RIM BlackBerry Tour 9630 (Verizon Wireless) photos
The RIM BlackBerry Tour 9630 will make its way to Verizon Wireless on July 12. Check out CNET's hands-on photos of what could be the carrier's best smartphone yet.
Bonnie Cha
Bonnie Cha was a former chief correspondent for CNET Crave, covering every kind of tech toy imaginable (with a special obsession for robots and Star Wars-related stuff). When she's not scoping out stories, you can find her checking out live music or surfing in the chilly waters of Northern California.
The RIM BlackBerry Tour 9630 will be available from Verizon Wireless starting on July 12 for $199.99 with a two-year contract and after rebates. Sprint will also offer its own version of the Tour to be released on the same day for the same price. Nothing like a little friendly competition.
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3G world phone
As the replacement to the RIM BlackBerry 8830 World Edition, the Tour offers 3G world roaming capabilities and brings a number of improvements in design, features, and performance.
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BlackBerry Curve 8900 vs. BlackBerry Tour 9630
The design of the RIM BlackBerry Tour 9630 is a mix of the RIM BlackBerry Curve 8900 (pictured here) and the RIM BlackBerry Bold, inheriting some of the best traits of the two smartphones.
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Right side
On the right side on the smartphone, you'll find a 3.5mm headphone jack, a volume rocker, a user-programmable shortcut key, and a microUSB port.
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Pocket friendly
The Tour measures 4.4 inches tall by 2.4 inches wide by 0.6 inch thick and 4.5 ounces, so it's a bit bigger and heavier than the Curve, but much more pocketable than the BlackBerry Bold and the BlackBerry 8830.
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Quality build and sharp display
While heavier than the Curve, the BlackBerry Tour's extra weight gives the smartphone a satisfyingly solid feel. It also retains the high-resolution display of the Curve, so images and text looked smooth and vibrant.
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Excellent keyboard
The BlackBerry Tour offers a 35-key QWERTY keyboard that is reminiscent of the one found on the Bold, which is a good thing. It features good-size buttons and a slight bump to the keys that prevent them from feeling too flat.
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Great messaging device
As usual, the BlackBerry Tour excels at messaging. The smartphone includes Microsoft Exchange and POP3/IMAP e-mail support and even has expanded its IM client list to include Yahoo, Google Talk, AIM, and Windows Live.
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Roam where you want to
The RIM BlackBerry Tour offers dual-mode functionality (supporting dual-band CDMA and quad-band GSM networks) for world roaming capabilities and ships with a SIM card. In all, you'll get voice coverage in 220 countries and data coverage (e-mail and Internet) in 175 countries.
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The Tour's camera
On back, you'll find the BlackBerry Tour's 3.2-megapixel camera. It features a 2x zoom, auto focus, flash, and image stabilization. It can also record video and geotag photos using the phone's GPS.
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Little fuzzy
Picture quality was mediocre mostly because images looked fuzzy or hazy in some places. Plus, the camera has a bit of shutter lag. That said, we were impressed with the video quality.
