There’s practically zero doubt remaining that RIM has a next-generation Tour in the works, but if you’re one of those tin foil hat wearers, you’ll be glad to know that at least one of these things really, truly exists.Boy Genius just got his paws around the Tour2 9650 (shown left), and aside from the optical trackpad replacing the trackball (and the addition of a WiFi module), there’s not much new here. Oh, except that presumably quicker CPU — we’re guessing to-be owners will dig that. We’re

told that the physical size is practically identical to the original Tour, and the keyboard is still phenomenal. Care to take a look? Sure you do –

What could be better than the original BlackBerry Tour? Well, the BlackBerry Tour2 obviously. We’ve just got a hold of one and will be putting it through our normal thorough review processes, but in the meantime, here are some first impressions:

• Physical size is nearly, if not identical to the original BlackBerry Tour
• The trackpad works great, just as you’d expect
• We guessed the original Tour was slightly underpowered, and we were right. Fortunately the Tour2 seems to use the processor found in the Storm2, and that’s a welcome improvement. In the short time we’ve been using it, there aren’t many slowdowns that we’d normally get on the Tour, and the device feels much more snappy
• The keyboard remains at greatness status
• Wi-Fi works like any other BlackBerry

All in all a much-needed upgrade to keep Verizon and Sprint’s BlackBerry lineup current, and it might even be the device that sways me from my BlackBerry 9700… Photos in the gallery!

[BGR]

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