BlackBerry Tour2 9650 Hands On

By on Dec 23, 2009 at 2:42 PM
Exclusive December 23, 2009

BlackBerry-Tour2-1

What could be better than the original BlackBerry Tour? Well, the BlackBerry Tour2 obviously. We’ve just got a hold of one and will be putting it through our normal thorough review processes, but in the meantime, here are some first impressions:

  • Physical size is nearly, if not identical to the original BlackBerry Tour
  • The trackpad works great, just as you’d expect
  • We guessed the original Tour was slightly underpowered, and we were right. Fortunately the Tour2 seems to use the processor found in the Storm2, and that’s a welcome improvement. In the short time we’ve been using it, there aren’t many slowdowns that we’d normally get on the Tour, and the device feels much more snappy
  • The keyboard remains at greatness status
  • Wi-Fi works like any other BlackBerry

All in all a much-needed upgrade to keep Verizon and Sprint’s BlackBerry lineup current, and it might even be the device that sways me from my BlackBerry 9700… Photos in the gallery!

Click on over to our BlackBerry Tou2 9650 Hands On gallery!

Tags:
, , , , , ,
161 Comments

Related Articles

  • victoria

    the 9650 might be released by Verizon in a month or so. It’s also known as the BB Essex too, Hopefully it will really tour the users with its amazing specs. http://bit.ly/blackberry-9650-essex-details
    wow for the tour

    • jason

      the essex is a curve style blackberry, not exactly like the tour

      • Heath

        the essex is the new tour. it is not a new curve

  • mi_canuck

    i just picked up a 9700 yesterday, and if this thing is anything like it, it will be a very nice device indeed!

  • Bob

    I understand Bob Genius mentioned significant upgrade to the Tour in Tour 2 are the Trackpad over the Trackball (everyone who has a BB 9630 should get a free upgrade with the unreliable Trackbell) and he mentioned something about an upgrade in speed. Is this correct?

  • Bob

    In addition to my previous comments, I left out WI-FI that BG mentioned.

  • Tony

    And I almost used my Sprint upgrade for the first tour yesterday

  • TERENCE

    I HAVE THE BLACKBERRY TOUR FOR SPRINT AND I LOVE IT. THIS IS MY FIRST BLACKBERRY. I NOW WANT THE TOUR 2 SIMPLY BECAUSE THE ORIGINAL TOUR DOESNT HAVE WI-FI AND I HAD TO REPLACE MY PHONE 2 TIME JUST FOR THE TRACKBALL GOING OUT!!!

  • Darwin

    Well thats nice but they really need to do something about their archaic OS.

    • Hooney Heoh

      The latest 5.0 leak that I got from Crackberry.com has been running flawlessly on my Tour. You should check it out if you’re curious

      • Leaked

        The only problem running leaked software is that it will not be supported by the carrier or RIM at all.
        So you are taking a chance there should something go wrong.

  • http://www.louisvillecolorado-realestate.com Andrea

    I agree with Darwin. Wi-Fi was a good addition as well. I would love to see a revise to the OS.

  • Jay

    Where is the thorough review from Boy Genius? It’s been more than a month since he promised it…

  • Randy Savage

    I have the 9700 and it’s an amazing phone! I need some advice though. While the phone does everything it is supposed to do really well, I’m getting a little bored with it. Does anybody out here know any good apps, themes, ANYTHING that will make the phone a little more entertaining. I’m open to all suggestions, including ones that may cost money. I’m considering an android phone as my next device because of all the goofy yet entertaining apps you can get for it. Thanks for the input.

    • max Specter

      r u a fan of word mole?
      a good app for bbm is a little thing called
      (fancy characters) it adds a bunch of thing to the bbm experience

  • Sean

    Honestly, I think the trackpad makes blackberries look extremely ugly. But they do work better ;)

  • B

    It feels like RIM has gone a little overboard or overly commercial with all these BBs now. Anyway, how’s this model in comparison to the Bold 9700?

  • Hooney Heoh

    Seems kind of unfair that us 9630 users have been stuck with faulty trackballs and neither RIM nor our carriers did anything for us besides replacing our devices for shinier ones that still had the same faulty trackball. But of course they won’t listen to any of our protests..

  • BBstorm

    beautiful phone….the screen looks like a storm screen….i want it…LOL

  • Alan Cassell

    I want it toooo……!

    • Sheila

      I have the BB 8530. Got if xmas eve. NFL mobile Live did not work. (just recvd new link yesterday. It works now) LED lites are off centerd, back lite does not lite up when keys are touched. Now, Sprint TV will not load. I bought the Tour 9630 on black Friday for 99.00. Speaker went out and usb cable was shot. Battery was bad also. I hope I have a better experience with Tour 2. This is my first BB and what a way to get introduced! I have 2days before my 30 days are up to either go back to my Centro or keep the BB 8530 until my next upgrade for the BB Tour 2.

  • huong316

    WHEN IS THE RELEASE????? I NEED A NEW BB!!!!

  • Jake

    just leting u all know it will be called THE BOLD Not the TOUR 2..i have friends who work in verizon and the gave me all the details..Relaese date April 1st 2010

    • Scott

      HELL Yeah! I just got the tour and love it! But…. It freezes a tad… And the track ball randomly stopped working today but started again once I restarted it. I hope it does come out for April 1st because then I can trade it in for the upgrade because its within 30 days! :)

  • Jeff

    RIM needs to stop d*cking around and incorporate the Android OS into the Blackberry and rule the world. The Blackberry OS is ssslloowww.

  • RJ

    Hey thats a good idea. Make the BB OS android opensource. Then it all we need to do on our BB is search google to get an app. that will allow us to close an application. Now that is cool. We might even get a compass, or scrabble , or just think we could even play checkers on our blackberry’s. Now thats serious business. I gotta go now the drive-thru is getting backed up.

1 2 3 4
blog comments powered by Disqus