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RIM Finally Gets Around To Announcing The BlackBerry 9630 Tour

Today Research In Motion confirmed the existence of the BlackBerry 9630 Tour, a device that's been a blogosphere favorite for months now. Similar to the Storm, the Tour's stand-out feature is its support for both EVDO Rev. A and GSM/EDGE/HSDPA cellular networks. Too bad there's no Wi-Fi. Expect to see it at both Verizon and Sprint in July.

Ah, finally. This device has been talked about for months. It's a relief that RIM finally copped to its existence.

The Tour carries on the black, chrome and red design language of the Bold and Storm. It has a full QWERTY keyboard for pecking out emails and messages. RIM points out that its display, which measures 2.44 inches across the diagonal, packs in 480 by 340 pixels, making it a very high resolution screen.

Similar to the BlackBerry Storm, the Tour supports Verizon's EVDO Rev. A 3G network, and it also includes quad-band GSM/EDGE and 2100MHz HSDPA for 3G roaming in Europe. Sadly, the Tour mimics the Storm in that it doesn't include Wi-Fi. This is a real shame. Sure, the Tour supports the fastest 3G networks available, but Wi-Fi is a must-have feature for smartphones these days.

Other features are eerily identical to the Storm. It has a 3.2 megapixel camera complete with flash, autofocus, video capture and geo-tagging. A full HTML browser is on board, as well.

Bluetooth 2.0 is there, which supports mono and stereo headsets, handsfree devices and phone book access. It also has a 3.5mm headset jack for most stereo headphones and the same media player that's found on the Storm.

According to RIM, the Tour boasts 5 hours of talk time and a full 2 weeks of standby time.

Both Verizon Wireless and Sprint have said they will offer the Tour, most likely in July. Sprint will sell it for $200 after mail-in rebate with new agreement.

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