Basic Features

The Tour comes packed with the usual applications -- an alarm clock, memo pad, calculator, voice dialing, voice recording, password keeper, tasks and a calendar. It also has a media center for storing and viewing pictures and video and organizing songs and ringtones.

Each contact listing can include name, ID picture, company, job title, two emails, two work numbers, two home numbers, a cell phone number, fax number, pager, work and home addresses, birthday, anniversary, web pages and user names.

Verizon's version of the Tour doesn't differ much from the Sprint model, except Sprint plans to launch a new Wi-Fi-enabled version in 2010.

Screen

The 2.6-inch diagonal screen on the Tour is smaller than many touch screens but about average -- and in some cases a bit above it -- for the average smartphone. It also offers the highest resolution available on any BlackBerry display

Menu screens are easy to read and easy to navigate, but a bit drab in some areas. Few designers have mastered an eye-pleasing way to set up messaging and calendar menus, and the Tour's format is no exception. Also, some of the menus are a bit dark, which goes against the reason for having a mostly-black phone -- to showcase color on the screen.

Fortunately, videos can take advantage of the hidden framing. The 65K-color screen is on the low-end, but the Tour gets the most out of those colors with 480 x 340 px images, sharp video images and great picture quality, thanks to the 3.2-megapixel camera.

The LCD is a good size with good quality. Unfortunately, menus don't always take advantage of the color possibilities that would be best accented by the handset's black shell.

Audio

The power of the Tour's side speaker is exceptional when playing music, videos and ringtones -- pumping out music at volumes louder than some laptops can reach. The only issue with the speaker is that it's located on the left side of the handset. Dual speakers on both sides would pack a wallop of sound and spread out the tunes for a better stereo effect.

The stereo headset gets great sound quality as well. The handset comes with 68 built in ringtones/sounds, although only eight of those are song-style tones, meaning shopping for ringtones will be a likely task for consumers.

Those tones, as well as song downloads, are available by downloading VCAST Music with Rhapsody.

The phone plays audio well but isn't so hot at recording audio. Voice notes recorded onto the phone sound about as clear as a digital voice recorder, but sounds recorded on video sound like they've been taped in a tunnel.

The Tour packs a punch with crisp song and ringtone sounds. It could use a few improvement, though, when it comes to audio recording quality on the camcorder. The left-side speaker cranks out the music louder than many devices on the market. But a right-side speaker for balance would be a nice addition in a future version.

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