- Dell Venue Pro
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Dell Venue Pro Manufacturer Dell Carriers T-Mobile USA; AT&T; Cincinnati Bell Wireless Compatible networks T-Mobile USA Introductory price $99.99 on 2-year contract (8GB) $449.99 off
$149.99 on 2-year contract (16GB) $499.99 offForm factor Slider smartphone Dimensions 119.7 mm (4.71 in) (h)
61.5 mm (2.42 in) (w)
12.97 mm (0.511 in) (d)Weight 165 g (5.82 oz) Operating system Windows Phone
7.0.7392.0 (USA)
7.0.7355.0 (India)CPU Qualcomm QSD8250 1GHz Scorpion (Snapdragon) Memory 512 MB RAM Storage 1024 MB ROM Removable storage 8,16 GB Micro SD Battery 1400 mAh Lithium-ion battery Data inputs Multi-touch touchscreen display
Dual microphone
3-axis accelerometer
Digital compass
Proximity sensor
Ambient light sensorDisplay 4.1-inch (diagonal) widescreen
480-by-800 WVGA AMOLEDRear camera 5 megapixel autofocus with flash, rear-facing Front camera None Connectivity Quad-band UMTS 850; UMTS 1900; UMTS 1700; UMTS 2100 Other Wi-Fi, Vertical slide out QWERTY keyboard, FM-Radio, GPS Development status Available The Dell Venue Pro, codename Lightning, is a mobile smartphone running the Windows Phone operating system. The phone uses the T-Mobile network, but is only available for purchase at Microsoft retail stores or directly from Dell Corporation.
The launch of the phone suffered multiple setbacks, due to many technical and logistics issues, with poor communication between Dell and its customers.
Contents
Launch
The phone was codenamed 'Lightning', and was leaked to the Internet on April 21, 2010.[1]
Despite being cited as a launch partner for Windows Phone headsets early in July,[2] the phone was not widely on sale in the United States on the launch day, unlike phones from other launch partners, such as Samsung Focus and three other phones by HTC.
On October 11, in an official statement, Dell announced the phone to be available in the U.S. in holiday season of 2010.[3] On November 8, Windows Phone was launched, and a very limited quantity of the phone was available for purchase only in the 7 Microsoft stores in the U.S.[4] However, some early adopters of the phone received defective phones with Wi-Fi issues, SIM card issues, faulty headphone jack, and batteries marked as "Engineering Sample".[5] Despite Dell urged users to return the phones, no phones were available in stock for exchange, and phones were not reshipped on November 19 as claimed.
After missing both the States-wide launch on November 8 and the online launch on November 15, Dell announced that they were "ramping up production" and intended to launch the phone in a bigger scale.[6]
On December 1, Dell reintroduced the phone and began taking orders.[7] Customers were given a shipping date of December 15. However, a day before the estimated shipping date, customers were informed that the shipping date was pushed until January 6, 2011, two months after its intended launch date, as the phones "were being reworked in the factories".[8] This caused user uproar in many Windows Phone communities.
On December 16, Dell issued a new notice to assure that orders received before December 14 would be shipped before Christmas with overnight shipping upgrade and a free gift. However, the Estimated Delivery Date of the orders were not updated until a couple days later, causing confusion amongst anticipating customers. Several customers ordered on a later date received phones before those who ordered earlier. The promised shipping upgrade was also not fulfilled for many customers.[9]
On February 3, 2011, Dell launched Venue Pro in India. The launch price of Dell Venue is Rs. 34,990.[10]
On September 23, 2011, Dell posted that the Dell Venue Pro will get mango "later this fall" on the unlocked, Cincinnati Bell, and T-Mobile devices. The AT&T model, dell said "forthcoming".
Technical issues
Wi-Fi bug
The first batch of Dell Venue Pro phones to be manufactured suffered a bug which prevented them from logging onto secure Wi-Fi networks. Dell urged users with buggy phones to return them to the place of purchase and receive replacement handsets.[11] In addition, even after the full launch of the Venue Pro, there have been reports of WiFi crashing the phone while downloading or using the data connection in some way.
RAM
Phones were reported to have only 256MB of RAM according to a third party SystemInfo application in the marketplace, which were considerably less than 512MB RAM as originally cited. Dell later contradicted on its DellCares Twitter page that in fact the device does have 512MB RAM and indicate at the operating system uses the memory before applications do.
With the update codename "NoDo", the Venue Pro correctly report its RAM count as 512MB.
See also
- Windows Phone
- Dell
References
- ^ "Dell Lightning: the ultimate Windows Phone device leaks". http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/21/dell-lightning-the-ultimate-windows-phone-7-device-leaks-out/.
- ^ "Windows Phone: Microsoft confirms launch partners". Pocket-lint. 21 July 2010. http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/34441/windows-phone-7-launch-partners.
- ^ "Meet the new Dell Venue Pro Smartphone with Windows Phone". Direct2Dell. 11 October 2010. http://en.community.dell.com/dell-blogs/Direct2Dell/b/direct2dell/archive/2010/10/11/meet-the-dell-venue-pro-smartphone-with-windows-phone-7.aspx.
- ^ "Dell Venue Pro on sale at Microsoft stores, but good luck getting one". http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/08/dell-venue-pros-on-sale-at-microsoft-stores-but-good-luck-getti/.
- ^ "Dell Fesses Up To Venue Pro Wi-Fi Issues, Will Reship November 19th". http://www.tmonews.com/2010/11/dell-fesses-up-to-venue-pro-wi-fi-issues-will-reship-november-19th/.
- ^ "Where we are with the Dell Venue Pro". Direct2Dell. 19 November 2010. http://en.community.dell.com/dell-blogs/Direct2Dell/b/direct2dell/archive/2010/11/19/where-we-are-with-the-dell-venue-pro.aspx.
- ^ "Dell Venue Pro finally available to order: $99 on contract, shipping December 9th". Engadget. 1 December 2010. http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/01/dell-venue-pro-finally-available-to-order-99-on-contract-ship/.
- ^ "Dell: 'Venue Pros are being reworked in the factories,' ship schedule unclear". Engadget. 14 December 2010. http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/14/dell-venue-pros-are-being-reworked-in-the-factories-ship-sch/.
- ^ "On the topic of Dell Venue Pro Order Delays". Direct2Dell. 14 December 2010. http://en.community.dell.com/dell-blogs/Direct2Dell/b/direct2dell/archive/2010/12/14/on-the-topic-of-dell-venue-pro-order-delays.aspx.
- ^ "Dell Venue and Venue Pro officially launched in India, this time for real!". TechIt.in. 3 February 2011. http://www.techit.in/2011/02/dell-venue-and-venue-pro-officially-launched-in-india-this-time-for-real/.
- ^ "Dell will replace flawed Venue Pro smartphone handsets". Computerworld. 11 November 2010. http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9196238/Dell_will_replace_flawed_Venue_Pro_smartphone_handsets.
External links
Smartphones Acer AllegroDell Venue ProFujitsu Toshiba IS12TLG GroupLG Optimus 7 · LG QuantumZTE TaniaCategories:- Dell Corporation mobile phones
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