Dell Venue Pro

Dell Venue Pro was announced in October last year, along with a host of other smartphones that run the then new Windows 7 Phone. But the Pro Venue suffered several delays, and has only lately become available for purchase. It is the only Windows 7 Phone handset with a slide-out (portrait format) QWERTY keyboard, a feature that has seen it dubbed as a business-friendly smartphone. Our review sample came from Clove Technology, where it costs £ 420 (inc, £ 350 ex VAT.) SIM free. Venue DesignThe Pro is quite a chunky smart phone, thanks not only to the keyboard, but also for its large screen. Measuring 4.1 inches across the diagonal, it edges toward the upper limit of the screen before the hardware is simply too unwieldy to handle comfortably. At 192g, it is the venue Pro significantly heavier than 4.3in. HTC 7 HD, which weighs 162g. It is also heavier than the HTC 7 Pro, which - even with its landscape-format slide-out keyboard and 3.6in. display - comes in at 185g.
SummaryIMHO, Dell Venue Pro is the nicest Windows 7 Phone device available and now AT&T customers can pick up. topic Dell Computer Corp., Device, AT&T Corp., Dell Venue Pro NoDo, Pricing, Microsoft Windows, Marketing Research, Keyboards, Marketing, Operating Systems, software, hardware, accessories, began Matthew miller blogs InfoMatthew MillerBioContactBiographyMatthew Miller Matthew Miller uses a Pilot 1000 in 1997 and has been writing news, reviews and opinion pieces since then. He is one of three hosts on MobileTechRoundup podcast and runs Nokia Experts homepage. Matthew started to use mobile devices in 1997 with a U.S. Robotics Pilot 1000 and has owned over 100 different devices running Palm, Linux, Symbian, Newton, BlackBerry, Mac OS X (iPhone), Google Android, Palm WebOS and Windows Mobile operating system.
This is especially noticeable when you try to press out the text with one hand - we found the big screen too large to use the keyboard on the screen comfortably with one hand.
He can be found on various discussion fora under the username of the palm solo.
For the record, the venue Pro measures 122mm by 63.5mm by 15.25mm.
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Ergonomics is a trade off, of course, and the large viewing area is great for reading e-mail, scan Web pages and view the media.
The resolution is Windows 7 Phone's standard 480 x 800 pixels, but the venue Pro AMOLED screen technology ensures a particularly sharp and clear screen.
Dell Venue Pro Windows 7 Phone smart phone is known for its slide-out in portrait format mini-QWERTY keyboardThe sliding mechanism that reveals the mini-QWERTY keyboard is very smooth, but we prefer a bit more of an action \sprung \and less need to actually push and pull.
Keyboard covers an area of \u200b\u200bonly 55 mm wide and 30 mm high and consists of four rows of contiguous keys.
Most keys have a secondary function, which gives access to numbers and a number of punctuation.
But it'£'not present, while'$'is.
To get there earlier, you must hit the Sym button on the bottom row, and then move to a second display of symbols.
For a phone primarily for business customers, it is surprising to see a separate button for emoticons, we would like to see @ the key in this first track to the right of the spacebar.
As usual, on-screen keyboard in both landscape and portrait mode is also available.
The'£'character, incidentally, is the first symbol on the screen in this case.
You must use the keypad on the screen when working in landscape mode, and we found typing on the screen in both modes about as fast as using the physical keyboard.
The chassis design differs somewhat from the standard black and silver livery business: the back plate has a fine etched diamond pattern, but the use of plastic is all a bit disappointing, and the back plate is pretty flimsy.
The backplate is also slightly bent, which gives a pleasing design, but means Venue Pro is not flat on a table, wobbling around when you touch the screen.
When the handset will designers learn that a flat back plate is very important for on-desk use? Microsoft stipluates three front buttons for search, Back and Start (main screen) functions, and these are large, touch-sensitive areas on the face of Venue Pro chassis below the screen.
Another Microsoft requirement is a side button for camera, in this case, a 5-megapixel device, it is also a volume rocker, a micro USB on the bottom, plus a 3.5 mm headset jack and an on / off switch top.
FeaturesThe Dell Venue Pro is a bit behind the leaders in terms of its general specifications.
It's powered by a single-core 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD8250 processor, while the latest batch of top-end smart phones such as LG's Optimus 2X and the forthcoming HTC Sensation has dual-core processors.
More of a concern for many users may be that the Venue Pro has no removable storage media, which prohibits Microsoft from Windows 7 Phone devices.
Our review unit had a built-in 8GB storage space, and all used to the hot-swapping microSD cards can be less than impressed - especially considering microSD cards currently go up to 32 GB.
Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n), Bluetooth (2.1 + EDR) and GPS are all present and correct, together with HSPA at 7.2 Mbps down and 5.76Mbps up.
It's also an FM radio and two speakers on the bottom of the chassis delivers reasonable volume.
Dell has just chosen to work with the earlier contenders stuff with a vanilla deploying Windows Phone 7.In appearance, we offer Venue Pro a known number of tiles on the main screen, which can cord to actual data (for example, a location found Bing Maps), a program like Internet Explorer, or hub - an area that collocates data from multiple sources.
The Office hub, for example, brings together PowerPoint, Excel and Word documents, you can access the SharePoint data (if the back end running on SharePoint Server 2010) and provides access to OneNote.
Of less interest for mobile professionals, perhaps, is the Xbox LIVE hub, giving you access to your account and customize your avatar.
Everyone who signs up for a Windows Live ID receive 25 MB of storage space on SkyDrive, which includes the ability to automatically upload images - which, thanks to the dedicated camera button, can be taken with the handset in standby mode.
Zune software lets you synchronize music, video and photos, but calendar and contacts must be synchronized wirelessly - with, for example, Windows Live or Google account.
This is the same for all the Windows 7 Phone handsets, though, and Dell is just to keep up with Microsoft's protocol.
Performance and battery lifeWe had no problems with 1GHz Venue Pro's response, and Windows 7 Phone itself is a permissive operating system to use once you get used to their weaknesses.
Dell does not specify how long it expects the 1400 mAh battery to last.
Our experience was Venue Pro a little less long-lived than the average high-end smartphone.
It had no trouble keeping going all day without a battery boost the Light use (mobile e-mail and phone calls).
But when we started using GPS for longish stretches battery suffered.
You should expect to require recharging during the day if you think of yourself as a \superuser \\ u0026quot;.
Some business users, especially in the hard-line Windows environments, you may find this an appealing combination.