BlackBerry Tour 9630 Review (Verdict: Get a Bold)

Hardware

Construction

The 9630′s build quality is about par for BlackBerry’s course. The battery door is a little loose, the chrome-painted siding feels a little cheap, and the side and soft keys are virtually identical to the Curve 8900. The top Mute/Lock shoulder buttons are becoming the norm, and the Tour is no exception. I’m still not entirely sold on them, though, as it’s far too easy to accidentally lock your phone mid-operation, or unmute a particularly embarrassing track at a conveniently-timed lull in conversation.

One thing that really strikes me after playing with so many BlackBerrys is that it feels like RIM makes their most adventurous design departures in battery doors. It’s sad, but true. Sure, the latch mechanism is similar to the Curve 8900′s, but the central indentation and hatch pattern are distinctly new. The Storm’s double-switch mechanism is still very distinctive, the Bold’s leather door hasn’t been replicated anywhere else, nor has the Pearl Flip’s single simple slate. I guess RIM is considering this is what most people will see when they try to talk to someone on a BlackBerry, and if those poor souls had to look at identical battery doors across all lines, all the time, anyone not a part of the corporate hive mind would go absolutely insane.

About The Author

Simon Sage

Simon Sage’s education largely surrounded writing, technology and online community, leading him to begin his blogging career at www.BlackBerryCool.com and to quickly discover a vibrant and active community surrounding BlackBerry and mobile technology. In exploring RIM’s platform, he has learned what enterprises are looking for in mobility as well as what makes the innocuous BlackBerry so appealing to them. Recently Simon’s been covering RIM’s gradual move into an already-crowded consumer market, and the impact of burgeoning challengers, such as the iPhone, as well as long-time leaders, like Nokia, on BlackBerry’s advancement. With plenty of content under his belt, Simon will be branching off a bit to see what other smartphone manufacturers are working on while still using BlackBerry as a barometer. At IntoMobile, you can count on his posts being even-handed, well-informed and thought-out.

GadgetBurn

Definitely agree on the “get a Bold” thing! I went to check out the Tour at the Sprint store the other day with my Bold in hand, ready for a comparison. In the end, there really wasn’t anything to compare. The form factor isn’t THAT much smaller, and I found the trackball on the Tour to have a little bit too much action. The Bold is still much superior IMHO!
Inundated

“Get a Bold” is not a useful comment or review, unless BB plans to bring the Bold onto Verizon.

And since I’ll pretty much go for a root canal vs. leaving for AT&T, and since T-Mobile is not a decent second in the GSM world…well, sorry.
Snake

Well said Inundated. Anyone who truly wants to use their phone will use Verizon. I don’t care what the better/coolest/newest phone is or what it can do. It can do anything if the network sucks. In the future when LTE rolls out, the playing field will be dominated by a superior network, as all devices will be available for any network. I have a feeling Verizon will still be the best network. Since CDMA is only used in a fraction of the cell networks worldwide, it only makes sense that cell makers are slower to bring those phones to the market. I’ll take my “inferior” tour over the Bold on an inferior network.
touruser

tour’s trackball is fully sensitivity adjustable, FYI. Comes standard @ 50 vertical and horizontal, reset mine to 40 vertival and 30 horizontal, that made it much better. It’s still a little jumpy, but much improved.