WP7 Dell Lightning goes official, renamed to Venue Pro

Dell's also joined the Windows Phone 7 party today with the announcement of Dell Venue Pro. It's a portrait slider with full QWERTY keyboard and 4.1-inch AMOLED touchscreen.

Dell Venue Pro was previously rumored as Lightning. Despite its official status we still don't know all specifications beside the obvious - 4.1" capacitive AMOLED touchscreen with Gorilla Glass, a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 8GB internal memory and 5 megapixel camera with LED flash and 720p video recording.

Dell Venue Pro

The rest of the specs are still unclear, but we think it's more than enough to deserve your interest.

Dell Venue Pro will be T-Mobile exclusive into the USA, but in Europe you will be able to find it from various carriers and retailers. As usual the Venue Pro will be released for the holiday season, while the pricing, plans and specific availability are yet to be announced.

Samsung I8700 Omnia 7 review: A whole new galaxy

Though it might seem like a chicken-and-egg situation, the question in our case never was which one came first: Windows Phone 7 or the Samsung I8700 Omnia 7. We know you’re all adding two and two together. Our Windows Phone 7 review was based on this Samsung Omnia 7 here. You can’t blame the OS for taking unfair advantage but you can’t deny the fact either that a Super AMOLED screen can make anything look good.

Samsung I8700 Omnia 7 official photos

Not that we’re saying that Windows Phone 7 is just anything. And of course, it just can’t and won’t be anything you want it to be. But that’s not the whole story. Let’s just say Microsoft are in charge of the numerology and leaving it to manufacturers to do the math.

And it’s simple but expensive math. WVGA screens, 1 GHz processors and dedicated GPUs are the minimum requirements for any set to run the brand new OS. Let’s just repeat that – those are the MINIMUM requirements.

No wonder then, the Samsung I8700 Omnia 7 has no choice but to be the Galaxy S of the new Windows phones. It has the same 4 inches of a gorgeous Super AMOLED screen, a 1GHz Snapdragon powerplant and it captures 5 megapixel photos and records HD videos. If there was one thing to hold against the I9000 Galaxy S it had to be the plastic finish. But Samsung listened to their customers and gave the Omnia 7 the same get-up as the first Bada phone.

So, the Omnia 7 seems to have it all to make a grand entrance – premium build, powerful hardware and a brand new OS are all thrown into the mix. We can hardly think of any weak spots on the chassis.

Key features

• Quad-band GSM and tri-band 3G support
• 7.2 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA support
• 4" 16M-color Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen of WVGA (480 x 800 pixel) resolution, multi-touch input, scratch-resistant glass surface
• Windows Phone 7 OS
• 1GHz Snapdragon QSD8250 CPU
• 5 MP autofocus camera with face, smile and blink detection, geotagging, LED flash
• 720p HD video recording at 25fps
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b, g and n support
• GPS with A-GPS connectivity; digital compass
• 8/16GB internal storage
• Accelerometer, ambient light and proximity sensor
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• microUSB port (charging)
• Bluetooth v2.1
• FM radio with RDS
• 1500 mAh Li-Ion battery
• Good audio quality
• Microsoft Office Suite for Mobile
• Zune integration with wireless syncing
• Excellent cloud services integration (SkyDrive, Windows Live, Xbox Live)

Main hardware disadvantages

• No stereo speakers
• No lens protection
• No memory card slot

WP7-specific limitations

• No system-wide file manager
• No Bluetooth file transfers
• No USB mass storage mode
• Limited third-party apps availability
• No Flash or Silverlight support in the browser
• Too dependent on Zune software for file management and syncing
• No video calls
• No custom ringtones
• Music player lacks equalizer presets
• No multitasking
• No copy/paste
• No DivX/XviD video support (automatic transcoding provided by Zune software)
• No sign of free Bing maps Navigation so far
• No internet tethering support

It’s no big secret Microsoft wants to sell Windows Phone 7 big time. The easiest route to success is to set out the blueprint and leave the rest to the manufacturers. It might even seem life in Redmond is easy and the makers are meeting a real challenge. To develop a phone that not only meets Microsoft’s strict requirements as a high-performance carrying vessel for the new OS, but one that also has its own spirit and identity. Samsung seem quite up to the task so far.

Samsung I8700 Omnia 7 at ours

If you’re eyeing Microsoft's latest and greatest as a possible purchase, you’ll surely go through the pros and cons of the Omnia 7 carefully. Samsung is guilty of committing only three of them, while the rest are all Microsoft’s fault. But in the end, they will all be held against the phone in equal measure.

As many of our readers have already commented under our Windows Phone 7 OS review, the new OS is quite similar to Apple’s iOS in its strange limitations – stuff such as lack of a USB mass storage mode or no copy/paste, or even the lack of a memory card support – those are all quite inexplicable to the regular user.

Microsoft went the same way with the synchronization – you’ll need the latest Zune software (minimum ver. 4.7) and that’s the only way to access your phone – photos, music, videos and applications – all goes through Zune. Sounds familiar, right?

Still the Windows Phone 7 is designed as a premium OS and Microsoft has obviously managed to convince most major manufacturers to accept the strict hardware requirements. And despite the silly-looking limitations, it looks they may be all on to something great.

Verdict

Windows Phone 7 left us with mixed feelings, to say the least. WP7 devices have been designed around the OS, not the other way around. So perhaps, it’s best we look at the whole picture.

The Samsung I8700 Omnia 7 is our first encounter with WP7-grade hardware and we walk away impressed. Microsoft has imposed some tough restrictions on what qualifies as WP7-ready. We’re talking top of the line processing power, large screens, powerful imaging and such.

This means that choosing between two Windows Phone 7 mobiles will be hard – they match on so many points. It will be the special perks that each manufacturer can provide that will tip the scales one way or another.

In the case of the Omnia 7, Samsung’s one-of-a-kind 4” SuperAMOLED is a major incentive – the only other phone to offer it is the Samsung Galaxy S. There are some good LCDs around but they don’t quite match the vivid picture and superior black levels of the SuperAMOLED tech.

Samsung deserves a pat on the back for the metal Wave-style body and the excellent 5MP camera too. To summarize the review in one sentence – the hardware is perfect, it’s the software that lets the phone down on occasion.

Keep one thing in mind though – Microsoft has done the hard part. They’ve gotten manufacturers excited enough about Windows Phone 7 and obviously has been convincing enough.

Just think how many Android phones and also iPhone 3G and 3GS have been given a new lease of life with an OS update. The same could (and we’re guessing will) happen to Windows Phone 7 devices like the Samsung I8700 Omnia 7 – an update from Redmond will cure all those aches in the Cons section of the review. For example, reportedly copy and paste will be added in early 2011, and Microsoft is working on others as well.

Truth be told, right now there are a few things missing. And our comment section is open for business. Just take a moment to think. Android and iOS didn’t quite have all the features they do now from day one, and yet they are doing fairly well on the market (that’s putting it mildly).

From the current crop of OSes, Windows Phone 7 is closer to iOS than Android. It takes the “just works” approach and it’s Microsoft that dictates the major decisions about the OS. Android is more decentralized, and if you know what you’re doing, can be tuned and transformed to the user’s (or maker’s) taste.

So, this is what you can expect from the Samsung I8700 Omnia 7 – it’s breaking new ground, much like the first iPhone, but lacks some features and flexibility. But unlike the first iPhone, the Omnia 7 has very few flaws in the hardware department: a large, hi-res screen, fast hardware, capable camera and so on.

Restrictions from Microsoft have another positive side too – it gives developers a common target to aim for and guarantees that each and every app they create will run trouble-free on each and every WP7 phone. Apps were critical for the iPhone’s success and are still important for every other mobile OS out there. Plus Samsung Omnia 7 and its likes will have no problems with OS fragmentation (or screen resolution) as Android does.

But going back to this specific sample in the WP7 lineup, the Omnia 7 is a premium phone with a beautiful OS. It obviously has issues that can (and must) be fixed mid-flight. And since it’s our job to rate phones for what they are, not what they can be, we have no problem saying it: there are better phones than the Samsung Omnia 7.

So, don’t be rushing to the nearest store just because it may be the next big thing. Make sure to give it a test drive instead – and see if it’s the right one for you. Then of course, you don’t need anyone’s permission to go ahead and call it crap. Just try to sound credible.

HTC 7 Surround

General	2G Network	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
	3G Network	HSDPA 900 / 2100
	Announced	2010, October
	Status	Coming soon. Exp. release 2010, Q4

Size	Dimensions	-
	Weight	-

Display	Type	Capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
	Size	480 x 800 pixels, 3.8 inches
		- Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate - Proximity sensor for auto turn-off

Sound	Alert types	Vibration, MP3, WAV ringtones
	Speakerphone	Yes
		- 3.5 mm audio jack

Memory	Phonebook	Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocall
	Call records	Practically unlimited
	Internal	8 GB
	Card slot	No

Data	GPRS	Class 12 (4+1/3+2/2+3/1+4 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
	EDGE	Class 12
	3G	HSDPA, HSUPA
	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
	Bluetooth	Yes, v2.1 with A2DP
	Infrared port	No
	USB	Yes, microUSB v2.0

Camera	Primary	5 MP, 2592х1944 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
	Features	Geo-tagging
	Video	Yes, 720p
	Secondary	No

Features	OS	Microsoft Windows Phone 7
	CPU	Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD8250 1 GHz processor
	Messaging	SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email
	Browser	WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML
	Radio
	Games	Yes
	Colors	Black
	GPS	Yes, with A-GPS support
	Java	Yes, MIDP 2.0
		- Digital compass - MP3/WAV/WMA/eAAC+ player - MP4/WMV/H.264/H.263 player - Facebook and Twitter integration - YouTube client - Pocket Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, PDF viewer) - Voice memo - T9

Battery		Standard battery, Li-Ion 1230