14 DAY TRIAL // Canadian wireless carrier Bell has already launched the BlackBerry Tour 9630 on its airwaves, although it was expected to do so only on July 17. The greatest part here is that the operator has managed to step ahead of Sprint and Verizon with the release of the handset. While the US operators launched the device on July 12, Bell had it available starting July 11, one day before. At the same time, the carrier is the first one to release the BlackBerry world phone in the country, outpacing Telus, which is expected to launch the Tour only on July 15.
The price tag of the BlackBerry 9630 on Bell has been set at CAD $249.95 on a three-year contract agreement, though users will also be able to purchase the phone with one- or two-year agreements, as well as outright. The full retail price for the device is of $699.95, while the one-year contract one will empty users' pockets by $649.95. Those choosing a two-year service deal will have to pay $549.95 for the BlackBerry Tour, the same as on Telus.
For this amount of money, Canadians will receive a device that sports advanced multimedia capabilities, as well as powerful email and Internet capabilities, a full QWERTY keyboard, and a 3.2-megapixel photo snapper with auto focus. Other capabilities have been included in the package as well, such as the assisted GPS functionality, support for BlackBerry Maps, support for social networking sites, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel file viewing and editing features, as well as support for the BlackBerry App World.
The specifications list of the phone also includes the Geotagging functionality, Video recording, the media player, the Speakerphone, 256MB of internal memory, a MicroSD memory card slot with support for up to 32GB of additional storage space, an HVGA display (480 x 360-pixel resolution) and support for Quad-Band: 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900MHz GSM/GPRS/EDGE networks, Single-Band: 2100 MHz UMTS/HSPA networks, Dual-Band: 800/1900 MHz CDMA/EVDO Rev A networks. More details can be found on Bell's website.