I had a set of old Dell Venue Pro photos I took for a review that I was writing. Sadly, that review never saw the light of day, for one reason or another — mainly due to the fact that the phone crapped out on me. And that was the case for a few other people who attempted to review the device. The devices shipped by Dell had a high number of defects, ranging from WiFi problems to poor build qualities and screen defects — the latter of which happened to me.
Check out the full gallery of pics!
Quality issues aside, the phone was actually very, very good. I loved the month or so I had with it. The Dell Venue Pro is a 4.1-inch smartphone with a vertical QWERTY sliding keyboard. Phones of that size don’t really use physical keyboards, so you can imagine the surprise that some people may exhibit when realizing that. And the addition of the keyboard makes it significantly more chunky than phones of its size. You’ll notice the recent trend of thinner and thinner smartphones — especially larger 4-inch-plus devices — to be thin enough for the user not to really notice that their holding a small brick up to their face.
Of course, the Venue Pro felt thick, but not too thick. Going back to the brick metaphor, this phone felt like a brick in that you knew said brick can do some serious damage; the phone felt like it had substance.
The spring-loaded sliding mechanism was firm, smooth and incredibly satisfying. Companies should take note at how Dell build the sliding mechanism, because it was just that good. And the same could be said for the keyboard. I find most vertical sliding keyboards to be a bit cramped. That could be caused by two things: one, the keys are small and placed far apart for supposed better tactile feel and two, the device just isn’t wide enough. This device had neither of that. The keys were large enough and close together with a nice dome to each one of them to make typing easy. In addition, each key was clicky enough to type quickly without wondering if that last key actually depressed and registered.
Typing on the display wan’t bad either.
Speaking of which, the Venue Pro sported a curved display and photos really don’t do it justice. Going from left to right, the glass would curve up in the middle and back down on the edges. It was an odd choice, at first blush, but I grew to like it. It did mean that viewing angles were not so good when you would try and see it at an extreme angle — but then again, how many of us use a smartphone severely off-center? Very few, I would imagine. Another thing to note is that the display is constructed from Gorilla Glass, which is meant to withhold a substantial amount of abuse and not show. That isn’t to say that I mishandle my phones but I did take a few keys to the screen and the screen took it like a champ with no war injuries. So go ahead, throw the phone in that pocket or bag with some loose change and a set of keys. It’ll be just fine.
If you were worried about battery life use (and we all are), the Venue Pro had excellent battery life. Although, that can be partly due to Windows Phone 7’s OS being more like iOS and not constantly pulling data.
Aesthetically, it was easy on the eyes and very good looking. The only problem I had with it was the chrome bezel along the sides. Seriously, can companies throw out every design document that has anything to do with chrome bezels? It’s not 2006, it’s 2011 (the phone came out in 2010, very late in 2010 but I digress), can we not use chrome bezels anymore? It’s tacky, played out and an abomination to design. Please. Stop.
That form factor is perfect — a large display, a vertical QWERTY slider and very good specs. — and the world needs more phones like this. Hey Dell? Can you rerelease this phone but with updated internals (newer CPU) and without the quality issues? I would still be a proud owner had there been a higher quality of devices manufactured. Also, the whole hoopla of the device shipping with half of the purported amount of RAM is a big no no.
(People say that the latest Windows Phone 7 update shows that there actually was 512 MB of RAM instead of the 256 MB the previous version of the OS incorrectly displayed. I, personally, haven’t been able to verify that. You know, because my device crapped out.)
The Dell Venue Pros is available on Dell’s website for $99 on contract for the 8 GB version and $149 on contract for the 16 GB model, both for T-Mobile’s network. Sans contract, they run $449 and $499, respectively.
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