RIM BlackBerry Tour 9630 -Sprint- A Phone For Globe-Trotters
Sum and Substance:
Thumbs Up:
This phone is capable of world roaming, has all the features that you would expect in a smart phone like full QWERTY keyboard, GPS, music player and camera. Has a good display and the keyboard is comfortable to use.
Thumbs Down:
Lacks Wi-Fi and you can’t save applications to the memory card.
Inside the Trunk:
Technology: CDMA2000 1X / GSM / WCDMA (UMTS)
Band: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900 / CDMA2000 1X 1900/800
Phone design: Candy bar
Caller ID: Yes
Other features: EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized), EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates For Global Evolution), GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), Messaging Services.
The Whiz Kid Speaks:
The TFT LCD display of the Tour has resolution of 480X360 pixels, 16-bit(65k colors). The phone has a full size QWERTY keyboard with 35 keys. The 3.2 mega pixel camera of the phone is capable of capturing video. Has geo-tagging functionality, 2x digital zoom and has features like auto focus and image stabilization. The bundled operating system is BlackBerry Handheld Software.
The phone has autonomous, assisted and simultaneous GPS enabled with preloaded BlackBerry Maps application and for e911 capabilities. Both control plane and user plane GPS is supported. It has BlackBerry maps and supports geo-tagging functionality.
The phone has 256 MB built in memory which can be expanded using microSD cards. Supported video formats include MPEG4 and WMV. Supported audio formats are AAC, MP3, eAAC+, AAC+, WMA and WMA ProPlus. The phone is 4.4 inches high, 2.4 inches wide, 0.56 inches deep and weighs 4.58 ounces. 1400 mAh lithium ion battery gives talk time of 5 hours and stand by time of 14 days.
Razzle Dazzle:
Tour has been launched both by Verizon wireless and Sprint and both of them have more or less similar design. We got the Sprint model for test in our test centers; it has a silver bezel where as the Verizon product was charcoal gray. The cover on the back is also different; this product has a smooth behind as compared to the Verizon’s model which had patterned texture.
Inside Dope:
Blackberry devices have always been made with business class users in mind and this time, Blackberry has included a SIM card slot that automatically takes to global GSM network when you are out of the country.
Bundled accessories with the phone include a microUSB cord, wired headset, SIM card, 1 GB microSD card, reference manual and travel charger. Verizon gave us international adapters with their Tour.
This phone takes over from BlackBerry 8830 Word Edition from Sprint as a phone for the globe trotters. This new model promises to be better than the previous one owing to the constant improvement in technology. The handset is a dual mode phone which means it supports both CDMA and GSM networks, when you are in US it will use the Sprint’s CDMA network but when you are traveling outside it will change to international networks of GSM to make sure you are connected. You also get 3G abroad.
You can choose the use any other SIM card incase you don’t want the bundled SIM card from Sprint but first you will have to unlock the phone by calling Sprint’s customer care. Sprint provides data coverage in 150 countries and voice coverage in 185 countries. Make sure you check out the call rates before you start your trip.
Other features on the Tour include speaker phone, smart dialing, speed dialing, multimedia and text messaging, voice activated dialing, conference calling, etc. there is Bluetooth which supports stereo and mono Bluetooth headsets, AV remote, hands free kits, dial-up networking and serial port profile. You can use the smartphone as a modem to connect to the internet but you will have to sign up with Sprint’s Mobile Broadband plans, they start at $59.99 for 5 GB per month.
The smart phone doesn’t have Wi-Fi in either Sprint or Verizon’s models. But Sprint has said that they plan to release a Wi-Fi model soon and this might make you delay your purchase to when the Wi-Fi model releases.
The Tour also has a media player, GPS, personal information and management tools, operating system, e-mail, etc. Sprint also gives you services like Sprint TV, Sprint Music Store and Sprint Navigation. You can also access social networking applications like Flickr, MySpace and Facebook and if you want more you can visit Blackberry App World or Sprint’s software store. But you can’t store applications on the external memory card; the internal memory is all you get.
Call quality was excellent on the Tour when we tested it on the CDMA service of Sprint. There were no disturbances and voice could be heard quite clearly. Our friends too gave us similar feed back they could hear our voices quite clearly. They could believe that we were speaking from a cell phone; quality was as good as land line calls. Speaker phone is better than average but we were a bit uncomfortable that the speakerphone was located on the left spine of the gadget. We also paired the phone with a Bluetooth headset, pairing was quick and call quality was good. The phone also has a 3.5 mm phone jack for grooving to tracks using your favorite brand of headphones. We plugged in Bose brand of headphone and were impressed with the quality. The phone can also play MPEG-4 videos.
Images were clear on the 3.2 MP camera of the phone but the colors could have been brighter. Blackberry’s weakness, if any, has to be the lamentable browser. They keep updating it on a regular basis in order to make user experience better it simply cannot compete with browsers like Safari which is one of the best browsers ever. It takes about a minute or so to load a site. The GPS/A-GPS of the smart phone is also quite good.
The 1400 mAH lithium ion battery of the phone gives you talk time of five hours and 14 days of standby time.
Nitty Gritty:
RIM BlackBerry Tour 9630 is a great device and it has everything you need in a smart phone apart from GPS. The awesome media player, great QWERTY keyboard and lots of messaging features make this phone a great buy.
