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BlackBerry Tour Video: Good Trackball vs. Bad Trackball Posted in Devices on 17 Sep 2009 12:55 by Kevin Michaluk | 
84 comments
Following up on last night's BlackBerry Tour Trackball issues post/poll, there's been a ton of interest and feedback on the topic. For BlackBerry owners who frequent the CrackBerry BlackBerry Tour forums, none of this is really news, as those who have been dealing with the issue first hand know the issues and fixes. If you're not familiar with the situation, the biggest takeway currently is that devices with a "green dot" placed under the battery signify units that have been manufactured more recently that should be free of the trackball glitch. Likewise, units with more recent manufacturing build dates (mid/late August and newer) should be rock solid. CrackBerry member kingzee did up the video above back on August 23rd which sums up the whole situation. If you're a Tour owner with a glitchy trackball, you'll want to sit back and watch. Good vid kingzee! Bookmark/Search this post with:
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i have to say after seeing this back then i called big red and told em i would be needing a new tour so thx for the help and video on this...
Great video man, now i'm kinda glad I held out on getting a tour
hope the 9700 doesnt come with these issues
Somehow, I doubt the 9700 will have this issue.. the trackpad has no moving parts like the trackball. The trackpad is a button like any other on the keyboard - it just has a touch sensor for navigation like a touchpad in any garden-variety laptop. :)
I thought i had a somewhat defective trackball but didnt want to jump to conclustion and was excited to have my new Tour(picked up on release day. Now my GF has one and her track ball is 100 times better than mine, scrolling left-right is sloppy and the ball compresses about 80% on a lite touch and barely has any *click*. Hers depresses about 20% and has a significant *click* you can feel. Now i have a Phantom Skinz on my tour that i will have to remove. Should i just replace the assembly myself?
Thanks KingZee... well done...
Nice vid.
Hopefully, it was a bad batch, that just needs to be worked out of the system, would be better if they could identify the issue
To be honest, this issue is actually dying out in the Tour forum (thank god!). Anyone who was having issues with it have already dealt with Verizon and gotten a quality replacement. Many of us, including myself, do encounter some issues but have learned to deal with it.
PS. Will the Tour be the last BlackBerry to be released with a trackball?
My friend has a your she got it the day it came out and so far she hasn't said anything to me ni complaints so so far hers is fine
As a Big Red employee at a retail store, I definitely have experienced this issue...our district data supervisor had the issue with hers, my store manager has the issue with hers, one of the demo units in our store is experiencing the issue, and I have replaced a few with new units for customers who were within their initial 30 day purchase period.
That being said, I recently purchased two Tours, one for my son and the 2nd for my wife (gotta luv that BOGO offer!), and they have not had any issues whatsoever, including the fact that their battery housings seem to have a better fit than the units that were of the initial launch.
Other than the info I have read here concerning the issue having been resolved with the units that have hit the store of late (those with the green dots on the box), I have not read or been told that by our corporate infrastructure or our BB rep, but it does seem to be true that the units that have hit the stores of late have addressed the issue.
The units still react a bit slowly in regards to the convenience keys and some other shifts between applications, but me thinks that is the type of thing that will be addressed in the 1st software update.
So I can't see the video. Anyone want to let me in on whether or not it would be covered by the warranty? Let's face it... manufacturer's defect.
king Z i agree 100%..im the same way with my storm...i will not settle till i get one that works 100%. i am on my 9th storm under my 1 year warranty and still not satisfied yet.
When did Charles Barkley start making Blackberry YouTube videos? Nice job Sir Charles!
i was tryna figure out who he sound like , and you hit hit the nail right on head
Well done and well said.
I so enjoyed your video!
"I'm not feathering… People like smoothness; I like smoothness… "
Classic!!!
delete prior not working...software issue yes. fixed in new os release prob no... shame on you rim
Smooooooth...people like smooth"
Good stuff man.
I turned my settings back to default, and tried the horizontal scrolling. It was IDENTICAL to the video. I didn't realize it until I turned my sensitivity down....
Kingzee, thanks a MILLION for completing this video. I will be exchanging mine TODAY. :)
i have a 8900 and i've never had any problems with my trackball... But when the 9700(bold2) comes out i definitely will be buying one because the trackpad is outstanding ! Have a feeling the trackpad is the future of all bb's to come .
another big thank you. My TB has been ok since day 1. Now that I have seen a defective TB in action, I totally understand everyone's complaint.It's not that I doubted anyone but now having seen it, whoah!! I work retail and cannot imagine having to deal with this QC issue at a Big Red store. What a disaster.
kingzee,
Keep making your videos!! They are the best source of real info here!! Good work. And smoooooth!!!
Thanks for the video. My in-laws have tours as their first blackberry phones. I'll have to make sure their tours are working correctly.
sadly, i have mine on 90 and have to feather it to move horizontally :(
i actually called VZW yesterday and a replacement is on route!
i am on my 2nd, this new one will be my 3rd.
Guess I'm one of the lucky ones. Bought my Tour at launch, not a single hardware problem.
I thought mine was ok. Then I watched the video. Clear as day in the video.
I went back to mine, and it seems ok, but perhaps a little laggy (little) on the horizontal.
I did up mine to 90% and I really like how that works.
So here's the dilemma, with me not wanting to be OCD/Monk about it:
Is mine really a problem? Am I making it out to be more than it is? Etc.......
I may stop at my local VZW authorized seller where I purchased (and they are great with support there) and talk to them about it.
What do you do with respect to downloaded/purchased apps if you exchange? If I backup the Tour with DM, does it essentially take an image? Will I have to redo all of my setting selections and all? Please reply or PM/email me with thoughts. I think I can fine with the way things are, but if folks think I should consider a swap, then I want to figure these things out.
FYI I did do the test thing in the options menu and I passed all tests there.......
GREAT VID. TOTALLY AGREE
I'm honored! Thanks Kevin! :)
a 9 minute video to tell the difference between a bad trackball and good? thanks for the info but really? 9 minutes?
Smooth and slow, not rushed.
I'm getting better at making videos with commentary. :)
I am on my third tour. First two trackball jumped all over the place. Until yesterday, the new one was perfect. Then I installed google mobile app, google voice and quicklaunch. Now I am having the laggy horizontal problems. This sucks, when is the OS update coming out already!
The green dot is on the box label, not under the battery.
I had the same issue with the trackball as well as the loose battery door. But I will say this though. When i got mine replaced totally free from Verizon. It came to me not just a phone with no batter but a whole new phone.
That means only one thing Verizon knows the first generation blackberry tour's are slightly defective. The box had a Green sticker on it this time and upon putting everything together.
The battery door no longer jiggles its solid as can be also there is a keypad sensor where as the first generation's don't have that. (key pad lights up in dark rooms where as the first gens are lit regaurdless)
also the trackball was solid as can be. Oh yeah and i only got one new phone which means the old stock must be running out
I got my Tour replaced after not really wanting to go though the hassle of getting a replacement. But after my 30 days, I got mine replaced and I am sure glad that I did. My first Tour was great and the horizontal trackball issue was my only issue. But now that I have the replacement, it's a difference and it works like a charm horizontally.
I had been having issues with my Trackball for the past week and didn't know what the heck the problem was (as this was my first BB)so after reading this I called and they are shipping me out a brand new phone! :)
Should be here tomorrow and I just order one of thost Seidio 360 cases which should arrive tomorrow as well...so I'll get a brand new phone and a brand new case...sweet!
Thanks for the info though!
I was a day-one Tour owner, and returned my first one owing to the trackball issue about 3 weeks in. The brand-new replacement I received worked great for about two days, then the same left-right scrolling problems returned. After reading about the green dot ones, I called VZW and they very kindly offered immediately to send me a replacement, which I received the next day. It was a green dot, and the trackball issue was WORSE, it was really pretty much unusable. So I called them and told them I was returning the replacement unit (the green dot one), which I did. My current one is usable, provided I feather the trackball incredibly lightly when going left-right. (No issues on the up-down.) So there you have it, it seems to me that the green dot doesn't represent a trackball-fixed batch. My unit was a refurb, so I bet that's all the green dot signifies.
No the green dot does not mean it is a refurb. I've seen other refurbs and they don't have green dots. They DO however come in plain brown boxes with a simple white sticker (and green dot in the case of the tour).
Interesting that the one I got (got a new one after the upgrade to .53 totally nuked the phone beyond repair as far as the rep and I could tell) has a white sticker and you can see through it where there is another label below it also with a green sticker LOL!
My old one has a usable track ball as far as I can tell (a little glitchy at times but no where near as bad as in the video and no worse than my Curve 8900) but this one is much much better!
I forgot to add, great video kingzee, thank you.
Thanks for the video.
Could have made the video 1 minute though to demonstrate what was needed. lol
I've had a Tour since day 1 and thought I had a good unit. That was until today. Wow, I've been a state of denial. I upgraded from an old nextel Blackberry with a wheel so I never realized how easy it was to use the trackball. The best part of this is Sprint is sending me a new phone by 10am Monday. I got on the phone prepared to fight and didn't even have to !!!!
I like how he says in the video that you can't give people crappy phones and expect them to be happy with them. He must have never owned a Storm. My 8330 Curve was still the best Blackberry I ever owned. I got a Tour on a 30 day on one of my lines and took it back 3 days later. Blackberry phones have really gone downhill IMO. At least the models Verizon is getting. I haven't even played with a Bold.
LOL! I actually did own a Storm for exactly one week and took it back immediately. This was after they had already been out a few months too. The phone still had major issues. Went back to my WinMo phone and waited about a year for the Tour to come out.
i have the storm and its crap... im geting a iphone :)
KINGZEE IS THE SHIT! GREAT VIDEOS NOT ONLY ON TRACBALLS BUT ON EVERY CASE SEIDIO OFFERS--VIDEO REVIEWS AT THAT! THANKS!
My first Tour had trackball and some other issues as well. In classic Verizon fashion, they replaced the Tour with a new one which has been perfect.
Tour is the worst phone ever made!
RIM = Fail
seconded.
**double post**
Just received two 9630's from Verizon. They work great. I still like my 8330 trackball better. It protrudes further, and is easier to use. They need to figure out how to make 5.0 work well on the 8330.