First Impressions

[raremage]

My Venue Pro came in on Tuesday and I've had a few days using it, thought I'd do a quick run down of the highs and lows as I see them so far:

Highs
Great screen, easily comparable to the Focus or iPhone 4
Keyboard works great, quick and accurate, easy to use
The volume button location, while a bit unusual acompared to other phones, works for me.
Build quality seems to be excellent so far, the fit and finish is oustanding.
Slider mechanism is especially good (used a torch for a while, no comparison)
Call quality is excellent, and volume is much better than Focus (which is way too low IMHO)
Speakerphone quality seems to be excellent
Nice sound quality on the included headset, though I prefer a mic on one of the wires leading to an earbud rather than centered - too hard to tell ear from ear (R/L) without this as a visual cue
Battery life much better than focus
Nice feel in the hand, but feels a bit big when held to the ear. Fine in the pocket, no extra bulky feel (which I was a bit worried about)
Bluetooth call quality is excellent (need to pair with my BT stereo headset and see how it is for music and podcasts)
Built in speakers are loud and clear


Lows
Power button location - often starting the slider mechanism when trying to hit it, and it's not easy to find. It's a little difficult to press (though the upside is it is not easy to unintentionally press it)
Photo focus - often seems to blur photos, noticed with Focus too - issue with WP7? The flash is pretty useless, and photo quality in low-light conditions is poor so far.
Weight - it is a bit hefty. Also a tad thicker than ideal (but I don't consider this to be a big deal)
Lack of accessories - I want a dock, and a good case!
Feedback on buttons - I prefer the vibration feedback, which Venue Pro does not offer
Back button placement - feels "high" - I intuitively press a tad low.
I'd prefer hardware buttons actually. Notice most
of the lows are button related?
A little bleeding of light at screen edges when viewing in a dark location

Overall
So far I'm pretty impressed, it seems like a great business device. A little more time will tell of course, but very pleased so far.

 

[gibbyhome]

raremage,
a few questions
first you said you had a focus for a few weeks ...
if it wasn't for the dell keyboard would you rather keep the focus over the Dell ?

second, I have been hearing that the dell only has 256 meg of ram do you notice
any speed differences with launching games or just overall usage from the focuse to the dell..

Third, I really like the dell and want one but on twitter I have been reading that people are getting lockups freezing and need to reboot the phone ? is this the case with you and your dell ? or do you think its a select few ? I'm hoping its just a few..

I have had the focus since Nov 8th and have never needed to take the battery out once and the only problem I have ever had was with the maketplace once in a while it would not load and would need to power off and back on... not a big deal at all and it only takes a few seconds ...

I also have a 16 gig card in mine and still have never had any issues ...
which I can't beleave how well the OS has been for me...
I did not expect it to work so well...

 

[GP07]

Anyone have more info on the RAM news? Some say it's 256mb? That sorta changes things for me if true, I might end up falling back to a Optimus 7 at this point.

 

[Lionstone]

raremage,
a few questions
first you said you had a focus for a few weeks ...
if it wasn't for the dell keyboard would you rather keep the focus over the Dell ?

second, I have been hearing that the dell only has 256 meg of ram do you notice
any speed differences with launching games or just overall usage from the focuse to the dell..

Third, I really like the dell and want one but on twitter I have been reading that people are getting lockups freezing and need to reboot the phone ? is this the case with you and your dell ? or do you think its a select few ? I'm hoping its just a few..

I have had the focus since Nov 8th and have never needed to take the battery out once and the only problem I have ever had was with the maketplace once in a while it would not load and would need to power off and back on... not a big deal at all and it only takes a few seconds ...

I also have a 16 gig card in mine and still have never had any issues ...
which I can't beleave how well the OS has been for me...
I did not expect it to work so well...

I'll jump in where I can.

According to Dell, the VP has 512 MB of RAM. I have no reason to doubt it, since I can say that mine has been really fast, much faster than I expected given all the complaints of long load times on various games and apps. I don't think I've waited more than about 3 seconds for anything to load, and that includes games like Flight Control. I haven't ponied up the 6 or 7 bucks to try any of the famous resource hogs like The Harvest yet. If I do, I'll report back.

The only lock-ups I've experienced have been with the Marketplace. This seems to be common across all WP7 devices and I hope MS get it addressed soon. When the Marketplace locked up, I did have to pull the battery. With that sole exception, everything else has been so... refined. It's really a joy to use WP7.

 

[GP07]

I'll jump in where I can.

According to Dell, the VP has 512 MB of RAM. I have no reason to doubt it, since I can say that mine has been really fast, much faster than I expected given all the complaints of long load times on various games and apps. I don't think I've waited more than about 3 seconds for anything to load, and that includes games like Flight Control. I haven't ponied up the 6 or 7 bucks to try any of the famous resource hogs like The Harvest yet. If I do, I'll report back.

The only lock-ups I've experienced have been with the Marketplace. This seems to be common across all WP7 devices and I hope MS get it addressed soon. When the Marketplace locked up, I did have to pull the battery. With that sole exception, everything else has been so... refined. It's really a joy to use WP7.

Does it state 512MB on the box or on any of the documentation that comes with it? It seems the dell website doesn't list anything and some of those hardware apps listed it at 224MB (with the rest being saved for the OS or however that works).

 

[Lionstone]

Does it state 512MB on the box or on any of the documentation that comes with it? It seems the dell website doesn't list anything and some of those hardware apps listed it at 224MB (with the rest being saved for the OS or however that works).

I could swear that it said so on the product page, but it's not there, nor on the box. The sites that list it are all third-party (like phonearena).

Well, sorry for the bad info. Apparently my memory was muddled about what I read where.

 

[GP07]

Don't worry about it, it seems like it's 256MB though and not 512MB if those resoruce apps are true. Dell doesn't say anything either which is a shame, I might change my order now since 512MB would be better in the end and a bit future proofing as well.

 

[dseiden]

I think 512MB would be better when multi-taking finally makes it to WP7. Still no word on that or how they will do it. For now 256MB is fine.

So far between the DVP and the HD7, I can not tell the diference.

 

[Lionstone]

Don't worry about it, it seems like it's 256MB though and not 512MB if those resoruce apps are true. Dell doesn't say anything either which is a shame, I might change my order now since 512MB would be better in the end and a bit future proofing as well.

FWIW, Dell has confirmed 512 MB of RAM (via both @dellcares and @lionelatdell). No word on why the WP7 API is reporting less, however.

 

[imasculator]

raremage

I have been thinking of purchasing a Focus but on the fence since Dell announced the Venue coming out on AT&T. You compare the Focus to the Venue in your review, so are you on AT&T or T-Mobile? How the comparison then?

 

[raremage]

raremage

I have been thinking of purchasing a Focus but on the fence since Dell announced the Venue coming out on AT&T. You compare the Focus to the Venue in your review, so are you on AT&T or T-Mobile? How the comparison then?

I switched from AT&T to T-Mo. I've flopped carriers repeatedly over the past few years (they all have advantages/disadvantages IMHO) and your coverage will be greatly dependent on your location. My coverage in Orlando is comparable with either - though I will say I p[layed with a Nexus One around a year ago on T-Mo and I had much worse coverage than with the DVP, so apparently the antenna is better or they have improved coverage.

For me, switching to T-Mo saves me about $50 per month for basically the same package (OK, on T-Mo it is 1400 minutes, vs unlimited on AT&T. I will never hit 1400 minutes, but will run around 1200 per month). Plus T-Mo is truly unlimited data and texts, while AT&T has switched to metering the data. I was happy to use the Venue Pro as an excuse to switch.

 

[Okiered]

@raremage, your evaluation of the DVP phone is pretty accurate, although I like the positioning of the Back/Home/Search buttons. I bought the unlocked version from Dell, set up for use on T-Mo, and I couldn't be happier. My work phone is a BB Torch, and it seems like a whole generation behind the WP7 platform.

I do have one problem, though. The Zune software I downloaded doesn't see my DVP. Any ideas?

 

[gibbyhome]

@raremage, your evaluation of the DVP phone is pretty accurate, although I like the positioning of the Back/Home/Search buttons. I bought the unlocked version from Dell, set up for use on T-Mo, and I couldn't be happier. My work phone is a BB Torch, and it seems like a whole generation behind the WP7 platform.

I do have one problem, though. The Zune software I downloaded doesn't see my DVP. Any ideas?

your dell venue pro should see the zune software
if not I would call microsoft zune support..they were very helpful for me