Blackberry Tour 2 aka 9650, Essex get's video review

The good folks at Blackberry look to have a new CDMA blackberry ready to enter the smart phone market. Will it take on the iPhone or any of the Android powered devices? To give that argument a rest people should just ask if the phone will satisfy there most important needs(as this is phone that falls into the needs not wants category). The blackberry come with a few major upgrades which are WiFi, more memory and The TrackPad(Fixing many of the complaints people have had with the Trackball). The phone will be available on Verizon and Sprint.

No Specifications to date.



more info on the blackberry
www.blackberry.com/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlackBerry
crackberry.com/
www.blackberryforums.com/

New Blackberry Curve 8530 up on Sprint web site

http://now.sprint.com/8530/?id16=8530

It's a great new phone, if your up on your contract we'd recommend the blackberry Tour. The only real new thing with the blackberry curve or Tour Light is the Trackpad. Other than that there's not much of a difference versus the older trusty blackberry curve. The screen resolution is still the same at 320/240 and camera still at 2.0. The Tour however is the best blackberry on the market until the blackberry 3.2MP camera with Flash and Auto-Focus. And a better construction, world wide GSM(including local ATT & Tmobile incase you ever decide to crossover). Also the Tour has a more potent battery at 1400mAh vs the Curve at 1150mAh.


In short the Tour and Curve will look different but will be closer in price. The Tour will hold greater value in the long run if you decide to sell it locally or overseas or switch providers locally or overseas. The trackpad is great but don't let it fool you of it's real value...

The curve is simply RIM's attempt to win in the market they can win in now which is the lowend. However customers have become spoiled and expect more for less of a price. If apple's selling a iPhone at $99 and Droids are selling at $179 it will be hard to pull wool over the customers eye. By cutting down on the Resolution, battery life, Camera and sturdiness. In short RIM would have been better off only launching one product the Tour on Verizon and Sprint. I'm guessing they don't want executives seen with the same devices as savvy teenagers. Well Apple has been able to rock that balance as well as cocacola. Same product across the tax brackets...

more information can be found here:
http://na.blackberry.com/eng/devices/blackberrycurve8500/curve_specifications.jsp

Sprint, Verizon launch Blackberry Tour, will it compete with the iPhone?

It's been a long time since Sprint, Verizon have upgraded their blackberry line ups and a lot has changed since then. The iPhone that was atleast "5 years ahead of the competition' as Steve Jobs put it is even further ahead now. All the weak points, copy & paste, 3G, price etc.. have been corrected and they are now on the 3rd version in less than 2 years.

The blackberry tour, you'll notice none of the big shot editors have bothered taking time out to review it as their's not that much change other some physical hardware.

-256 on board memory

• 3.2-MP auto-focus camera with geo-tagging functionality - easily identify where you took your pics.
• MicroSD™ card slot supports up to 16 GB (256MB RAM)

Summary the phone is a great improvement/brush up from previous blackberry models. But nothing to be impressed with or for anyone to want to be stuck with in a 2 year contract. Especial after witnessing what the iPhone has accomplished in two years.

However for anyone perfectly happy with the blackberry as is and only cares about reliability, phone and speedy email. This blackberry is highly recommended. With the dive in RIM's market share I would expect them to release a more engaging device Fall this year if they plan to stay in the game. And with that in mind wouldn't be fun to be locked in this contract for 2 years for minor upgrades.