Cool Stuffs Review

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Customer Reviews :

Email software lacks complete IMAP support July 14, 2009
By Ryuji Suzuki (Cambridge, MA USA)

I have used Palm Treo 700p (Verizon) for a really long time, and also used Palm Pre for a week (Sprint), prior to switching to Blackberry Tour (Verizon again).

THE POSITIVES:

Blackberry Tour is a well built, very practical phone, and feels very nicely in my hand.

The OS seems stable and reliable. It doesn't have many hiccups (brief freezes) as older generation smart phones, and even when hiccup occurs, it's very brief. It also has a very good keyboard, which is easier to type than Treo 700p, which I've long considered the best keyboard among smart phones (700p had better keyboard than Palm Pre), and it has excellent screen, with rich colors, sharp, crisp images and bright images that are easy to see even outdoors. The screen is smaller than iPhone and Palm Pre, but it has more pixels than many other smart phones; text is easy to read, even in small sizes, and outdoors while walking, and images are really rich of details. The battery life is excellent, camera is usable, 3.5mm headset jack is a good move (while I'm not sure if micro USB is a good move). The speaker phone is loud and clear enough for checking voice mail and waiting for "next available customer service rep" in a private office.

Integration of basic functions, among phone, text message, address book, is very good. Perhaps comparable to Palm OS. Very easy to call someone from text message view, or vice versa (which was not true with Pre).

NEGATIVE:

Email I don't know who started saying "BlackBerry is good at email" but it seems not true. If your company sets up Blackberry Enterprise Server, or if you use one basic email service with just one folder, it may be adequate for basic email access. However, most people who buy a smart phone have a bit more interesting life, and many of them are creative professionals, academics, freelancers, or simply people with multiple worlds. These types of people often use multiple email accounts, or multiple folders within one IMAP server, and use each for different purposes. Blackberry Enterprise Server is not an option for this type of people, and this is the type of people who will find BlackBerry's email functions vastly inadequate.

My ancient Palm Treo 700p with Chatter Mail provides much nicer user interface and full IMAP access to the email server, with access to any IMAP folder and with real time notification (equivalent to push email). The email software on BlackBerry can access only the Inbox folder, and you cannot change it. Why don't they provide direct access to any IMAP server and any IMAP folder, is beyond my understanding. Sure, Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) may provide a bit better access, and which was one of the original Blackberry technology years ago, but, lack of proper IMAP support sets this phone behind now-obsolete Palm phones and iPhone. Even though open standard IMAP is widespread, RIM might want to keep multiple folder access for BES users, and as a consequence, frustration is building up among users as most blackberry related forums have several threads on this topic, with no acceptable solutions available.

RIM, why can't I do the basic email on this brand new 2009 phone, which I could do perfectly well on a 2006 phone?

ANOTHER NEGATIVE: Voice quality

I thought the voice quality of this phone was good. Well, the sound you hear from this phone is awesome. But a number of my friends noticed that I changed my phone, and they all pointed out that my voice sounds muffled. I was told that the muffled voice is hard to understand and requires focused listening, so this voice quality is not really suitable for talking to business clients (especially the first phone call with prospective clients). I confirmed this by recording my own voice into voicemail greeting message. The problem is that the tiny hole of the microphone is located on the bottom side, pointing down, and this is not very ideal to pick up high frequency components of the voice from my mouth in the regular way you hold the phone. One potential solution is to use a speaker phone and talk directly into that hole. When I do that, my voice is on the loud side but not loud enough to distort the sound. Another option is to use a headset. Either way, the voice quality is not ideal unless you do something. Another negative from Palm Treo 700p, which had excellent voice quality.

ANOTHER NEGATIVE: Mac OS compatibility

Blackberry Tour syncs with Mac OS, its standard Address Book, iCal, etc. through a third party software called PocketMac, which you can download from RIM website. The sync is slow, but serviceable. The problem is that, PocketMac doesn't let music and photos be synchronized with Blackberry even though the media card (micro SD card) is inserted and recognized by the phone. This may be a problem with PocketMac, which I hope they'll fix soon.

I took a point off, but let me explain. The phone as a hardware probably deserves 6 stars. The email software deserves 2 stars. Voice quality deserves 3 stars. There are some minor annoyances specific to blackberry (such as it can't vibrate and ring simultaneously without using a third party software) that deserves some points off. I really wanted to give it 3 stars, but I'll give it 4 for now.

Another GREAT Blackberry - The Tour 9630 July 16, 2009
Reviewer: Tarun Chachra "Tarun Chachra" (Hillsborough, NJ)

So, I have been using blackberries ever since the day they were released with the 8xx model and have since been through almost every model that has come out, including the Storm for one day. My recent device of choice was the Blackberry Curve II or 8900 which was a EDGE and Wi-Fi enabled blackberry with a beautiful screen and a great keyboard. The device prior was a Blackberry Bold, which incidentally sparked the new generation of Blackberries. Today I received my Blackberry Tour 9630 running on the Verizon Wireless network....sorry but the guy in the glasses was nowhere to be seen in the box and or around me. Jokes aside, the Tour touts the Verizon EVDO network and no Wi-Fi; it does have a SIM so that it can be used globally. I know there are dozens of reviews on this product so I am not going to go in to the features, I am merely going to try to share my experience with the device after one day.

Missing WI-FI: When the device became available I was a little worried that the lack of Wi-Fi might hamper its functionality, especially when doing things that required constant streams of data. I love TWITTER, as you all know by now, and thus I was worried that using apps such as the beautiful "Tweet Genius" would be cumbersome due to updates coming over the aged CDMA network. However, much to my surprise the speed is wonderful and I have yet to see any need for the missing Wi-Fi radio.

Battery Life: Time will best tell this tale, but as of now the battery stands at a cool 80%. The battery was fully charged by the time I got the unit in my hands, in fact it had been charged overnight by one of my associates. I received the unit at about 8am this morning and started the Verizon activation process. Once activated on the network, I proceeded to do a Blackberry Enterprise Server activation for corporate email, etc. I have since been using it, rather heavily, for email, twitter, and even streaming financial data. Battery loss of approximately 20% after almost 11.5 hours of moderate/heavy usage to me is phenomenal, but, as I said time will tell this tale and I will post updates about it when I can.

Keyboard: The Tour has a similar keyboard to the bold, except it seems to me that the keys are raised a bit more. The little addition of height allows for a better feel of the keys thus making typing a breeze. I was not a huge fan of the Bold keyboard but I do love the Curve II keyboard and now it would seem that this new style keyboard may just be the winner of the bunch. I am appreciative of the fact that Verizon left the number keys colored RED which AT&T always wants to re-color to white. The red actually provides for some contrast and makes using the device a bit more pleasurable.

Screen: The screen on the Tour is the same beautiful half VGA (480x360) screen found on the 8900 (Curve II). It is bright, sharp, and displays 65,000 colors. Not much more can be said...but it comes close to perfect for the Blackberries.

Camera: Again the same as the 8900, a 3.2mp auto focus camera with image stabilization and video capturing abilities. Yes, there is a flash also for those dark moments.

Charging: As with every new cellular device, this has a Micro USB port positioned on its right side...which is a little bit of a bad placement job as it was on the 8900, but, not a deal breaker. My only gripe here is that I tend to want to use Blackberry Docks and with all of these different devices you must acquire a different dock. #FAIL on the dock not being universal...but accessories make these guys big money and so they do what they must.

Sound: The built in speaker is finally right, its not stereo like the Bold but its also not tinny sounding like the 8900. It sounds great. The speaker for your ears sounds, to me, equally balanced for once...so it does'nt seem like someone is shouting in your ears..its a well balanced mid range sound. Overall Feel: This Blackberry is HEAVY, and I mean heavy. Personally I like to know that I am holding on to something and the weight of the 9630 makes it feel solid. If you are into holsters then you know this thing is on your belt. Enough said!

Final Thoughts: The Tour comes with a newer version of the Blackberry operating system, v4.7.1.40, which is coincidentally used on the Storm. The OS seems to be well suited for the Tour and is very responsive. I did notice it stick here or there, but that has only happened 2-3 times and I am certain it was because I was taxing the device. I am, thus far, quite happy with this new iteration of the Blackberry and hope that I will have many days ahead with it.

Box Includes: Blackberry, Battery, AC Adapter w Word Adapter, Micro-USB Cable, Blackberry Ear Buds, Plastic/Pleather Holster, Documentation, Blackberry Desktop Manager SW CD, and a BONUS: 2GB Micro SD CARD.

I could go on into much more detail, but it would be redundant as there are thousands of reviews of Blackberries out there...I just wanted to share what I felt and thus the most pertinent observations are above. Please let me know if any of you are using this device and what your thoughts are.