Dell Venue Pro WinPho 7 smartphone

Sonic boon

Media format support is up with the smartphone best with MP3, WMA and AAC audio catered for along with WMV, H.264 and DivX/Xvid video making the Venue a fine media player. Videos looked bright, colourful and crystal clear, while music sounded punchy and energetic.

Conference caller

The camera can record video at 720p and comes with an LED lamp and auto-focus and, as phone cameras go, it's pretty good. Images were generally sharp and clear if sometimes looking just a little underexposed. Photography is made easier by the external camera shutter key.

Wrapping up the basics, the Venue's cellular and Wi-Fi radios demonstrated good signal reception and I've no complaints about call quality. The Venue performed even more impressively during conference calls thanks to the two excellent little speakers built into the bottom of the handset. Battery life wasn't too bad either with the 1400mAh unit easily getting me through a full working day with juice to spare.

Verdict


Big, heavy and impressive, the Dell Venue Pro is a serious phone for serious people. The screen and keyboard are both fine examples of the breed, the build quality excellent and the specification up with the best of the WP7 brigade. If the rumoured system update brings free Bing satnav, Flash 10.1 and copy/paste to the party, and the Marketplace continues to expand at its current rate, then the Venue Pro and its ilk will start to offer iOS and Android more in the way of competition. ®

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