Dell Venue Review
Posted on: January 25, 2011 [Source]
Although the Dell Venue is not available worldwide yet, for the moment being sold only in South Korea and Hong Kong, the folks over at Engadget managed to get their hands on this Froyo-running, Snapdragon-equipped handset. And while the overall impression is a good one, there are still some bugs which need fixing before the smartphone hits international stores.
First off, the Dell Venue impresses with its sleek and elegant design, with rounded chrome sides and a black body. The handset features the impressive "Shear Design" Gorilla Glass technology, but although the screen looks amazing, it did manage to get some scratches. Apparently, the curved design makes it easier to handle the device and it improves grip.
Taking a look at the phone's specs, it packs a powerful 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 512MB of RAM, and 1GB of internal memory. The battery life was not bad at all, lasting an entire day with plenty of open apps. There was a certain charging issue found, as the handset would not fully charge when plugged into a wall socket. And it seems like this is a problem also found in the Dell Streak and Venue Pro.
Getting down to the camera, the 8MP rear-facing camera installed, which can also record video at 720p, did a pretty good job at taking pictures. There are numerous settings available, so you can find the best combinations. As far as audio quality is concerned, the device didn't exactly impress the Engadget team. The sound was slightly distorted when listening to music on the loudspeaker, and the headphone mode wasn't much better either.
The headset comes installed with Android 2.2 and although an update to the 2.3 version is promised, it's not likely to happen soon. There's also the HTC-specific Stage UI installed, with its widgets and apps, as well as a Swype keyboard. The UI experience was smooth enough and was given a thumbs up by the Engadget team.
The overall impression after the hands-on experience with the Dell Venue was satisfactory. While Dell needs to work on some issues regarding audio quality, charging, and recording performance, this handset could be a great smartphone, with its 4.1-inch AMOLED screen, high-quality 8MP camera, and nice-looking user interface. The device is yet to be released in the rest of the world, so we'll have to wait and see how well it behaves then.
|
|
|
|
