it provides coverage in 220 countries and data coverage in 175. And if you’re a man in high-demand, meaning meetings just can’t get underway without your presence, the Tour allows you to be there with conference-call abilities. The Tour also is able to sync up with your company’s BlackBerry Enterprises server and it comes with DataViz Documents To Go Standard Edition, which allows you to edit MS Office documents. With the BlackBerry Tour you’ll never be able to escape work; welcome to your early stress-induced death.
Undressing the BlackBerry Tour
So, what specifically does a $199.99 smartphone with a two-year contract and a $70 mail-in rebate get you? The 4.4” x 2.3” x 0.5”, 3.8 ounce BlackBerry Tour feels very solid in hand and the aforementioned high-res TFT screen comes in at 480 x 360 and supports 64K colors. Due to the Tour’s smaller size, the 35-key QWERTY is tight, but whatever frustration this may cause, RIM has more than made up for it by backlighting the keys in a brilliant red. The camera is capable of 3.2 megapixels and has a 2x zoom. Although there is no Wi-Fi, there is Bluetooth 2.0 and you can geotag your photos. The Tour offers a puny 256MB of onboard memory, but thanks to the micorSD card that comes with it, you get an additional 2GB (and the Tour can handle a 16GB microSD card). Those bands that make the BlackBerry Tour so internationally savvy include: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 (Quadband) / CDMA 800/1900 (Dual Band) / UMTS 2100. The mileage coming out of the li-ion battery is five hours of talk time and 14 days of standby. The BlackBerry Tour; it is what it is.
