Dell Venue Pro - Review

Dell made a shaky entrance into the Windows Phone vii market. Yous had supply problems, quality control bug and software headaches. Slowly but surely these bug are getting ironed out with the Venue Pro only does it get out consumers with a quality Windows Phone?

While some may see this every bit beingness late to the table (Dell isn't that generous with review units), we decided to take reward of the $299.99 sale and ordered a few on our ain. Out of the box, the Venue Pro makes a nice first impression. The iv.one" AMOLED Screen has a skillful bit of pop to it with vibrant colors and sharp contrast. Just does the positive first impression last?

Simply make the jump by the pause to come across if the Dell Venue Pro continued to smooth or dulled a niggling later on several days of use.

Design

The Dell Venue Pro is a hefty little phone when compared to the thinner, lighter Windows Phones such as the Samsung Focus. Measuring ii.five x 4.eight x .6 inches and weighing vi.8 ounces the Venue Pro feels solid in the hand. The Venue Pro is merely equally thick equally the LG Quantum and HTC seven Pro/Make it but it is heavier (Quantum is 6.2 oz and the vii Pro is 6.v oz.). Even though the Venue Pro matches the side keyboard models in thickness, the added weight makes it feel beefier.

That's not to say the Venue Pro feels like a boat anchor. The added weight and size gives the phone a solid feel to it. The Venue Pro hovers around the breaking point between comfort and weighing yous down.

The layout of the phone has the ability button and 3.5mm jack sitting at the top of the telephone. I'thousand not a fan of the power button in that the button rests farther back on the elevation of the telephone and slightly recessed. Information technology takes some time to get used to the contortions needed to access the power button with ease. I can't assist merely recollect the Dell Engineers could have placed the ability button in a better location.

The left side of the Venue Pro is blank with the right side being the dwelling for the volume buttons and camera push. To the bottom of the phone you will find the micro-USB port and dual speakers. To the back of the phone rests the five.0 megapixel camera and LED light.

The Venue Pro'south battery embrace has a diamond plate design to it that is slightly raised. This gives the telephone a squeamish looking, grippable surface. Personally, I could do without the chrome sides but overall, the Venue Pro is a nice looking Windows Phone.

I'll comment on this here (only considering I'm not sure where else to put it) only the Venue Pro lacks haptic feedback on many button features. You know, the vibration that occurs when y'all press 1 of the 3 buttons on a Windows Telephone or when you first turn on the phone. The simply button feature I've found feedback on is the camera button when you use it to launch the camera app.

This is an annoying omission. Granted, Windows Mobile phones didn't always take haptic feedback just they had concrete buttons that you could feel being pressed. There was some form of feedback to let y'all know that the button was pressed. With the sub-surface buttons on Windows Phone 7 you actually demand the vibration to ostend yous've pressed the buttons.

Under the Hood

The Venue Pro comes fitted with either an 8, sixteen or 32 gigabyte storage bulldoze and 512mb/1024mb(?) RAM/ROM. The model tested has the 16gb option. The rest of the Venue Pro's engine is fairly standard (1ghz processor, BT, Wifi, etc.). Everything is powered by a 1400mah battery that does rather nicely, on par with other Windows Phones I've used. At the end of the day, under moderate utilize (calls, email, web access, games) I easily had xxx% of my bombardment life remaining.

Screen and Keyboard

The Venue Pro's two master attractions are its screen and keyboard. The 4.one" AMOLED Screen performed well and looks really expert. Information technology has noticeably more than dissimilarity and color saturation than the SVGA screen of the HTC HD7S and is really shut in advent to the Super AMOLED screen of the Samsung Focus. In comparing the ii with game play, video play back and full general advent, I'll give the Super AMOLED screen the nod in overall quality. However, if the AMOLED screen was forced upon me I wouldn't complain.

The is also very responsive to the touch with touches, taps, and swipes registering nicely. If you estimate the Venue Pro on screen quality alone, information technology'south ane of the top Windows Phones on the market.

The keyboard is another story. Granted you accept a size restriction based on the phone's dimensions just the keyboard is small-scale. The size and experience reminded me a lot of the Samsung Jack from the Windows Mobile days. The keys are covered in a rubber sail and are responsive but they are also tiny. The onscreen keyboard offers y'all more elbow room and I constitute information technology easier and more effective to utilise.

The layout of the QWERTY keyboard includes a office primal for typing symbols and numbers as well as a smiley fundamental for emoticons. The sliding mechanism is smooth but when the keyboard is extended, the Venue Pro feels awkward. Top heavy if you will. I could utilise the Venue Pro one handed with the keyboard extended but it bounced a lot as I typed. It was more efficient and stable using the telephone with both hands.

While some prefer a physical keyboard to the onscreen keyboard, Dell should have given serious thought of either a) scrapping the keyboard all together and relying on the very good, on-screen keyboard of Windows Phone 7 or b) moved to a side sliding keyboard which would give you more elbow room and comfort.

Camera

The Venue Pro has the standard Windows Phone photographic camera software. It does include camera settings to reduce banding, which I haven't seen present on other Windows Phones. Photographic camera performance is decent merely as with any other Windows Telephone camera, lighting is the key. You do have the LED calorie-free but information technology serves the phone better with a flashlight app than as a camera flash.

I did notice that the Venue Pro'south camera created a little haze around images.  It'southward not every bit noticeable on landscapes simply closer shots such as portraits, it is really noticeable.  At offset I thought I had a smudge on the lens or a protective covering was even so in place.  But the lens was clear and clean.  The first paradigm of the garden gnome was shot in bright sunlight while the second was shot under overcast skies.  If I didn't know any improve I would call up that too much light was just every bit bad as not enough light for this photographic camera.

Video quality is squeamish when shooting 720p. Decent when shooting VGA.

All in all, the photographic camera was below par when compared to other Windows Phones.  Images, both still and video, could have been sharper and the brume present in withal images was bothersome.  I'd have to rank the camera as no improve than "It'll do".  In a jam, it'll do but don't rely on information technology for important photographs or videos.

Software

Not much to report here. The Venue Pro does come up loaded with the most recent version of Windows Phone 7 and the updated firmware. Y'all have your standard WP7 apps plus three apps unique to the Venue Pro.

You take a Connection Settings App that allows you to manually configure your MMS Settings, a Newsroom app that offers customizable conditions, news and stock information and Pageonce Personal Finance (bloatware).

All in all, the software ran fine on the Dell Venue Pro, not unlike other Windows Phones. However, there seemed to exist a lag time of a 2nd or ii between pushing the power push and the screen waking up. There was also a random lag that occurred when returning to the First Screen from a running app. I wouldn't consider these anomalies drastic but rather noticeable.

Phone Performance

The Venue Pro'southward operation every bit a phone was on par with other Windows Phones. Volume levels in the ear slice were a trivial low compared to other phones and the speakers maybe a bear on louder.

If you've followed my reviews of Windows Phones, I feel the vibrating ringer is an important feature. You need a reliable silent ringer when your in meetings, at church, at the movies, or whatsoever where else discretion is needed.

The Venue Pro's vibrating alert is marginal at best. It'southward a affect stronger than the Samsung Focus merely not equally strong as the HTC Arrive or HD7S.

Overall Impression

I remember Dell has created a very nice starting betoken for a Windows Phone in the Venue Pro.  The Venue Pro makes a prissy starting time impression only later using it for several days, you come up to realize that there is still work to be done to brand the Venue Pro a quality Windows Phone.

From the odd power button to the cramped keyboard to the lack of haptic feedback to the firmware issues (which are slowly being resolved), the Venue Pro has plenty room for improvement.  Call quality was skillful, music/video playback prissy but the photographic camera, rather disappointing.

The Venue Pro is then close to being a very good Windows Phone and while individually, the bug seem small-scale, collectively they concur the telephone back. For all information technology's shortcomings, there is all the same something compelling about the Venue Pro.

Maybe it'southward the screen, which is fantastic, or the solid feel the phone has.  While the Venue Pro has plenty of positives, I just don't meet it being strong enough to exist a serious contender confronting the LG Quantum or Arrive with their side sliding keyboards.

Information technology does accept the toll betoken going for it, especially if you shop out of contract. Unlocked, out of contract price for the 16GB model is $299.99 through Dell. Out of contract through Amazon Wireless, the Focus is running in the $499 range and the Quantum is running $469.

The Venue Pro isn't a bad Windows Telephone, it'south only a case where in that location are a lot of little things y'all'll have to become used to.  Things that may brand the culling Windows Phones more attractive.

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Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/dell-venue-pro-review

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