BlackBerry Tour hands-on, wild sibling confrontation with Curve and Bold

While some interesting things may or may not be happening under the hood, the freshly announced BlackBerry Tour for Verizon and Sprint (pictured in Verizon garb on the left) is hardly a departure on the surface. It mostly appears to be a minor modification to the Curve (right), though it does seem inexplicably thicker. The Bold seems positively overwrought in comparison. We didn't get much time to play with the OS, but the screen and the keyboard are pure new-generation BlackBerry charm.

BlackBerry Tour hands-on, wild sibling confrontation with Curve and Bold

[Michael Scrip Posted Jun 25th 2009 5:07PM]

Yeah... it's Micro-USB.. which is becoming the standard on most new phones lately.

So, you're probably thinking "I'm gonna have to buy all new chargers."

Yep. Probably. But, I use car chargers and wall chargers that still have standard USB plugs... so I'll just get some of these for $1.93 each:

http://images.monoprice.com/productlargeimages/48671.jpg

A new plug is NOT gonna keep me from getting a Tour.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 25th 2009 6:21PM]

the Tour comes out on July 13th.

[Darwin Posted Jun 25th 2009 7:03PM]

The OS still sucks. It's ancient. Thats why you see very few decent apps and a shitty UI. RIM needs o do something and they know it but rewriting or writing a completely new OS is a big undertaking. But until they do phones like the Pre, iPhone, and Android are going to keep taking market share away. Complacency about their current position will get them screwed in the long run.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 25th 2009 11:23PM]

Best Communication Device on the planet.

[minnesotaman82 Posted Jun 26th 2009 8:29AM]

Ok, here's why people are getting excited:

1)New, higher resolution screen.
2)Updated operating system
3)Faster processor
4)More memory (both ROM and RAM)
5)Uppraded Camera
6)Updated keyboard and form factor

For blackberry users, this is a pretty big upgrade. People may get a little too excited some times, but this is hardly contained just to blackberry fans. Think about the iphone. The 3GS is getting basically the same kind of upgrades from the 3G and people a camping outside for the thing. It's front page news in local papers.

So yeah, I think it's ok if people are saying this is a big deal in the blackberry world.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 26th 2009 8:50AM]

The Tour can be used worldwide including Japan w/UMTS. It works in all bands. The 8830 does not and did not have a camera. Also it is the 1st Rev A Blackberry for Sprint instead of EVDO Rev 0. This gives the higher upload and a little higher download speeds.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 1st 2009 10:24AM]

Does anyone have any idea of how the Tour's speaker is as loud the Bold/Storm speaker is??