Tour Guide: Hands-on with the BlackBerry Tour

Last night at the Pepcom event here in Manhattan, we had a chance to go hands-on with the BlackBerry Tour, the latest CDMA/EV-DO Rev. A device that will land on both Sprint and Verizon Wireless later this summer. The Tour looks and feels a lot like the current Curve 8900, but it has a 3G radio inside for faster data speeds. Unlike the aforementioned 8900 and the Bold, though, it doesn’t support Wi-Fi networks, so you’ll need to rely only on its EV-DO Rev. A connection, and that means compelling applications like Primetime2Go are out of the question (for now, anyway). The phone has a large keyboard that a few of us on staff were divided over. Some liked its Bold similarities–larger toothed keys that are closer together–and others preferred the wider spacing of the keys on the original Curve. The Tour is also noticeably heavier than both the Curve 8900 and the Bold, so it felt a bit more like the Storm in terms of weight. As noted the device will launch later this summer for $199 with a 2-year contract. Stay tuned for a full review as soon as we get one in house, so far we’re impressed by what the design and hardware of the Tour. Read on for a full gallery.