BlackBerry Tour hitting Verizon on July 12 for $199.99?
By Chris Ziegler 
posted Jun 26th 2009 10:12PM
posted Jun 26th 2009 10:12PM
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I'll be there. But I prefer you guys give me one for free ;)
I'll have to wait until August for my upgrade :(
Wow I don't know why that showed up as a reply to you...
not to beat the dead horse, but the the heck this has no WIFI ? Seriously, this could be amazing phone if it would have WIFI
BB makes "world phone" and yet one thing you cannot do is to use skype and call over WIFI when you travel overseas
wifi is pretty much trivial when you have verizon in the US and then you just pop in a sim card when you are somewhere else, if you need skype so bad then there will probably be computer wherever there is wifi
i have been using verizon since 2000 and i my patience has finally been rewarded
you don't need wifi when you have vzw... BLAH BLAH BLAH
wifi is WAY faster... i can't stand that my current vzw phone does not have wifi... ev-do a is better than 1x but, it still suck
totally agree, wifi is was faster
comments about computer with skype? the whole point of having smartphone is to minimize use of computer in communication, if I go for a week vacation to europe, I can find tons of places with wifi, not that many will have computer with skype + microphone + speakers
BB Bold is awesome phone, I really don't get why this BB has no wifi
will this phone have a great browser? i have been holding off on leaving verizon to get a pre with sprint or iphone 3gs with at&t because ive had no problems with verizon and dont want to pay an etf.
wait for STORM 2
In for the Storm 2 as well... if they can ever get the current Storm working as it should.
Latest update - x.148 - was 2 steps forward and 3 steps back (in comparison to .141 I was running)
*Sigh* Oh well... can't win 'em all...
I'm not keeping my hopes up... I have the 8830 and have been waiting for Verizon to get ANYTHING decent in the smartphone world. I currently just use my iPod Touch when I have WiFi in airports/restaurants/cafes. The browser on every blackberry I've had is useless for non-mobile websites..
now just gimme some android, preferably soon.
oh by the way i lost my voyager and had to buy a cheap $30 samsung flip phone to replace it and im ready to get rid of the piece of junk
Hmph, I have to wait a whole 'nother year before my Curve is eligible for that two-year upgrade thing.
Wait, what? No sense of entitlement? You should raise of a fuss like the 3g iPhoners did. I'm sure you generate 1.6x the revenue of the "average" Verizon Wireless customer. I can upgrade with new customer pricing but I'll lose the new ever 2 $100 credit I'm supposed to get in January.
Dang Sprint and their fuzzy release dates!
Anyone know how much it would cost to buy one outright? I bought a LG Dare exactly a year ago, and I'd love to sell that pos and upgrade to one of these babies
mmmmm should I wait till september and pay $100 or do it on launch day for $100 extra?
My New Every 2 hits July 21. I've been looking for a Blackberry without total-touchscreen like the Storm. Is this a good idea for a starter Blackberry? Will Verizon cripple additional features like GPS?
Almost certainly. I don't know a lot of details, but I've read things on here and other blogs where you can flash the firmware to enable GPS for google maps...ymmv.
Verizon wants to rope you into their monthlt subscription for using their GPS app, go figure.
Another common complaint about the Tour is the lack of WiFi, to get such a feature, you'd have to choose another model.
Verizon does not cripple smartphones any longer. The latest BB's (and other similar devices) are fully functional: BT, GPS, etc, work just handy.
The only device that I know of that is still crippled is that Nokia 7205 Intrigue running some CrapOS from VZW.
Yay another blackberry that looks and most likely feels the same as the last 10.
Hooray for 90's software!!
why mess with a good thing?
blackberries have kept the same basic design for years because it's a design that works well and pretty much anyone who owns one swears by it.
Works well for a few,
but why waste half the device with a plastic keyboard?
because keyboards are good
aaaaalrighty then...
*snaps back into reality*
Believe it or not, not everyone likes touchscreen keyboards.
I know, it's shocking, but you have to accept it.
They don't like them because they haven't been done right yet.
...but a keyboard on a phone belongs on the BACK. No one has done that right yet either.
The design is ok, everything else is poor. They use slow processors, the OS isn't optimized for modern ARM cores, there is no graphics acceleration of the UI so everything is slow and laggy, the browser sucks, etc.
The only reason I have an 8830 is because Verizon has nothing better...
soon ppl'll be saying that about osx, if not already
@ Erik
Why do Laptops, Macbooks, iMacs, and Pcs still have keyboards? I believe RIM and Palm know the answer.
The IPhone does have fantastic games and little entertaining apps, but in the big boy world we need to get the job done.
I guess for a phone on Verizon, that's okay (great network, mediocre phones), but there are so many other smart phones out there at that price point and lower that are much better options that this. No WiFi = Fail, as far as I'm concerned.
When you got a reliable 3G network you do not need wi-fi. Other carriers rely on their wi-fi feature because their 3G network sucks
wifi is useful because that awesome 3g network doesnt extend into other countries, basements, private networks, planes, or coverage dead zones.
thats because in other countries you pop in a sim card to use data
and if your in someones basement chances are a real computer is nearby for whatever reason you need it
And wifi is a must when verizon has such a low data cap.
EVDO takes far more power than WiFi too
Finally! A reason to live! ... And to stay on verizon
If this is a reason to live for you then you must have a sad life, may be a reason to stay on verizon if youre a blackberry lover, I loved my curve for texting and emails but the lack of a decent browser(even opera on it was pretty much worthless), and lack of 3g caused me to make the switch to winmo.
The promo graphic is available on testman.verizonwireless.com. Just click next a few times. Nothing special from BGR, a reader just happened to be on the test site at the right time.
It's available however you cannot preorder as the graphic shows.
If one is currently on contract with verizon, would it be $199 to upgrade from your current phone?
Depends if you have reached your upgrade elegibility date or not. If you don't then you will have to get it at full retail and depending on the price plan you are on you might qualify for early upgrade and get it at this price.
If your upgrade date is up and you are not a 9.99 line then you should have New Every Two which brings it down below 199
Is it just me, or has the iPhone and its clones (most notably the Pre) moved so far beyond RIM that new Blackberries just aren't exciting anymore?
People like different phones, I guess.
I appreciate BlackBerry keeping the physical keyboard out front where it belongs... but I'm not sure I would want to go back to a non-touch device.
Business users still like the simplicity and speed of BBs.
I have an iPod touch that I absolutely love; I use it constantly around the house. However, after six months I still have a very difficult time typing with the touchscreen. This is compounded by a hand injury I sustained many years ago which makes it challenging to hold the iPod steady with my left hand. It's slippery!
I've been quite jealous of my friends on ATT with their sweet iPhones, but honestly, I couldn't compose an email message of any significant length on an iPhone. I really do require a physical keyboard. I'll be grabbing a Tour the day they are released.
I'm a business user and I actually like the iPhone for keeping track of my calendar, contacts and email, it's just that it does so much more, too!
I hear what people are saying about not wanting to compose an email message of significant length on a virtual keyboard, but I personally wouldn't want to compose a message of significant length on the tiny physical keyboard of a Blackberry either.
I used to have an HTC 8525 with about the best slide out keyboard possible (big enough to use two thumbs to type comfortably), and I was only marginally faster typing on it than I am with my iPhone.
Come on Sprint, you can't let them get a big lead on this one. Get it out!
Is that the new Centro?
pffftttt i just came in my pants.
FINAL-FCKIN-LY.
plz go shove that storm up ur ass Verizon.
Over a shitty Curve? Is 3g that big of a deal when you lose wifi and battery life as well as make the phone thicker, wider, taller, and heavier?
..harder, FASTER..
Wait, what are we talking about?
@Ryan: The Verizon (and the Sprint) Curve has 3G already, so I'm not sure what you're going on about.
wait blackberries work better on verizon??? all this time...
I have a blackberry. It's a phone. shrug. the tour looks like another phone. what's the big deal?
I need specs on the Atlas!! I need to know whether it's worth it to jump on the tour or wait for WiFi on a phone that currently has no specs.
nice, but not nice enough... lol
I would gladly camp out for this phone, but I can't upgrade till the end of July : ( oh well, what's two more weeks to wait?
what pisses me off is they've said "it'll come in may(back when it was still Niagra)" then they said June right around the time the also said "oh we're calling it the tour" now July is within spitting distance and they're saying "oh you're gonna have to wait until the MIDDLE of July" I've been upgrade eligible since March and have been waiting for this thing, pulling my hair out every time they make an announcement, just release the thing BEFORE the 4th of July, PLEASE. that HTC Ozone is looking better every second they delay this thing.
Chris,
The Tour is not delayed. The only folks ever to say this would launch in may was the BGR. If you follow their predictions (Bold, Kickstart, Storm, Curve, etc), you'll realize that either they are making up launch dates, or some "ninja" is having a bit of fun with them.
No delay here, just bad blogging from that other site.
The Tour got official yet back on 18 June http://www.htcphones.net/the-official-announcement-of-blackberry-tour-smartphone/
I think its not worth that much, as I'd prefer Pre (I already got it! ) :)
No wifi = no sale! It completely irks me that many don't understand this or talk around this like it's not a real issue. I'm stuck on the berry because I am addicted to the keyboard. I'm probably doing a lot more typing than the average mobile user.
Unfortunately my house just seems to be situated where I don't get a 3g signal. A quarter mile away it's fine, but my house is not on wheels so it's a huge issue for me.
Running to the office or dragging my laptop with me into the various rooms is exactly what I don't want to do and is what my mobile device is supposed to do for me.
Oh, and has anyone noticed that wifi is faster than 3g?
Finally time to get a new phone. My E815 was dying. Anyone waiting out for future BBs from VZW is ridiculous. Curve 8900 is garbage compared to this.
Wow, I thought I was the only one still holding on to my E815! I almost bit and jumped ship from Verizon to ATT for the iPhone....I must admit I'm still drooling over the iPhone's cut and paste technology!
In reply to the snarky comment about cut and paste: The iPhone has has WiFi since version 1.0. What number VZW BB is this? And still no WiFi?
EVDO is slower than WiFi and uses battery faster. END OF STORY.
What does this BB do differently that the other dozen clones before it can't do?
I have the same question. It seems like yet another BB. Nothing special about it as far as I can see.
Well, if you really need help with this one. Let me give you a clue:
Newer OS + CDMA = Blackberry Tour
Don't get it yet, do I need to make an app to make sense of all this for you? Kinda like how in high school we were all taught how to calculate percentages but certain people still need a tip calculator.