Yes, 5.0 is already available on pretty much every carrier, but Verizon. Alltel and Sprint have released it.

I would wait. The trackpad, additional memory, and wifi will make the phone a solid upgrade. I expect you will see the Tour2 within the next 30-60 days. If youre not in a rush, just wait.

I sold my tour a month ago in anticipation of this device. The Tour was NOT a good experience for me. That phone was not ready for primetime.

Chris

Thanks Chris. I am not in a rush but would like to replace my Curve in the near future. I briefly looked at the trackpad on the Curve 2 and wasn't impressed but I think that had more to do with the phone itself because it feels cheaply made. How much additional memory is there on the Tour 2 and what will wifi do for me?

What were your problems with your Tour? I have thought of going Droid but I am not into apps and use my BB more for the phone and email but still do some browsing. I am comfortable with BlackBerry because it is all I have known for a few years. Any other phone recommendations? I appreciate your help.

Chris

Yeah the curve 2 is garbage, barely better than the orig

I had trackball issues, lag all the time, no wifi, the earpiece sucks (people always saying they cant hear you). Just not a great device.

The web experience is still horrible on blackberry, but hopefully that will change sooner than later with a new webkit browser on the way in the summer.

And wifi allows you to send and recieve data when you have no reception. May also be able to use skype to make phone calls via wifi (or use google voice). Its a feature on every single high end smart phone, and it should be on every blackberry from now on.

Chris

Thanks for educating me on wifi. It sounds like since I am not in a big hurry that I will wait for the Tour 2. My only concern is that I am not a big fan of getting any phone when it first comes out due early problems with most phones.

I have a Curve right now and the battery is not good and I really do not want to buy a new one since I am up for my NE2. How is the transition from a BB to other smart phones i.e. a Droid phone? The web-browsing seems much better but I am not sure about the phone quality and email. Plus like I said earlier, I am not into the whole "apps" scene.

Thanks again for your help.

Chris

BB VS ANDROID Boils down to this....

Do you value messaging (sms, bbm, email, etc) or apps and a full web browsing experience.

I had a droid for about 5 days and had to switch back to a blackberry. The droid was pretty sweet, but Android still feels a little un polished to me. I love the web experience and the email is actually really fast....but I missed my blackberry.

Im a mac guy, so if verizon gets the iphone, I might try it out, but otherwise I will prolly stick with blackberry.


Chris

Thanks. I think I want to try a Droid but I think I would miss my BB. I have mixed feeling towards the iphone. I think it is great with the exception of what it has done to data on ATT. Can Verizon handle the increase in data demand that ATT has been unable to handle? It is a sweet phone as long as it works as a phone first and doesn't drop calls.

I don't miss my Blackberry all that much. If you dig around on this board, you'll find I was a BIG Blackberry supporter. I've had people email me and get on my case for dropping Blackberry cold-turkey.

The Droid is the best phone I've ever used. That doesn't necessarily make it the best phone for everyone else.

I use gmail, which is still more functional on the Blackberry. I get my email a whole minute after the Blackberry (which is really not an issue when you think about it). The Blackberry is the king of ease of use with email.

I don't do much in apps, but for what I have used, the Droid has done much better than my Blackberry. I'm primarily using the phone for web, text, email, and phone (in that order).

I never knew ho...
(continues)

I used the Bolt browser when I had my curve active. The standard browser for Blackberry is pretty sad. But it was cool to have Bolt,
Opera and the standard browser all launched at the same time. I'm not sure who really needs all that though.

The Tour 1(?) is an awful device. This coming from someone who has used Blackberry's for 11 years or so.

My issue with the Tour is the placement of the charging port, the trackball is a mess, the web browser is awful and slow, battery life stinks, frequent device crashes, and the voice quality is poor.

I have seen a definite decline in Blackberry's over the last 2 to 3 years. I miss my old 850 more and more.

Maybe the Tour-2 will be better, but, I am not holding my breath.

As a chronic BlackBerry user, what are you using? How is the transition to a different smart phone platform? I like my BB and I am comfortable with it as phone but would change to a different device if I had to. My concern is that after using a BB that going to another device would be a pain in the arse.

Currently I use the 9630 (Tour). I am also using an iPod Touch on WiFi networks whenever and wherever possible.

As for transition, based on my experience with iPod Touch, when VZW gets the iPhone, I am confident that I will have no issue making the move.

I use the Storm and my wife uses the Tour, but after seeing what the Androids are capable of, I'm not sure I'll be a RIM user after my current crop of Blackberries wears out.

I'm seeing only a few reasons to stick with Blackberry in todays marketplace:

1: Near-instant email. RIM still does broad email delivery faster then everyone else- but I'm not a stoke broker so checking every 15 minutes is just as good as updating every 20 seconds as far as I'm concerned.
2: "My I.T. guys told me I have to have one."
3: "I'm addicted to BBM, and everyone else I know already has a BB."
4: "I need to have my handheld 100% sync'd with MS Outlook. Google Calendar isn't good enough for me."

Unless you have one of these mantras tattooed on your...
(continues)

Those dang IT guys...

and stoke brokers.

And I'd tell someone with #4 to get the Google Outlook sync app and keep their mouth shut. 🙂

epik said:
And I'd tell someone with #4 to get the Google Outlook sync app and keep their mouth shut. 🙂

The Tasks & Memos workaround to make them show up on the Android phones really, really sucks.

For calendar, it works great.