1. KTaNnEr6's Avatar
    Hello Crackberry Nation,

    Im KTaNnEr6, I am new here, in fact this is my first post, but I have been browsing crackberry for about 6 months or so. I joined now because I just got my first Blackberry, the TOUR! This is going to my official introduce/review.

    Ok, so my first thoughts on Tour;

    First thing I notice is how quality the build feels. Very Sturdy. The weight is great compared to other phones I've had. Screen Resolution is amazing but the actual screen size is a little smaller than what I expected, but I dont really know what I expected. Keyboard is good. Taking some time to get used to since I have some big fingers. Honestly though I think the beveled corners on the keys actually slow me down. Just the way I feel. Have very very little movement in my battery cover. Never noticed it til I read a post about it. No screen ripple either. Overall the phone looks GREAT. Very Sleek. Love the black trackball and black chrome.

    Getting into the phone the OS is very quick. I love the blackberry experience, definently addicted. Havent had any issues at all with it. I did adjust the horizontal trackball sensitvity to 90 which help with the slow reaction on that. It hasnt lagged at all yet, also havent had to do a battery pull. I enjoy having the ability to download apps. Still trying to learn everything about the blackberry, but from what I have seen its awesome. Also still trying to learn the tips and tricks but have found a few, kind of. When I downloaded the facebook app (which isnt that great but does the job) all my friends birthdays were automatically upload to the calender on my Berry. I thought that was cool. I also have found out that when using the stock case, when you put it in the magnet puts the phone in stand by to save battery life. Speaking of that, the battery life is GREAT, no issues at all, but I am NOT a heavy heavy user, I do use it alot but not constant. Also I also found that if you get a message, or notification, or whatever on your phone while its in the stock holster when you pull it out of the holster it automaticaly shows you that message, or notification, or whatever, which I think is AMAZING and saves alot of time.

    Overall I LOVE the phone. It is the best phone on market for Verizon. I STILL would like to have the Iphone but I would never leave verizon for a phone unless it folded my clothes for me. As far as having no WIFI, it is not a problem for me BUT, still would be nice since I am not always in 3G coverage. Still trying to Learn so if anyone can help me with any more tips and tricks I would love to hear them. You can message me on BBM, since I have never used it! lol so do it! Pin is 30B3525B. Also does anyone know how to "sync" excel on my berry and pc? Where if one is updated the other updates when plugged in?

    Anyways, thanks for reading, I am looking forward to being an active member for the Crakcberry Community.

    -KTaNnEr6
    07-13-09 06:41 PM
  2. ChandlerAdaway's Avatar
    Congratulations and welcome to CrackBerry!
    Have to say, I'm a bit jealous, but I'll get my Tour either tomorrow or when I'm back from vacation.

    Thanks for the review.
    Gets me more excited to join the BlackBerry world.
    07-13-09 06:47 PM
  3. Chuck Q's Avatar
    Good review. Welcome to the addiction... Lol

    Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
    07-13-09 06:48 PM
  4. nyyankeefan1021's Avatar
    Nice review...

    can't wait to get my Tour, also my first BB. Hopefully FedEx comes early tomorrow
    07-13-09 06:49 PM
  5. esalonia's Avatar
    Thanks for the quality first post and welcome to the forum.
    07-13-09 06:52 PM
  6. doertem's Avatar
    Thank you very much for the useful review!
    07-13-09 06:56 PM
  7. doertem's Avatar
    Nice review...

    can't wait to get my Tour, also my first BB. Hopefully FedEx comes early tomorrow
    I know how you feel. I keep constantly checking my package tracker page. But my Tour has been sitting in Memphis since 4:15 this morning . Maybe I should just drive down and get it myself!!
    07-13-09 06:58 PM
  8. SamuelDAllen's Avatar
    I hope my first blackberry experience is just as good as yours. Can't wait to get my tour.
    07-13-09 06:59 PM
  9. noaim's Avatar
    good review

    I suggest that you open up the help icon and check out the shortcuts section..

    you may really like it..

    things like hitting R to reply and f to forward and

    u to read the next unread message

    theres a ton so it will take some learning but there useful
    07-13-09 07:01 PM
  10. KTaNnEr6's Avatar
    Nice awesome I will check that out!
    07-13-09 07:07 PM
  11. divacheri's Avatar
    welcome to the addiction! my tour will be here tomorrow. (I'll never pre order again) sighh.
    Anyways, great review. Nice to read something that isn't whinning about whatever.

    enjoy your tour and the crackberry experience!
    07-13-09 07:10 PM
  12. John Yester's Avatar
    Moved to the review section
    07-13-09 07:11 PM
  13. KTaNnEr6's Avatar
    Thanks sorry about posting in wrong section.
    07-13-09 07:13 PM
  14. nyyankeefan1021's Avatar
    I know how you feel. I keep constantly checking my package tracker page. But my Tour has been sitting in Memphis since 4:15 this morning . Maybe I should just drive down and get it myself!!
    Mine has been sitting in PA since it was scanned at around 6 am. I'm not worried though, I was surprised a FedEx driver was even up that early to scan the package into the system. It is frustrating though.
    07-13-09 07:16 PM
  15. doertem's Avatar
    Mine has been sitting in PA since it was scanned at around 6 am. I'm not worried though, I was surprised a FedEx driver was even up that early to scan the package into the system. It is frustrating though.
    Yep, hopefully someone will be home tomorrow when they come to drop it off. I think I might cry a little...
    07-13-09 07:27 PM
  16. CGI's Avatar
    I received mine today...

    Build is solid. No loose battery door on mine. There is also no screen ripple pressing any keys (you have to push the screen rather firmly to create the ripple... But I don't think I would have noticed that if not reading it here).

    The keyboard has a nice click feel. The button shape is somewhat "flat feeling" IMO and the overall keyboard is slightly below what I was hoping. Not a show stopper... Just a tad cramped (like the curve) but flatter keys.

    The screen is awesome. Enough said.

    The camera is definitely an upgrade from the Curve 8330. Nice pictures! But my testing is still limited.

    No heating issues best I can tell.

    One of the best elements is the performance. The speed smokes my old Curve. Opening the picture folder and the image icons appear immediately.

    The body tends to hold fingerprints but sure looks nice.

    The USB port location isn't the best as others have noted.

    The Browser is decent. Faster than the Curve but still no world beater. Its serviceable.

    The OS isn't sporting anything particularly new. It felt very familiar right out of the box.

    My conversion to my BES was smooth. The only issue I've encountered is my passwords didn't come over in the wireless sync. Anyone else have this?

    Overall great phone. Definitely makes the curve feel like "old" technology and on speed alone worth the upgrade.

    PS: My carrier is Bell

    Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
    07-13-09 07:30 PM
  17. KTaNnEr6's Avatar
    Good review.. I didnt even touch on USB port which is worst ever. The browser isnt that great but does the job which is actually a con to me. Big reason why I love iphone. Camera is best I've ever had on phone.
    07-13-09 07:44 PM
  18. Missed-my-PDA's Avatar
    hmmm, I was thinking about a Tour or Pearl Flip when I bring back my Storm soon, so thanks for the reviews!

    07-13-09 09:52 PM
  19. swood1973's Avatar
    I guess you could say my experience has been exceptional as well. i havent had the battery door or screen ripple either.

    This phone is extremely snappy with the pre installed software but I have had some display issues with poynt,flashlight and google maps but they were solved by deleting and reinstalling the newest version.

    The blackberry experience will only get better with future o.s builds but rim has done very well on this tour build as i would venture to guess that 90% of tour owners are extremely satisfied.

    I do have one questions though, On the curve, all messages and phone calls were delivered to the "messages" folder by default but I cant seem to find the settings to make this happen on the tour. It's not a huge deal but it was nice to view everything in one spot and then do the house cleaning by going to the other respective mail or sms folders.

    the only other thing i have to add is, if you dont own a tour, go and get one. This phone i think (don't quote me) is the first blackberry i have owned that should get me a full 2 years of my contract without getting jealous of new bb's hitting the market in the future. This phone is amazing and will be even better when it gets o.s 5.0.0.000 or whatever they do with those 0's. get yours today.
    07-14-09 09:17 AM
  20. vibeviadoug's Avatar
    Mine has been sitting in PA since it was scanned at around 6 am. I'm not worried though, I was surprised a FedEx driver was even up that early to scan the package into the system. It is frustrating though.
    How did you get a tracking number for it? I preordered my tour on the fourth, but I never received an email or anything with a tracking number, the only thing I have is the order confirmation number for the verizon site?
    07-14-09 09:20 AM
  21. imiller's Avatar
    Nice review welcome to crack nation
    07-14-09 11:56 AM
  22. doertem's Avatar
    How did you get a tracking number for it? I preordered my tour on the fourth, but I never received an email or anything with a tracking number, the only thing I have is the order confirmation number for the verizon site?
    They'll send you an email with a tracking number once they release it to Fedex to ship.
    07-14-09 12:11 PM
  23. rchan326's Avatar
    I've had my Tour since it's launch on Sunday the 12th. I've been really happy with it seeing how I upgraded from an old Palm Treo 755p. I've done one hard reset because i felt the device was a little laggy after using it for 2 hours straight (inputting all my contacts which VZW couldn't transfer over, lol) but the reset was probably not even really necessary.

    I've downloaded a ton of apps which are pretty cool and some pretty stupid (bluffcall, bbtran, youmail). Already I only have around 90mb of internal disk space which kinda bugs me. I wish apps could be installed and ran from the external micro sd card

    A big plus I've noticed is the multimedia player. I've read in certain forums that users think it's kind of lame and plain but I really like it. The sound quality is also awesome! I swear it sounds better than my ipod nano (although I only have the 1st gen nano, lol).

    The biggest drawback I've experienced with my new BB Tour is the SMS texting. With my Treo, I'm used to having my texts in chat format with my peers. This is my first BB so I am not used to the way sms texts are set up. I've called VZW regarding this seeing if I could set the settings differently so see my txts in chat format and they said that has always been a BB user issue and should be fixed with the release of 0S 5.0 coming in the later months of this year. The VZW operator did suggest I set the sms texts to view up to the last 50 txts received so it shows my txts in a somewhat threaded format. This has made little improvement however. This is seriously the biggest drawback to the Tour I believe and I can't believe BB hasn't fixed this issue. I could have swore that my friends with pearls had threaded chat format texting. If I am wrong, someone please correct me and direct on how to set up my SMS text settings to the chat format.

    Another regret is that I upgraded the phone through a VZW store. Last night I was searching slickdeals.com and saw a post about BestBuy offering the Tour for $99.99 with 2-year contract and $149.99 for VZW customer upgrades. I'm not totally sure if this promotion applies to ALL Bestbuys but it obviously worked for someone. I ended up paying $312 for my Tour ($269.99 +tax) although I'm not sure how I incurred $42.XX in tax. I do also have a $70 mail-in rebate so the device will end up costing me around $242? I plan to call VZW later today to get clarification on how I was charged $42 in tax off a $269.99 purchase.

    I am however happy about my data plan. With the Treo I was paying $45 for the unlimited data plan. Well not really, I get a state workers discount which is 20% so it ended up being around $33 for the data plan. Now with the BB Data plan I only pay $24 ($29.99-20%) which I am very happy about. I highly suggest everyone to look into possible discounts offered to you through your employers. It saves me a lot of money. Special pricing on phones, plans, features, and accessories is AWESOME!

    Getting back on track with the Tour, the build quality is great! It feels sooo comfortable in my hands and the weight is nice compared to my old Treo BRICK. I don't have any complaints regarding the screen ripple because I don't really notice it. I like the material the Tour is fashioned with. It seems pretty durable seeing how I accidentally dropped my phone yesternight !!!! Thankfully the Tour wasn't harmed AT ALL! lol

    Battery life seems to be just ok although I have been using the device pretty consistently throughout the day. I've heard rumors about the battery life only getting better after a few charges but i am really hesitant to believe those rumors seeing how that usually only applies to Nickel batteries that have the memory effect. I addressed this issue with the VZW rep and he said that he doesn't believe it either but wouldn't be surprised if it were true (wow buddy, great help!).

    All-in-All I'm happy with my Tour. My experience with it would be near almost perfect if it weren't due to the SMS text drawback that I am experiencing. But again, I am open and all ears to those that have a fix for this if there is one ;D

    Oh on a side note, I read a couple weeks ago before the Tours release that VZW plans to upgrade their network beyond 3G in the later months of this year (probably in their Q4). I addressed this with the sales rep at the VZW store when making my Tour purchase and he confirmed this to be true. He said the added network functionality will include video messaging and other futuristic features only seen in Japan for the past 5-10years. I've been witness to such cell phone functionality because my friend from Japan visited me like 6-8 years ago and she showed me her phone from there. It was crazy! Without going too much into detail on that, I can't wait for the new network to launch later this year. In the meantime, I'm very happy with my Tour!
    07-14-09 01:21 PM
  24. pkcable's Avatar
    Nice reviews guys! Welcome to Crackberry.com! If you have any questions or problems do not hesitate to PM or email me.
    07-14-09 01:47 PM
  25. Pilot Prop's Avatar
    Good review....i had a short time with the Tour and i wasn't impressed...i guess because i had higher hopes for it than what it actually was...i think it is kind of a cross between Bold/Storm(more so the Bold).... seeing as how i already have the Bold i wasn't too into this one....however, to all the Verizon customers that wanted to get the Bold over the Storm, i definitely suggest the Tour :-)
    07-17-09 05:20 PM
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