Dell Venue Pro - Conclusion

I’m going to put this one out there - of the current crop of Windows Phone 7 devices, the Venue Pro is my favorite. It’s exceedingly well designed and well built, but the biggest difference between this and similarly well designed products from HTC and Samsung is that the Dell is the one device that’s really new. The remainder of the launch devices are pretty much rehashes of previous devices, while Dell basically started from scratch with the Thunder/Lightning platform, though why they decided to rechristen them the Venue and Venue Pro on the way to production is anyone’s guess. 

The Venue Pro is a pretty chunky phone though, and the size will probably turn some people off. But in exchange for larger dimensions, you get an excellent hardware keyboard, a robust slider, and (most importantly) a large, 4.1” AMOLED display. If the Surround is the best WP7 device for music, the Venue Pro is definitely the best for messaging and email, at least until the 7 Pro hits market, and even then I’m not convinced that it’ll be better than the Dell. The Focus is probably still the most balanced WP7 device, the HD7 is probably the best equivalent to it. But I’m a fan of the Venue Pro. If Dell can manage to slim it down and give it a dual core processor while maintaining the style and build quality for the next generation, they might have a real winner on their hands. 
Dell Venue Pro - Performance and Battery Life
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  • tipoo - Monday, March 14, 2011 - link

    The code names were cooler than the final names. Thunder, Lightning, Flash, and Smoke sounded awesome.
  • VivekGowri - Monday, March 14, 2011 - link

    I completely agree with that, hence the title. How awesome would it be to carry a phone called the Lightning? Woulda gone well with the HTC Thunderbolt too.
  • aegisofrime - Monday, March 14, 2011 - link

    For some reason those codenames reminded me of Warcraft 3
  • therealnickdanger - Monday, March 14, 2011 - link

    So awesome. :)
  • zipz0p - Monday, March 14, 2011 - link

    Yes! This is exactly what I was thinking - I actually happened to be playing the soundtrack myself as I was reading it, totally coincidentally. Good work Vivek!
  • magicrog - Monday, March 14, 2011 - link

    I don't care what the phone is called - I have an iphone and to be honest the signal pick up is worse then when I had my nokia 6310 and battery life is awful.

    If it has a great name - lets hope the phone lives up to it.

    http://www.rogerlapin.co.uk/magician-surrey.html
  • FATCamaro - Monday, March 14, 2011 - link

    Lousy speed, lousy camera, lousy battery life, lousy screen compared to Android devices and iphone. Yet the author thinks this could be a winner. Amazing!
  • Flunk - Monday, March 14, 2011 - link

    He says the screen is very good and most people don't care at all about the camera. If they did they wouldn't be using a phone because all phone cameras are worthless.

    IE really is a big problem but at least they're trying to fix it.

    On another topic, there are no IM clients for Windows Phone 7 because sockets support hasn't been released yet so it's not possible to write IM clients unless you're tunneling through a HTTP connection which is far from ideal.
  • VivekGowri - Monday, March 14, 2011 - link

    The screen is good - it's a little bit dimmer than the Focus and Nexus one, but it's not a bad screen at all. Battery life on the AMOLED devices really depends on how much white is being displayed on the screen - that makes a huge difference in how much power the displays consume, and in our battery life test, that puts AMOLED devices at an inherent disadvantage compared to LCD screens.

    Also, as much as I hate to say it, when I said winner, I meant relative to other WP7 devices. Which lowers the bar for a successful device significantly.

    Microsoft really needs to fast track their updates and get the second generation devices out as soon as possible. The faster they can gain back ground on Apple and Google, the faster they get some meaningful marketshare. Nokia will help with that, but MS shouldn't be depending on them, they need to get some success with the rest of the partners too.
  • NoSoMo - Monday, March 14, 2011 - link

    I have to say, you guys could have done much better on the pics....I've come to expect so much more from ya.....

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