The Dell Venue Pro is also slightly on the bigger side, compared with the current range of Windows Phone 7 models, but it makes up for the larger footprint with a solid chassis and a portrait-sliding keyboard. The 4.1-inch 800 x 480-pixel AMOLED panel slides up to reveal a full QWERTY keypad. Although the slightly raised buttons look cramped initially due to the narrow design of the keyboard, their distinct bounce and rubbery texture provide a nice typing experience overall. There was a trying moment typing with one hand due to the top-heavy weight distribution when the phone was open, but the keyboard was easy to operate if you used both hands. We liked the sturdy sliding mechanism, rounded chrome sides and the very slightly contoured front and back.
Elsewhere on the design you get the three buttons (back/Start/search), volume controls and a 3.5mm headphone socket. Around the back on the rather fancy carbon fibre looking design you get a 5-megapixel camera complete with flash. Inside you get the now common (well among Windows Phone 7 handsets) 1GHz processor and 512MB of RAM, that means a speedy experience based on our brief play. Other specs of note include Wi-Fi of course, Bluetooth, GPS and most likely all the proximity sensors you can throw at it. There is no second camera for video calling, perhaps something we would have liked given its business credentials, however as no Windows Phone 7 launch handset has this we can’t call Dell out for not featuring it.
Dell Venue Pro meshes functionality and style together to offer a compelling offering to the new beginnings that Windows Phone 7 is about to embark upon. The Dell Venue Pro is a portrait slider smartphone that features some truly awe-inspiring specs that perfectly matches its sweet and sexy exterior look that brings some attention to a form factor that usually gets little notice. It features a 4.1” AMOLED touchscreen, 1GHz QSD8250 Snapdragon processor, 5-megapixel auto-focus camera, 8GB internal storage, 512MB RAM, 1GB ROM, GPS, FM Radio and full Flash support including playback. Among these features and many more you will be glad to know that it has a 5 megapixel cam and a LED flash which helps the user create vivid memories in both photos and videos. Even more, the Venue Pro has been „gifted” with geo tagging, touch focus and digital zoom functionality. If you take a close look at the specs on this device, you will find it to be quite a beast, and a rival not to be trifled with. I for one, must admit to be a litte bias to handheld devices that come equipped with a good touch screen and also a qwerty keyboard, because let’s face it, it’s better to have options.
Aside from the hardware there is little Dell has done on the software front. They aren’t ruling out a “Dell Hub” according to the Dell people we spoke to at the launch, but don’t expect that for the launch of this handset, and to be honest you can easily get around the lack of that.
The Dell Venue Pro can be expected to hit the T-Mobile network, at the same time with 3 other smartphones, all of them running Windows Phone 7, that will come in AT&T stores, on November 8th.
Check out the Dell Venue Hands-on video,
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