Dell Venue Pro review

Colour balance is a bit off under certain light conditions too. For example, in our tests, a grey pavement had a distinct yellow tinge in bright sunlight. Snapped images also have that general synthetic look that plagues low-end digital cameras. These are all failings we didn't witness with an iPhone 3GS and the same shots.

Dell makes no claims for battery life on its Venue Pro product page and merely offers "1400mAh" as the battery capacity, although it's listed on Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 page as having up to seven hours talk and 14 days standby time. In tests, the Venue Pro lasted for around five hours for constant Wi-Fi browsing and about six for phone calls, which isn't too wide of the mark. Though theses figures aren't that impressive compared to the much-longer-lasting iPhone 4.

So what's our verdict?

Verdict

Although a little chunky, the Dell Venue Pro is solidly made and exceedingly stylish. As such, it makes for an extremely tempting Windows Phone 7 smartphone.

The physical keyboard should appeal to anyone tuned off by the virtual offerings used elsewhere, but Windows Phone 7 isn’t yet the same business proposition as its predecessor.

Processor: 1 GHz Qualcomm QSD8250

Storage: 512 MB system / 8GB (as reviewed) user

Screen: 4.1” (800 x 480) AMOLED

Connectivity: WLAN802.11b/g, Bluetooth 2.1 EDR, USB 2.0

Other: G-sensor, e-compass, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, FM radio, GPS

Bands: UMTS 900/1700/2100; GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900; HSDPA 7.2Mbps/HSUPA 5.76 Mbit/s

Camera: 5-megapixel with LED flash and autofocus

Battery: 1400mAh

Size: 121 x 64.4 x 14.9mm

Weight: 193g