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Dell has announced its first smart phone that should make its way to the UK market, the Dell Venue Pro. It premiered at the Windows Phone 7 launch in London and will use Microsoft’s new mobile OS.
Dell confirmed specs and images of the Venue Pro in a corporate blog post. It has a 4.1-inch capacitive touchscreen and a Qwerty keyboard that slides down from underneath the display, in portrait format, as opposed to the usual sideways slidification.
Other than that, little information was revealed, apart from the fact it would use Gorilla Glass, which is supposed to provide “unprecedented durability and scratch resistance”.
Pricing and availability of the Dell Venue Pro is as yet unknown.
Previous Internet murmurings on this device have slated it to carry a
1GHz Snapdragon processor, 3G, 5-megapixel camera, 1GB of flash memory,
GPS and full Flash support.
The emergence of a Dell smart phone came as something of a surprise. So
far most of the focus on Dell has come from tablet-style devices such as
the Streak. Unbelievably, Dell has opted for the jaw-droppingly dull name Venue Pro over its prototype moniker, the gladiatorial Lightning.
The emergence of the device could herald the emergence of other Dell smart phones we’ve seen before, the Smoke and Thunder, probably under very different names. It’ll have to go some to make them duller than Venue Pro. The Dell Basingstoke, perhaps, or the Dell Beige, in a subtle nod to its 90s PC heritage.
The Dell Thunder is an Android phone with a large screen, 8-megapixel camera and HSPDA connectivity. The Smoke is apparently a candybar Android mobile that crams in a Qwerty keyboard, an 8-megapixel camera and 5-megapixel camera. Both will have Dell’s Stage user interface, which polishes up menus and pulls in social network stuff.