Rim Tour 9630 Smartphone

Annual upgrade time with Verizon and I wasn't sure what to do.  I had tried the Blackberry Pearl before but couldn't get used to it and sent it back for a Voyager.  This time I decided to try because it had a full QWERTY keyboard and dedicated keys.

Verizon has/had a Buy One Get One Free deal going for the Blackberry phones, so I 'had' to get a second Tour for my teenage son also.  So, this review is essentially for both of the phones and our combined experiences thus far.

First thing, I did do research online as to what I should go with...Curve, Storm or Tour.  Obviously I did go with the Tour (or I wouldn't be writing this), but now they are talking about a different release with a trackpad rather than the trackball.  You may want to check into that if you have read the issues others have had with the trackball.

So far, we are thoroughly impressed!  We've had them for about a week and have attempted to mess with as many uses and applications as we can think of for newbies.

The box Verizon ships it in is packaged very tightly, and thorough.  Included in the box is the phone, a travel charger, a BB holster, Tips booklet, cd for the computer, Global support guide, stereo headset, USB cable, and 3 alternate plug ins for traveling abroad.

Taking out the phone and holding it is nice.  It weighs just perfect and is just not quite as wide as the palm of my hand.  It feels secure and not plasticky.  The back cover, where the battery goes, is a lot larger than I realized at first.  When inserting the battery, it isn't just the grid part that comes off, but nearly the entire back.  Snap in the battery and you see the SIM card and the SD card that Verizon (or Blackberry) included.

Turning on the device is simple of course.  It immediately guides you through some simple steps to set the time and to activate the phone.

Once these are done, the fun begins.

I didn't want to type all of my contacts over from my Voyager.  Went in to the local store and because I purchased it online and not there, they wanted $12.99 to swap over the contacts for each phone.  As I have 3 lines, I opted to skip that!

Imagine my surprise when Verizon doesn't let you use the Backup Assistant for the Tour.  That was a waste of money as I intentionally used it with my previous phones just for this reason.  Also, that's what they market it for... disappointing.

Typing in contacts is easy enough once you get the hang of it.  It seems like everything is that way though.  It took me a while to just figure out how to send a text message.  My son said to use the SMS messaging and for me to quit looking for the word 'text' and I'd be alright... he was right ~sigh

A suggestion on that point, set the right smartkey to open the SMS messaging.  Goes faster than using the menus to get to it.

The menus are intuitive if you have the patience to press the BB key and find out what all else is under there.  There are a ton of options for each move you make.  It will take a while just to learn them, but it is worth it.  Try to keep it simple and not overwhelm yourself and it will come to you.

The trackball has gotten quite a beating online.  Thus far neither of us have had any issues.  I cannot say what will come of it in the future, but I didn't get one of the first versions, so maybe it won't be a problem.  I did purchase Verizon's $7.99 warranty just in case.

Both of our phones are "Green Dot" phones.  At first I was a bit concerned that they weren't new, but refurbs.  Verizon would really hear about that!  I did do some looking and found differing opinions on Crackberry.com so I called Verizon and asked.  The rep said they are NOT refurbished it is a notation about the version of the phone that the manufacturer puts on before they leave.  Okay...

As for the features, I do like the layout of the keys.  It is an adjustment as the Voyager's keys were large and spaced out.  However, we are doing fine and I do appreciate the beveled edge on the keys.  

Only one lockup happened when my son was using Facebook on his BB.  Other than that, we haven't had any issues.

We both have rearranged the icons that make up the 6 in the quick row on the lower portion of the screen.  It is very easy to customize the phone so that we can get to what we use quickly.

One drawback I've found is that the volume keys on the side don't change the ringer volume.  When I have to go into places that demand silenced ringers, it would be nice to use this rather than find features.  Holding down the 'Q' button does kick it into vibrate mode

The screen is amazing.  The colors are so vivid!  The screen is wide and the font sizes and types are adjustable.  The radar on WeatherBug is as good as on television.  Pictures do look good too.

Bringing me to the next point.  3.2 megapixel is good, but the photos still are camera phone quality.  I'm never quite satisfied with them and there seems to be a lag when I push the button and it taking the picture.  Keep the digital camera.

Speakerphone is pretty darn good.  I used it in my office and my friend didn't know that I was using it.  He said the sound was clear and crisp.  I've gotten the same responses from using it regularly.

We did download Pandora, (which is pretty nifty) and the sound from the speaker was excellent for my office setting.  I've no complaints about how it works as a music player.

GPS ~ I admit I was a bit fussy about buying the VZNavigator.  I downloaded GoogleMaps and unlocked the GPS on the BB and now I don't need to buy it.  I am soooo very happy!  It doesn't tell me verbally directions, but I can at least look at the map and follow the route they give me in real-time.  Also you can make it satellite imagery which zooms in really, really close!

The email is pretty wild.  I am the only one who did set that up, and I actually removed it.  The email I have (hotmail) gets a lot of spam and junkmail, which of course, the BB did what it was meant to do and dowloaded them to my phone.  So, I did detach the email from it and will consider setting up a specific email address that doesn't have the junk.  I can see how it would work amazingly well though for an employee.

We have paid attention to the battery issues.  Some reviews commented on how short the battery life is.  We haven't really found a problem with it being too short.  I think it depends on how many apps you run, how long they run (he forgot to turn Pandora off) and how much messing you actually do with the phone.  It isn't fair to compare this to an old phone, the other didn't do nearly as much so it didn't take up as much battery life!

Oh, and when you put it in the BB holster, it can change the way it rings &/or vibrates.  It is worth checking out your options as to how it reacts when in the holster under your sound profiles.

I could keep going on about the options and fun we are having.  But this is getting long-winded.  Sooo, if you want to do email, internet, cool applications, music and still talk and text, this is the way to go.  Knock on wood, trackball hasn't become an issue yet.

Have fun with this phone!  Get online and learn about the features, there are probably a ton I just haven't found yet.  It is certainly one of the coolest things I've owned in a long time!