Dell Venue Pro - Smartphone

A good-looking, sturdily built Windows Phone 7 handset, the chrome-trimmed Dell Venue Pro features a bright 4.1 in AmoLED screen and a diamond-patterned backplate. A four-line qwerty keypad with domed buttons slides out smoothly in portrait mode, making the handset a huge 162mm tall.

The Venue Pro is bulky at a hefty 193g; it makes its presence felt in a pocket, while remaining comfortable to use in one hand.



Hardware buttons include a flush volume rocker, a power switch to sleep the power-draining screen, and a camera button - the Dell offers 5Mp stills and 720p video. At the top is a 3.5mm headphone jack.

The Windows Phone 7 interface is pleasingly attractive and follows simple logic. The home screen features large tiles for apps, such as Hotmail, various hubs including People and Pictures, and any other items you want to pin there. Press the right arrow to access the full menu listing, which includes all
your apps. The more you have, the more confusing it becomes.

Browsing the internet is a joy, with the large screen and pinch-to-zoom functionality making even full websites bearable, and fast to load. The ability to easily open a new tab is welcome. Copy-and-paste is too eager, however, frequently selecting words as we scrolled down a page.

Windows Phone 7 is very well integrated with Facebook - perhaps too well. Our SIM phonebook absorbed all our Facebook, Gmail and Hotmail contacts, resulting in several entries for each person.

The Bing search engine's selection of photographic backgrounds works well on the AmoLED screen. You also get the Office Mobile suite, where Word is well suited to the qwerty keypad and Excel to the large screen, plus Internet Explorer and Zune software.

Zune prevents the Dell from being a simple plug-and-play device for storage - you must install Zune for Windows or Windows Phone 7
Connector on a Mac. The Venue Pro's storage is limited to 8GB.

With Wi-Fi and Bluetooth off, and email set to manual sync, we needed to recharge the Dell every day.
###############################################################################

Verdict

Dell's Venue Pro is a very large but well-built Windows Phone 7 handset, with a gorgeous 4.1in AmoLED screen and a useful qwerty keypad. However, its battery life could be better, the internal storage is limited to 8GB, and you must use Zune to sync media.

ฺัBy : Marie Brewis