The Dell Venue Pro could fall into your lap within days, after all. Dell told us just moments ago that the delayed Windows Phone 7 smart phone will be available on 1 March, and confirmed the official price.
The Venue Pro runs the slick Windows Phone 7 operating system. Windows Phone 7 includes Bing search, Xbox Live for games, and Zune for music and video, but the shelves of Microsoft's App Marketplace are still relatively bare compared to the Android Market and Apple App Store.
The limply named but serious-minded smart phone packs a 4.1-inch AMOLED touchscreen, 5-megapixel camera and built-in, non-removable 16GB microSD card. It boasts an unusual sliding Qwerty keyboard, popping out vertically rather than horizontally like most keyboard sliders.
We've waited five years for a new Dell phone, but Dell seems determined to make us wait a little longer. Earlier this month, retailers reported the Venue Pro had been delayed indefinitely, much to the dismay of many CNET UK readers. At the time of writing, Expansys still says the phone will arrive on 26 March. Ordering directly from Dell should put a Venue Pro in your hot hands much sooner than that, however.
And the price? Dell wants £460 of your hard-earned cash, which also includes a year's warranty. Slide on down to the comments and let us know whether you think the Venue Pro will be worth the wait.
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Comments 4
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Ritch 28 February, 2011 21:07
I'm thinking of ditching my iPhone 4 for a Win Phone 7 (never thought I'd say that) but are there any plans for some decent hardware over the next few months?
This Dell looks nice but it's a) made by Dell so will, objectively speaking, break and b) has a keyboard, why would I want a tiny little physical keyboard, perhaps they shared the same focus group as HP/Palm, presumably consisting of just children.
gary.mua 28 February, 2011 21:24
Would love to agree, but while typing this on my BlackBerry torch...which has a similar, if not smaller keypad, and having no trouble at all! (And no I'm not a child!) I'll be honest tho, this dell isn't doing it for me!
Ritch 28 February, 2011 21:42
I bet you read and re-read that message for typos just in case your words were on the menu ;)
I'm sure they're fine if you get used to them, my real gripe is that there's no need for them - they add bulk and you don't get the benefit of contextual keys. I'd perhaps try a landscape keyboard if they phone ticked every other box but never a portrait.
Dean Shepherd 1 March, 2011 09:28
I will say having used one of the first keypad portrait touchscreen phones it was quite a bulk that got uncomfortable...and that was a much smaller phone too :| was the samsung..thingy...yea I cant remember what it was...the one with an 8meg camera on it...it was a normal phone keypad not qwerty but it was still bulky..
I will say the advantage landscape will always have over portrait is spacing obviously for bigger fingered people....as well as when using games for example that NEED a physical keyboard...im thinking things like for example Quake4droid and numerous ones similar that need a keyboard and well a decent layout to play it..those portrait keyboards dont give you the layout properly..