[mikeplus1]

I know they did not use the faux leather that fits like a drum....such BS.

No, they used the *fixed* and much more professional looking classy carbon fiber door with small piece of tape pre-installed inside of it that fits like a drum and does not look cheezy like the faux pleather door on the 9700.

[drchipinski]

RIM has disapointed me yet again....I KNEW they would give VZW and SPRINT customers the old door....knew it.

[dubcee83]

Drumroll......

[drchipinski]

No, they used the *fixed* and much more professional looking classy carbon fiber door with small piece of tape pre-installed inside of it that fits like a drum and does not look cheezy like the faux pleather door on the 9700.

Let's bet that the doors are just as bad as the 9630....what a joke.

[jaydee5799]

You have a Tour and are going to upgrade to the new Bold?
Or are you just a disgruntled Tour owner who has to find something to complain about?

[drchipinski]

I have a TOUR and will upgrade...I have gone through six of them in the past year. All trackball issues...for someone like myself who has been overly frustrated with RIM's crappy build quality, and who has seen and used the 9700, I am more than unhappy that the 9650 is still not even close to the 9700, or **** the 9000 at that.

[drchipinski]

Let me add that I receive and send about 300 emails a days...so I really need a BB for my corporate email...if they did not have the best service for that I would have been gone a long time ago.

I will not forecast that the new door will be a piece of sh*t....just have a hunch.

[mikeplus1]

Let's bet that the doors are just as bad as the 9630....what a joke.

No problems with any of our Tour 9630 doors, or trackballs for that matter. We have bought 6 total since last October and have not had any problems with moderate to heavy daily use on all 6 phones. The earlier models produced may have had more problems with these things though.

[drchipinski]

Mike,

I have 175 colleagues across the country and not ONE of them has a good battery door. As for your trackball....time is not on your side...trust me.

[mikeplus1]

Let me add that I receive and send about 300 emails a days...so I really need a BB for my corporate email...if they did not have the best service for that I would have been gone a long time ago.

I will not forecast that the new door will be a piece of sh*t....just have a hunch.

We have people with heavier usage and still no problems, but you might consider a case that completely eliminates the battery door issue if you are opposed to using a piece of tape inside your Tour battery door cover. The new Bold 9650 already has small piece of thick tape installed like the later Tour models.

[drchipinski]

Mike,

I hope you are right and there is nothing wrong with the door...I just base my observations/opinion on past usage.

[mikeplus1]

Mike,

I have 175 colleagues across the country and not ONE of them has a good battery door. As for your trackball....time is not on your side...trust me.

Thanks, but this is not my first BB and not the first with a trackball either for me or anyone else at our company. I have cleaned the TB using alcohol and sometimes using a paper strip as well as keeping my hands clean before use. We have many, many colleagues, clients, etc from around the world. Many of them have similar complaints to you, but we seem to never to hear from the vast majority of them because they have no complaints.

[mikeplus1]

Mike,

I hope you are right and there is nothing wrong with the door...I just base my observations/opinion on past usage.

dr, does your Tour have the small piece of thick black tape inside the battery door to hold it snugly in place?

[drchipinski]

it does...no matter what I have or VZW has tried to do...they still have movement...oh well.

[mikeplus1]

it does...no matter what I have or VZW has tried to do...they still have movement...oh well.

Well, a skin-type case will completely eliminate the movement of course. Try another piece of even thicker tape.
I swear to you, NOT one ours has ever had a loose cover.

[drchipinski]

Well, a skin-type case will completely eliminate the movement of course. Try another piece of even thicker tape.
I swear to you, NOT one ours has ever had a loose cover.

That is what my wife did....I just complaining until I was blue in the face..

[Dendrite]

it does...no matter what I have or VZW has tried to do...they still have movement...oh well.

This is a little worrisome for me. I, like most here, have watched Kevin's WES vid's several times now. It looks like the 9650 battery door is of the same design- which would infer the same tab anchor points of the door to the body. On some pics the door looks the same as the 9630. On other pics, the door appears to have ridges on it or "ribbed" (mint flavored maybe? ). Anyway, if the door attaches to the body of the 9650 the same way that the 9630 does, we may have, at least the potential for, battery door wobble. Hmmm, maybe I'll keep my roll of electrical tape handy!

[drchipinski]

I think a simple fix would have been to upgrade the door style to the 9700's...

[mikeplus1]

This is a little worrisome for me. I, like most here, have watched Kevin's WES vid's several times now. It looks like the 9650 battery door is of the same design- which would infer the same tab anchor points of the door to the body. On some pics the door looks the same as the 9630. On other pics, the door appears to have ridges on it or "ribbed" (mint flavored maybe? ). Anyway, if the door attaches to the body of the 9650 the same way that the 9630 does, we may have, at least the potential for, battery door wobble. Hmmm, maybe I'll keep my roll of electrical tape handy!

It exactly the same door at the Tour which was reported on April 8 of this year and is posted in pics and videos on this website and BGR's website which has several pictures posted where it can be seen clearly.

[drchipinski]

It exactly the same door at the Tour which was reported on April 8 of this year and is posted in pics and videos on this website and BGR's website which has several pictures posted where it can be seen clearly.

and you know what that means....oh boy!

[TheMiz]

I know they did not use the faux leather that fits like a drum....such BS.

Please don't take this the wrong way ,but for months I wondered what was all this talk about battery door, I had a Alltel Tour and had ZERO problems with that door, I now have the VZW Tour and have the sloppy door but the only difference I seen was the battery its self, the Alltel Blackberry Battery was rough to the feel and not smooth like the one in the Verizon Tour , I switched batteries and it made a difference both the same exact BB battery but one was smooth other was rough. The rough one doesn't slide over the rubberisd tape on the Alltel door.

[drchipinski]

Please don't take this the wrong way ,but for months I wondered what was all this talk about battery door, I had a Alltel Tour and had ZERO problems with that door, I now have the VZW Tour and have the sloppy door but the only difference I seen was the battery its self, the Alltel Blackberry Battery was rough to the feel and not smooth like the one in the Verizon Tour , I switched batteries and it made a difference both the same exact BB battery but one was smooth other was rough. The rough one doesn't slide over the rubberisd tape on the Alltel door.

I hope RIM resolved the problem. Anyone I know who has one has a bad one...even Verizon and RIM reps...

[Dendrite]

It exactly the same door at the Tour

Yeah, I see that as well from the new vids.

Actually, as funny as this may sound, the door is not what bugs me about my Tour. A strip of tape and my door is now perfectly snug. Problem solved. Sure, my trackball gets a bit wonky now and again but... I can clean it with an alcohol wipe or the paper strip trick and I'm good to go. Another problem easily solved.

What's not so easily solved and what's starting to bug me a little now about BB's in general is the Browser and an OS that looks a bit dated. Browsing experience is slow (OK, very slow) compared to some of the new Droid phones. Unless OS 6 is stellar (here's hoping!) or unless there's a suprise processor under the 9650 hood that is being kept under wraps (doubt it- I'm fully expecting 528 MHz), I wonder how a 528 (maybe a 624) processor is going to save face with the 1 GHz devices coming down the pike?

Even so, I see myself picking up a 9650 end of May or so, after giving it a few weeks on the street just to see how things shake out with early adopters!

[mikeplus1]

A strip of tape and my door is now perfectly snug. Problem solved. Sure, my trackball gets a bit wonky now and again but... I can clean it with an alcohol wipe or the paper strip trick and I'm good to go. Another problem easily solved.

Agreed, easy problem to solve so far anyway for us.

Browsing experience is slow (OK, very slow) compared to some of the new Droid phones. Unless OS 6 is stellar (here's hoping!) or unless there's a suprise processor under the 9650 hood that is being kept under wraps (doubt it- I'm fully expecting 528 MHz), I wonder how a 528 (maybe a 624) processor is going to save face with the 1 GHz devices coming down the pike?

Bold is probably not the best solution for a great browsing experience for sure. 1ghz processors on phones made for browsing and not for business e-mail, etc should make browsing experience on cell phone a lot better, but not everyone has the same priorities. I will not be surprised to see a 528mhz like the T1, but even the Pearl 3G has a 624mhz now, but no OpenGL ES support.

Even so, I see myself picking up a 9650 end of May or so, after giving it a few weeks on the street just to see how things shake out with early adopters!

So far, we do not see anything that will make us just have to go out and get one (or more) anytime soon, so we will probably sit back and wait to see what else comes out and let everyone else have fun with their new toys while we keep working with our Tours. We waited last year to see what would happen after the Tour came out and bought after the problems were fixed by RIM.

[Eric The Duke]

It would have been nice for the 9650 to have the fake leather battery door, but I think the important thing is that the door has a tight fit. If the 9650 door is loose, there are going to be a lot of pissed of users. They've had almost a year to fix the issue.