BlackBerry Tour 9630 from Verizon - Design

The BlackBerry Tour 9630 from Verizon maintains the BlackBerry's standard in design as well. The smartphone is solid and well built, yet still fits into a pocket easily. The 9630 weighs in at 4.5 ounces and measures 4.4 inches tall by 2.4 inches wide by 0.6 inches thick.

The 9630 produces vibrant, crisp images thanks to a 2.4 inch screen with 480x360 resolution that displays 65,536 colors. Besides the screen, the rest of the front of the 9630 is taken up by its 35-key QWERTY keyboard, which is responsive and easy to type with despite not being all that large. The keys illuminate in the dark to help improve visibility and are not completely flat to prevent slippage from users that suffer the plight of sweaty hand syndrome. Navigating the 9630's user-friendly interface and menus is a breeze thanks to its trackball navigator that rests just above the keyboard.

Rounding out the layout of the Tour 9630 are the lock and mute buttons at the top of the device, a 3.5mm headphone jack (a nice plus), volume rocker, and microUSB port on the right, microSD expansion slot and SIM card behind the battery cover, and 3.2 megapixel camera on the back of the smartphone.

The BlackBerry Tour 9630 also delivers in terms of performance. Call quality is clear normally and when using the speakerphone. The 9630's battery has a rated talk time of 5 hours and 14 days of standby time. The 9630 runs without sluggishness in performing tasks thanks to its 528MHz Qualcomm processor, and the EV-DO Rev. A delivers while surfing the net and performing downloads.

For Verizon subscribers in need of a do-it-all smartphone, the BlackBerry Tour 9630 is a no-brainer. The lack of Wi-Fi is disappointing, but several other connectivity options are present. There are plenty of entertainment features available in the way of multimedia and apps, and if you are someone that is always on the run, travels a lot, or needs a smartphone to support your business needs, the Tour 9630 is a strong buy.