Dell Venue Pro - Year Together
Hi Habr.
This post is a cross between a very short review and a retrospective of a rather rare representative of the first wave of Windows Phone 7 devices - Dell Venue Pro.
In my area, it is so rare that at a conference a Microsoft representative took a picture of it (took a picture on the Samsung Ativ S - the first device on Windows Phone 8) and generally said that legends go about it in the local Microsoft office, they say many have heard, but no one have not seen. Judging by some comments, the Habrachians also do not know much about this device, despite the wonderful review from rednaxi .
The phone brought from Texas by a colleague was bought on Amazon for $ 240 with Unlocked (this is an important point about the process of "untying" later), to replace my Nokia E63. There are two reasons: the reluctance to abandon the qwerty hardware and the desire to feel a fairly new platform at the time of acquisition. By the way, this is the only device on WP7 with a portrait qwerty keyboard. The other two - HTC 7 Pro and LG Quantum are revealed in landscape orientation.
Something like this:
Given that not all WP7 applications were able to roll over, it was decided to purchase Venue Pro.
Despite the Unlocked subscription, the phone still turned out to be tied to the American t-mobile (not surprisingly, at such a price). After reading the advice of good people on the xda-developers forum, it was decided to write in support of Dell on the topic of providing an unlock code, at unlockcoderequest@dell.com (even there is one). An answer was received to my letter that they say send us something proving the purchase. I decided to call Dell support and clarify how I should be. They told me the same thing, they say, send proof of purchase, and then we'll talk. In response, a photo of the box was sent, on the side on which IMEI, barcodes and otherunnecessary and incomprehensible are gluedFree and without SMS. Victory!
I see no reason to paint the characteristics, appearance and usability, because rednaxi did it perfectly in a super detailed review here - habrahabr.ru/post/127325 . Thank you so much!
For everyday use, as well as metal objects (they like to demonstrate this in heart-rending videos about knives and nails), scratching it is over, but almost unrealistic. But the Russian people do not give up! The glass was successfully scratched (by a spore) with a pebble in which particles of comparable hardness appeared (right in the center of the screen):
Also, they were lost in some completely unthinkable way:
For almost a year of use, the keyboard slider mechanism has become noticeably backlash, and more recently, the loop between the halves began to pass - during the opening process, distortions appear on the screen (opening to the end, the problems disappear):
This is not Android for you !!!
Due to the rarity of this model and some other factors, t-mobile decided not to engage in support - not to release WP7 updates through itself. Devices that were not tied initially received updates through Zune and Windows Phone Connector for Mac. So, many thanks to these people and the xda-developers forum (Venue Pro branch - forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=799 )! They collected the necessary packages of all released updates for updating through cabsender (a console utility using the flasher from the WP7 SDK). Nevertheless, this is by no means custom firmware, just such a forced update method. As a result, the device received with WP7.5 Mango was updated 3 times, and last week he saw himself in a new light, withbetterbig tiles, some other little things and the WP7.8 version (yes, yes, the very criticized update “for the backward and poor”, “why not Windows Phone 8” ).
While I had this wonderful device, Windows Phone took another step forward, Dell completely disappeared from the mobile device market, just like HP (and Palm), Nokia managed to jump from a burning platform to a new one. In general, a lot of changes. Perhaps Venue Pro will be remembered by everyone as a cult device and people will nostalgic for it (and I can). It’s a pity, but in the near future I will probably have to look for a replacement for him, and perhaps some of the big market players will soon launch a qwerty smartphone for Windows Phone 8 or Android. I think that not only I am waiting for something like that.
And yet, if spoken English allows, feel free to call the support services of large companies, sometimes it can solve the problems much faster. In the meantime, thanks to Microsoft for the good, suitable Windows Phone 7, Dell for the uber device, Dell support for the free unlock code and many thanks to the Habr audience for their attention.
Constructive (and not only) criticism is welcomed in the comments.
PS: Below are 2 questions. I already asked Habr's opinion on the topic ( http://habrahabr.ru/qa/32661/ ). Perhaps now the picture will become even clearer.
This post is a cross between a very short review and a retrospective of a rather rare representative of the first wave of Windows Phone 7 devices - Dell Venue Pro.
In my area, it is so rare that at a conference a Microsoft representative took a picture of it (took a picture on the Samsung Ativ S - the first device on Windows Phone 8) and generally said that legends go about it in the local Microsoft office, they say many have heard, but no one have not seen. Judging by some comments, the Habrachians also do not know much about this device, despite the wonderful review from rednaxi .
The phone brought from Texas by a colleague was bought on Amazon for $ 240 with Unlocked (this is an important point about the process of "untying" later), to replace my Nokia E63. There are two reasons: the reluctance to abandon the qwerty hardware and the desire to feel a fairly new platform at the time of acquisition. By the way, this is the only device on WP7 with a portrait qwerty keyboard. The other two - HTC 7 Pro and LG Quantum are revealed in landscape orientation.
Something like this:
Given that not all WP7 applications were able to roll over, it was decided to purchase Venue Pro.
Unlock
Despite the Unlocked subscription, the phone still turned out to be tied to the American t-mobile (not surprisingly, at such a price). After reading the advice of good people on the xda-developers forum, it was decided to write in support of Dell on the topic of providing an unlock code, at unlockcoderequest@dell.com (even there is one). An answer was received to my letter that they say send us something proving the purchase. I decided to call Dell support and clarify how I should be. They told me the same thing, they say, send proof of purchase, and then we'll talk. In response, a photo of the box was sent, on the side on which IMEI, barcodes and other
Using
I see no reason to paint the characteristics, appearance and usability, because rednaxi did it perfectly in a super detailed review here - habrahabr.ru/post/127325 . Thank you so much!
Now a little fly in the ointment Dell
Gorilla Glass does not scratch *
For everyday use, as well as metal objects (they like to demonstrate this in heart-rending videos about knives and nails), scratching it is over, but almost unrealistic. But the Russian people do not give up! The glass was successfully scratched (by a spore) with a pebble in which particles of comparable hardness appeared (right in the center of the screen):
Also, they were lost in some completely unthinkable way:
- Second letter L from the DELL logo on the back cover
- Part of the letter E from the DELL logo on the back cover (seen when writing this article!)
Slider, slider, don't let me down
For almost a year of use, the keyboard slider mechanism has become noticeably backlash, and more recently, the loop between the halves began to pass - during the opening process, distortions appear on the screen (opening to the end, the problems disappear):
OS updates
Due to the rarity of this model and some other factors, t-mobile decided not to engage in support - not to release WP7 updates through itself. Devices that were not tied initially received updates through Zune and Windows Phone Connector for Mac. So, many thanks to these people and the xda-developers forum (Venue Pro branch - forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=799 )! They collected the necessary packages of all released updates for updating through cabsender (a console utility using the flasher from the WP7 SDK). Nevertheless, this is by no means custom firmware, just such a forced update method. As a result, the device received with WP7.5 Mango was updated 3 times, and last week he saw himself in a new light, with
Instead of a conclusion
While I had this wonderful device, Windows Phone took another step forward, Dell completely disappeared from the mobile device market, just like HP (and Palm), Nokia managed to jump from a burning platform to a new one. In general, a lot of changes. Perhaps Venue Pro will be remembered by everyone as a cult device and people will nostalgic for it (and I can). It’s a pity, but in the near future I will probably have to look for a replacement for him, and perhaps some of the big market players will soon launch a qwerty smartphone for Windows Phone 8 or Android. I think that not only I am waiting for something like that.
And yet, if spoken English allows, feel free to call the support services of large companies, sometimes it can solve the problems much faster. In the meantime, thanks to Microsoft for the good, suitable Windows Phone 7, Dell for the uber device, Dell support for the free unlock code and many thanks to the Habr audience for their attention.
Constructive (and not only) criticism is welcomed in the comments.
PS: Below are 2 questions. I already asked Habr's opinion on the topic ( http://habrahabr.ru/qa/32661/ ). Perhaps now the picture will become even clearer.
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