[J Pea]

DISCLAIMER: I am not a BB guy. I have never used a BB. This post is not intended for those of you who already love BB, it is for the ones trying to decide about BB. In addition, this is not intended to be about the technical aspects of the phones, simply design, ease of use, first appearances, etc.

With that said, I have Sprint. I like Sprint. They have decent coverage, an amazing service plan, and the customer service, when you get to speak with someone here in the U.S., is quite good.

My contract was just about up, and for the reasons above I decided to stay with Sprint. The problem with Sprint is that their phones are awful, we are all aware of this. When the Pre came out it looked cool, but I was hesitant about its durability. Then came the BB Tour. Not as much advertising as the Pre, but the buzz about the Tour was intriguing. So I ordered it. Stupid of me to order it without actually checking it out, my bad.

When it arrived I was excited. New phone, cool phone, supposed to be a great phone. The second I opened the box I knew I had made a mistake. First of all, most of the phone is made in Mexico. Just looking at the phone it looks plastic-y and cheap. Then it continued. The phone, including the screen and visuals, looks antiquated. This phone would have been cool 5 years ago. It�s 2009, and you�re competing with an iPhone, c�mon�! I hated the track ball. I hated how you moved between applications. To make it worse, the phone didn�t have a Browser application. I was on the phone with Sprint for about 2 hours trying to �provision� the phone to get it working correctly. Admittedly I�m no computer genius, but today, IMO you should open the box and the thing should work. Anyway, Sprint told me to take it to a store so they could wipe it out and start over since there was clearly a glitch. A glitch, thanks for that. My mind was already made up that the Tour had to go.

Next day, less then 24 hours of having the Tour I went to Sprint and turned it in. I got the Pre, didn�t really have much of a choice (see note above about Sprint�s lack of decent phones). It cost me a $35 �restocking� fee, which I�m not happy about since I barely even turned the Tour on at all, but whatever, it was the best $35 I spent.

The Pre is great. I still have questions about its durability with the sliding keyboard, but so far I love it. VERY user friendly. Took it out of the box and everything was ready to go. The graphics are great. Touch screen is great. And it seems to do everything. The keyboard is very easy to type on (Tour�s was cramped and again, cheap). It's also stylish. It looks like a phone that is going to be exciting. I�m hoping that Palm comes out with something like the Pre with no sliding keyboard (more like the iPhone) in the future, then I will be hooked on Pre.

So, if you use Sprint, get the Pre, you will be happy with it. If you don�t have Sprint, get the iPhone, because without a doubt it�s the best phone available today. I hope this helped those of you non-BB users consider your decisions carefully.

[Wholesalestunna]

I have sprint.... I have a curve and love it. I would break the pre in half the way I am with phones.
The problems you had with the tour are not blackberry issues, But an error on the part of sprint as they didn't set your phone up properly.

Glad to hear you got it all resolved and are happy now though.

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[reeneebob]

I am really tempted to trash my berry when my contract is up and go with a Pre. Its just so good looking and I love the interface.

I don't understand why RIM brings out new devices and does nothing to improve the interface.

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[enriquenarez]

Hahahaha! The Tour is cheap and plasticky? The Tour has a cramped keyboard?? I loved my old Pre but L...O....L...

Edit: Hahahaha, still laughing. Please tell me you where joking.

[StrwBerryBlond]

J P Its understandable that you would be so disappointed after the build up of excitement over your new phone. However, just because you were sent a device that wasn't properly configured does not mean that every device from that manufacturer is going to be that way. This is true for everything, not just cell phones.

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[bjelder]

I really don't think that this was an educated enough post to be considered help to those trying to decide which phone to go with...

Appearances are personal preference. I happen to think the Pre looks like a pre-school toy, but I'm not going over to a palm forum trying to persuade people to get a Blackberry because of it...

[beto929]

Yes the pre looks very plasticky i hate it.

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[wm2485]

when i went to the sprint store to have my numbers swapped over to the tour they had 2 palm pres on display and both were broken. which kinda sucked cus ive never messed with one. But i felt like i made the right choice by getting the tour.

[MNotar91]

Worst post I have ever read on these forums. Clearly, the OP knows nothing about smartphones and was just looking for the flashiest phone available on his carrier. I'm not even going to take the time to explain why I feel this way, any educated user here probably knows why.

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[Pimp Lucious]

Hahahaha! The Tour is cheap and plasticky? The Tour has a cramped keyboard?? I loved my old Pre but L...O....L...

Edit: Hahahaha, still laughing. Please tell me you where joking.

I feel the same. I had to throw a screen protector on my Pre and put it in a hard plastic shell case just to feel secure laying it down. It's a beautiful phone, but it was like carrying around a baby. Granted i would have done the same with a iphone. I've seen the Tour and it's a beautiful well built phone, as was my 8330 Curve. While I don't see myself going back to BB OS after experiencing the beauty of WebOS, if I had to give up my Pre, the Tour would be my next option. Well that's until we see what kind of Android goodness Sprint is cooking up for later this year.

[fabuloso]

Lol, Sprint felt plasticky.

I switched for lack of phones and lack of service. You stayed to get a Pre?

Someone obviously didn't do research on smart phones, and failed to even go to the store to play with the demos.

Gtfo sir. Your love for the Pre isn't needed here.

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[tehBrad]

All Blackberry's have a little bit of a learning curve to them. you cant just open the box and expect to be an expert. You gave the phone no chance at all